Managing Workflow Is More Than Managing Execution

We must manage our work, including activities, prioritization, waiting times, dependencies, blockers, and everything that happens to our work. When we manage the workflow, we are managing more than just the execution of the work and more than just the techniques used.

May/25/2022 - 10 minutes reading

Execution is carried out by those who know, possess the technique, and understand what they are doing. Even if they don't realize it initially, they will learn and execute it with mastery. But who is paying attention to the waiting times, dependencies, and blockers? These aspects are fundamental and often take more time than the execution itself.

Let's calculate the execution and waiting times in a real scenario.

Example of a Workflow

In 2019, I had shoulder pain and went to the emergency room of a private hospital.

The emergency procedure was as follows:

• First, triage;
• Then, document and health insurance card registration;
• Then, I sat in front of the orthopedic office and waited to be called;
• The doctor called me, examined my shoulder, and said I needed an MRI to assess the situation better and provide a diagnosis.

The time spent in the emergency room varies from minutes to a few hours. In my case, I was lucky, and it took about an hour to hear from the doctor that I needed to schedule an MRI and return with the results.

I left the orthopedic office and scheduled the MRI by phone at the lab, which the doctor recommended. I was lucky again, getting an appointment two days later. So far, I have spent little time in the emergency room and waiting for the MRI.

Upon arriving for the MRI:

• I waited a bit to be attended to;
• Removed metal objects and put on a gown;
• Entered the machine for the exam;
• After the exam, the nurse informed me that the results would be ready in four days.

It took about an hour from the moment I arrived at the lab until the exam was finished. Then, I called the doctor again and was lucky to get an appointment four days later, on the same day I received the MRI results.

On the day of the consultation, I first went to the lab to pick up the MRI results and then to the consultation. At the doctor's office:

• I waited a bit;
• When the doctor called me, he evaluated the MRI, assessed my shoulder, and gave me the diagnosis: physical therapy.
• I received a referral to a physical therapist who accepted my health insurance, and as I left the doctor's office, I scheduled the physical therapy for two days later.

At the first physical therapy session: The physical therapist confirmed the doctor's diagnosis and scheduled the therapy sessions, with the first session starting two days later. Let's consider one hour for the physical therapy session and another two days of waiting to start the treatment.

Let's do the math:

Execution time:

• One hour in the emergency room;
• One hour for the MRI;
• One hour for the follow-up consultation with the doctor;
• One hour for the physical therapy assessment and scheduling.

In total, that's 4 hours of actual service time.

Waiting time:

• Two days of waiting for the MRI;
• Four days of waiting for the MRI results and follow-up consultation;
• Two days of waiting for the physical therapy session;
• Two days waiting for the first physical therapy session.

In total, that's ten days of waiting.

To compare this with any corporate environment, let's consider the waiting days as 8 hours of working time. With this, we have a total of 80 hours, with 4 hours of actual service time. That means 76 hours of waiting and 4 hours of service.

This proportion is common in other corporate environments. Whether due to approvals, information exchanges between departments, or various other factors, the waiting times are longer than the execution times. In our example, the execution represented 5% of the time, while the waiting time represented 95%.

We call this percentage the flow efficiency. We need to manage the flow and improve its efficiency to improve the flow time.

Example of Efficient Workflow

In cases where the patient's life is at risk, the flow is managed, and medical procedures are performed immediately. In this case, the patient is more important than the cost of the MRI or the doctor's schedule because the person might die. So, someone accompanies the patient through every step of the flow, reducing waiting times.

This type of workflow management can be applied in your company. In the Lean methodology, workflow management is used in the industry, as Toyota created the methodology in an industrial environment. In the Kanban method, workflow management is applied to knowledge work, as the method was developed in a product and software development environment where creative work is significant.

Lean and Kanban extensively use visual management and work-in-progress limits, among other practices. However, some techniques may differ in how they handle each situation

More Management

Returning to the medical service scenario we explained, we can do more to manage the flow. We can understand and detail each step in the flow, improving transitions between steps, reducing unnecessary steps, and better synchronizing the flow.

Understanding how many patients are at each flow step is essential. This way, we can better manage resources like the MRI machine. The scheduling technique is just one management tool.

Understanding the reasons for each wait and the causes of exceptions also helps improve our flow.

Managing workflow is more than managing execution because you will save more time by managing the waiting periods.

In addition to flow efficiency, we should also calculate the time it takes for activities to pass through the entire flow, how many activities pass through the flow over time, the volume of activities sharing the flow's capacity, and other related factors.

At Synergyc, we practice these and other techniques in our training programs to boost productivity. Check out our courses.

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To learn more about the Kanban method, we offer official training from Kanban University here at Synergyc. including::

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