In the manufacturing industry, ensuring product safety and keeping products relevant is a constant struggle. To establish an effective manufacturing operation, proper workflow in the production process is necessary. With a flowchart, you can ensure proper workflow in your company's production. Your manufacturing company doesn't have one yet? Don't fret. We have a good number of Ready-Made Flow Chart Templates that are printable and easily downloadable. Editable and 100% customizable in Microsoft Word. These templates are available in A4 & US Letter Sizes. Improve your company's production workflow today by choosing one of our Ready-Made Production Flowcharts in Word.
How To Make A Production Flowchart In Word
Manufacturing in America is the fifth-largest employer. With labor shortage as one of the challenges manufacturing companies are facing, along with technological advancement and global competition, making sure that production is met has been a challenge. In production management, flowcharts are necessary. It's used to visually present your company's production process, so employees would know their duties and have a clear guide on how to do the process.
With the assistance of a flowchart, production managers can come up with a better workflow. It allows them to recognize weak points, so they can recognize the parts of the process that needs improvement with ease. The following below is a guide on how you can come up with a better production flowchart for your manufacturing company.
1. Use Process Flowchart
Flowcharts are versatile. If you know the basics, then you can tailor them easily to fit your needs. There are different types of flowcharts, and the most used types are the process, swimlane, workflow, and data flowchart. However, you need to use the process flowchart to illustrate how your production process works. To avoid the hassle of creating one from scratch, choose from our Printable Chart Templates now!
2. Determine the Steps
Go over your reports to know the status of your current production. Talk to your production manager to identify the steps and easiest path that will lead to better production outcomes. Do the process yourself to determine which necessary steps to take. List down the steps, so it's easy to make the chart later.
3. Add And Connect
A basic chart is presented with a box. In Microsoft Word, you'll see this in the Insert Tab. To add a box, simply choose a shape and drag it into the workspace. To resize the shape, press and hold the Shift key while you drag. To implement uniformness, the box's size of each step must be the same. It's best to determine the connection and flow using arrows. Flowcharts are consists of short sentences, so your steps should not exceed three words. Make sure to add your company's logo at a visible place.
4. Make it Simple
The same with organizational charts, flowcharts only need minimal designs. For uniformness, use one color only. You may add other colors, but that should only be for categorizing the steps. Remember, use a light color for the shapes to make the text clear. If the chart will be displayed on the production floor, ensure that the font size is readable. Avoid using silly fonts and lessen the design.
5. Analyze and Review
After you've completed your simple chart, start from the first step again and review it. Analyze each step. Do you need to add or remove a step? Do a certain step needs approval before it can proceed to the next step? As you go along each process, check for grammar and spelling errors. Once you're satisfied with your output and no more mistakes are found, publish, and print your flowchart. Put this on the production floor for everyone to see.
