Designing a process flow: a 7-point checklist

The biggest mistake new ERP users make is encoding their current messy process instead of the cleaned-up one. Here's a checklist we share with every new customer:

1. List every physical station the product passes through
2. For each, note: who works on it, what tools, what input, what output
3. Identify quality-check gates (these become "stage transitions")
4. Mark stages where rework is common — these need IN+OUT entries
5. Identify subcontracted stages — these need a "send out / receive back" pair
6. Decide which stages are batched vs. piece-by-piece
7. Estimate minutes per stage — drives capacity planning

Once this is on paper, encoding it in NexForge ERP takes about 20 minutes.