Structural analysis of a process map: re-work (self-loops) and transfers
Types of process flow structural changes
Process mining can reveal two main types of structural changes in process flow fabric: self-loops / re-work (repeated activities) and transfers in-between different activities.
| Examples | Self-loop | Transfer |
| Healthcare | post-surgery re-admission to hospital ward;
repetition of the same kind of lab tests |
in-between hospitals | wards |
| Manufacturing | re-servicing of a pallet by the same manufacturing cell (processing errors detected at the exit from the cell);
re-circulation of pallets on the same conveyor belt (bottleneck detected further in the line) |
in-between manufacturing cells | conveyors | robots |
| Insurance | re-submission of a claim | transfer of claim processing from one service provider to another |
Wanted or unwanted?
Wanted (and expected) process flow transitions are generally dictated by upper management / high level controllers, and often are included as normative guidelines.
Unexpected transitions are footprints of waste, i.e. system inefficiencies / malfunctions, redundancies and unnecessary allocation of processes / time / resources.
Zooming-in: what could process flow transitions tell about my processes?
- How many cases contain certain self-loops / transfers? How often is a particular activity repeated? How often does a certain transfer take place, for entities following the same journey through the system?
- How many resources (time / personnel / money) are allocated to selected process flow transitions?
- In the case of unwanted transitions:
- Where do inefficiencies start? Where do they end?
- Are identified inefficiencies disruptive to overall system behavior, or are they simply unusual, with small to no effect on the rest of the flow?
- Could it be better? Could the overall process use less resources (time / personnel / money)? In-house domain knowledge could leverage answers to investigations into optimization potential.
- What / who is potentially the cause of inefficiencies?