So what we have in flowchart is we have boxes which represent the process and we
connect these boxes or processes with the help of arrow which tells the flow
of the process and we have decision boxes which tells that if something
happens then you do this if something else happens then you do that we will
look at an example of this on the next slide but let's understand that why we
need flow chart we need flow charts to understand the process flow and to see
the interrelationship between processes so this basically helps you in
visualizing the process so here on the right side is an example of a simple
flow chart so in a flow chart you have a start and end boxes so this is my start
box and this is my end box so after starting we do process number one then
we do process number two and then after process number two the item is inspected
so this is the decision box which is in the diamond shape and then in the
inspection when the item is accepted it goes to process three if the item is
rejected it goes back to process - and once process three is complete then the
this whole process ends so this is a very simple flowchart so here what we
have used is we have just used four symbols the symbol for starting and
ending the symbol for process the symbol for decision and the connectors to
connect all these so here on the left side I have commonly used the symbols in
flowchart we have talked about starting ending we have talked about process we
are talking about connectors which connect all these processes and we have
talked about decision box so basically these four are very common symbols in a
flowchart but in addition to that you can have symbols such as symbol for data
where your data is your database is your document we are you document something
this is for preparation and this symbol is for delay
but in majority of your flow charts you will be just using these four common
symbols which are start and process connector and decision so this is one
example of a flow chart another type of flow chart is swim lane flow chart this
is also called as cross functional flowchart so here what we have is in
addition to the flow of processes here we have different lanes for different
functions so let's say here I have Lane one lane to lane three and this is a
blank flow chart and in lane one let's say I have sales in lane two let's say I
have designed in lane three I let's say I have production lane four is a
dispatch lane five is after sales and so on so what you can see on a swim lane
flowchart is not just the flow of processes but in addition to that you
can also see that who is responsible for this so let's say this particular
process which is process number one is done by sales then sales gives some
information to design so this step number two is done by design then it
comes back to sale and then from here it goes back to the production and in
production there is a decision if something happens then you go this side
if something doesn't happen you go back and so on so now just by visually
looking at this you not only understand the process but you also understand the
responsibilities who are responsible for something so on the previous slide I
have shown you a simple flowchart here I am showing you swim lane flowchart so if
you want to make a flowchart you can go to a site which is draw dot IO and you
can draw these flowcharts online so just in case if you want to make nice
presentable flowcharts go to this website and without any registration
without any login you can just start drawing flowchart and then you can save
your flowchart files which you can use later on
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