Think Process!!! ....But how?

In those rare cases, where an explanation of Process & Process Management (per my previous post) is able to generate the other person's interest, the conversation usually goes this way:

Him: "Interesting! So, you are a process improvement professional."
Me" "Yeah! sounds like fun ..isn't it?"
Him: "Maybe for yourself..... So, tell me one thing.."
Me: "Sure"
Him: "What is your general approach when you are doing problem-solving and/or process-improvement?"
Me: " Well...The mantra of success is always: Think Process!. One has to develop his process-based thinking and the ability to visualize a process, no matter how complicated the problem is."
Him:"Hmmm.....but how do you do that?"
Me: "Well, maybe it just comes naturally...or ...aaaannn...I don't know. Seriously!"

This conversation sent me through the thinking path: How do you develop the process based thinking? And the answer came in the form of a SIPOC, an acronym for Supplier, Inputs, Process, Outputs, and Customers. In Six-Sigma DMAIC roadmap, SIPOC analysis is used the Define phase to map the high-level process and the relationships among suppliers, process, & customer via respective inputs & outputs. A quick search over Google brought this excellent link on SIPOC Analysis and the steps needed to perform one. A typical SIPOC diagram for a project looks like this:

Now coming back to the point, how does SIPOC help to generate process based thinking? Whenever you are trying to understand a problem symptoms, try to identify what is the main process involved here and what are it's inputs and outputs. Next, think about who is supplying the inputs and how can they impact the quality (in either positive or negative way) of the process and it's outputs. Next, identify the outputs and whom and what they impact, i.e. the customers or other processes. Let me give a simple example:

Say, one fine morning, your coffee doesn't taste good, or rather let's say it tastes real bad. Now the Process here is coffee-making. The equipment used is the coffee-maker and the process parameters are temperature, length of time for brewing, etc. The Inputs of the process are coffee beans, and water (and sugar, creamer, etc.). Suppliers are coffee-bean company, & water supply (or bottled water company). Output is off-course the coffee (which is of bad quality) and the Customer is the coffee-drinker (in this case, is yourself).

I agree that this is a very simple example compared to the processes we deal with in a business or organization, but the idea is that one's thought process has to be aligned in a SIPOC way. This will help you a lot in ....guess what...."thinking process".