When we focus on the company as distinct from the world we find that activities go on at all scales and all levels of complexity. The concept of “flow” can only be applied to activities that need specific resources and that have a defined start and end. Usually these activities are done in a series of steps or phases and usually they depend on multiple resources to be accomplished. Work “flows” through these activities.
Activities that have a beginning and an end are work. Activities that have a sequence of steps are work. Activities that involve different people, or different resources, are work.
Full Kitting (doing all the preparation needed for a work item) gives a good example of how we draw these lines.
There are 2 major kinds of Full Kitting,
- … the one before a project starts – that is daily work – not part of the project system at all
- … all other full-kit is included in the work package … for essential flow it will be in the “before the constraint phase”
In many cases part of the work is done outside the company. We will have to determine how to estimate and schedule this work as part of our flow.