ABSTRACT
Process design and innovation is a key to organizational success. This chapter discusses its relationship to the design of products and innovation, its main objective, and the role of the operations manager in this important activity. It describes some of the most commonly used tools employed in industry to aid the design of process flows, the effect of volume, and the variety of products in the design of processes, and the design of layouts. Process mapping is one of the tools that become very handy for operations managers in designing and visualizing the processes. Swim lane map is another process-mapping tool used by organizations for general visualization of processes. This tool receives its name of swim lane map due to its similarity to a swimming pool with lanes. Value stream mapping (VSM) is one of the very popular tools used by organizations, which can be considered a more sophisticated tool to depict processes.
