A game for process mapping in office and knowledge work

Abstract

The number of publications on improving office and knowledge work processes is quite low compared to the vast body of published work regarding the improvement of production processes. In fact, the very definition of the office and knowledge work concept is not consensual. Besides a discussion on this concept, this paper aims to present a straightforward graphical tool to map processes of office and knowledge work, along with the inherent deployment methodology, in the form of a gamified training session. This methodology encompasses both mapping and analysis (identification of improvement opportunities). As a contribution to the validation of the developing work, one session was conducted with 18 professionals from several companies (of different areas). The trainees were asked to (i) map a specific process of office and knowledge work (based on a real scenario), (ii) identify improvement opportunities and, in order to gather concrete feedback, (iii) answer a questionnaire on their perception about the tool/methodology. In summary, one may say that the participants considered the training session as useful and that they feel able to conduct in their companies a session on mapping and improvement of processes of office and knowledge work.

Keywords:

• Office and knowledge work
• process mapping
• gamification
• lean office

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Erasmus + Project ‘Innovative Learning Approaches for Implementation of Lean Thinking to Enhance Office and Knowledge Work Productivity’ (2016-1-PL01-KA203-026293) and by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2019.

Notes on contributors

Rui M. Sousa

Rui M. Sousa, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the Department of Production and Systems/School of Engineering/University of Minho. He holds a degree in Electrical Engineering, an MSc in Systems and Automation and a Ph.D. in Production and Systems Engineering. His main research interests are lean manufacturing (e.g. deployment approaches and tools); formal approaches for production systems analysis/design (e.g. formal grammars and systems theory) and engineering education (e.g. project-based learning, serious games, and gamification). He supervised more than 50 IME master thesis developed in the industry, mainly in the Lean Manufacturing area. He is author/co-author of more than 60 publications in international journals and conferences.

José Dinis-Carvalho

José Dinis-Carvalho is an Associate Professor at the University of Minho. Degree in Production Engineering in 1989 at the University of Minho. MSc in Computer Integrated Manufacturing in 1992 at Loughborough University. Ph.D. at the University of Nottingham in 1997 on scheduling and Process Planning Integration. Main research interests are in Lean Approaches to any type of operating environment such as industry, hospitals, construction, offices, design, teaching, etc.. Stable and Sustainable Continuous Improvement systems is one of the main focus at the moment. Other research interests are Teamwork, Scrum and Active Learning approaches in engineering education.