Diagrammatic Decomposition of Corporate Functions

Abstract

Thus far I have tried to convince you of the profound opportunity we have to make our organizations run better, faster, cheaper, safer, and more repeatedly through automation. Now let us turn our attention to the ``how'' part of that idea. How does one look at any organization and begin the work of automating it in sensible ways? In this chapter I will introduce the reader to diagrammatic expression of functions---literally creating a drawing of a company and all its attendant functions. A good diagram is one that shows the engineering-level details of how, say, the payroll process works. Or the supply chain. Or product development. Who is involved at what stage with what outputs that become the inputs to another function and so on. Diagrammatic skill is neither trivial nor default---one has to learn how to do it correctly and this chapter will show you how.