Production Tasks are the specific and value-adding items of work within a defined business process. They are completed by individual contributors and have a defined start and end point, with a specific process to follow.
The effort required to complete the task is observable and the volumes can be collected automatically via coupling with workflow systems.
Establishing Production Tasks allows for better understanding of the hours of work received, completed, and waiting to be completed.
In Bramble, Production Tasks are assigned an Ideal Task Time (ITT), which allows for volumes to be converted into time, providing clear productivity targets for individual contributors and recursive reporting for frontline managers.
Establishing your Production Tasks and the difference between Production Tasks and Processes.
The diagram below displays a generic process:
The second diagram displays how Bramble would create a Production Task list from that generic process. Please note that Bramble Production Tasks are displayed in GREEN:
The reason Bramble does not create a Production Task for 'Assess Claim' is that it's really a decision point for the outcome associated:
a. Make Payment to Customer
b. Follow-up on missing information
c. Send rejection to Customer.
By taking this approach, we create 3 Production Tasks in Bramble noting that all 3 would have a step in the task where the processor must assess the claim. Therefore, it's important when establishing Ideal Task Times (ITTs) for the 3 tasks that the time taken to assess the claim is included.
Why do we care about Production Tasks?
Each day, we want to understand the hours of work we are receiving, completing and waiting to be completed.
In order to do this, we need to break our work into ‘Production Tasks’:
They are completed by your individual contributors
They have a defined start and end point
Individual Contributors follow a defined process when working the task
The effort required to complete the task is observable
Most Production Task volumes can be collected automatically via coupling with your workflow systems
Production Tasks in Bramble are assigned an Ideal Task Time (ITT). This allows for volumes (across disparate tasks) to be converted into time - Bramble can then provide recursive and universal reporting and frontline managers and individual contributors have a clear productivity target for every task they complete.