About investigation request workflows
Investigation requests (IR) are business processes used to initiate the change process and promote discussions within the organization or with partners. IRs are useful for determining the impact of a change and the best possible solution.
Generally, IRs fall into two categories: Design and Request for Quotation (RFQ). A Design IR describes a potential problem with a product, or an enhancement to be made to a product. An RFQ is used to request a quote from a supplier for the purchase of specific products or services.
Before you start
Before you start modeling IR workflows in Upchain, we recommend that you already have a process in mind. Mapping this process out in a diagram application gives you a solid base from which to start.
Things to consider include, but are not limited to:
- Who might initiate an IR?
- What are different scenarios that would warrant an IR (eg. scoping out initial designs, incorporating customer feedback, redlines from a shop floor technician, etc)
- Who will be responsible for each step?
- What are the criteria needed to mark an IR as complete?
- What would be some reasons why an IR could not be completed or need to be restarted?
- Are there any additional actions that should occur at each step? (notifications, status updates, etc).
For example, you may want to create an IR for the shop floor to use when they have redlined a drawing and created a markup that a designer needs to address. The steps might be:
Shop floor manager creates the IR and attaches the marked up drawing.
Assign the IR to the design team.
- IR is updated to Assigned.
- send an email to ensure they receive the IR.
Design lead assigns the IR to a specific designer.
Designer views the markup and accepts the IR.
Designer begins work on updating the design according to the markup.
- IR is updated to Work in Progress.
Designer marks the work as done.
- IR is updated to Complete.
- send an email to the IR creator indicating it has been completed.
Make sure to include all the steps in your ideal process (happy path) as well as any possible roadblocks (exception path) that may occur. In the preceding example, it might be the case that the designer does not agree with the markup sent to them and assigns it back to the IR creator to change or discard. You should ensure this process is built into your workflow.
To help you in your planning, read through the list of available primitives to get a sense of what is possible.