Article

by Jesse Jones and Laurel Thoennes

Flowcharting has become a widely adopted practice for the majority of businesses today as technological advances make it increasingly easy to use basic graphic concepts to create complex process maps.

 All basic flowcharting tools have the ability to place shapes, connecting lines and text on a drawing page or surface. Shapes representing process steps are placed on the diagram, and lines connect the shapes to show relationships between them.

 Different options in this process have similar results, whether they're attained by a drag-and-drop function or a click-and-place function. The distinction is simply between programs that operate more like drawing programs and those that work with added functionality specific to flowcharting. Some of the more important flowcharting features are intelligent line routing, automatic line creating and shape numbering. Features that allow easier flowchart creation are automatic page connectors, node connections, layout tools and insert/reconnect functions.

 In Quality Digest's 2000 Flowcharting and Process Simulation Software Buyers Guide, we present products that are useful as basic flowcharters as well as those designed for sophisticated process simulation initiatives. The key difference is the ability of the process simulation tools to capture and analyze data. This may be as simple as calculating time and cost totals based on individual flowchart steps or as complex as performing a simulation of the process and highlighting process bottlenecks.

 As with all of our buyers guides, this compilation is not intended to endorse or exclude any particular organization or product and is meant only to provide readers with flowcharting and process simulation software information from those companies that responded to our requests. We hope you find it helpful.

The buyers guide is divided into two sections. The first is a directory of companies that produce flowcharting and simulation software, along with a brief description of their products. In addition you may download a product comparison matrix in pdf format by clicking here.

Directory

Adept Technology Inc.

• 150 Rose Orchard Way
• San Jose, CA 95134
• Ph. 800-292-3378 Fax 408-434-5119

www.adept.com

Adept Digital Workcell
The only 3-D robotic assembly simulation tool available that allows engineers to program a workcell without the physical robot or cell hardware.

The Ben Graham Corp.

• 6600 S. Troy Frederick Road
• Tipp City, OH 45371
• Ph. 800-628-9558 Fax 937-667-8690

www.worksimp.com

Business Process Charting 5.0 Basic Edition
Specialized for improving business processes. Symbols and flow lines display enough detail to make common-sense improvements apparent. ANSI/ASME symbol set for process improvement.

Business Process Charting 5.0 Professional Edition
Specialized for improving business processes. Symbols and flow lines display enough detail to make common-sense improvements apparent. Launch forms, drill down to subprocesses and output to Playscript desk procedures.

CFM Inc.

• P.O. Box 353
• Bedford, MA 01730
• Ph. 800-647-1708 Fax 781-275-7008

www.teamflow.com

TeamFlow v.6
Internet-ready. Add flowcharts to your Web site. People-focused, team-based process flowchart shows responsibilities, hyperlinks to online documents, creates schedules automatically. Simplifies team project management. Speeds the ISO 9000 registration process. Supports virtual teams.

EPIX Inc.

• 381 Lexington Drive
• Buffalo Grove, IL 60089
• Ph. 847-465-1818 Fax 847-465-1919

www.epixinc.com

Q-Skills
An easy flowcharter with process-mapping capabilities. Learn how to create consistent, error-free flowcharts with time and cost calculations in less than 15 minutes. Attach subprocesses. Automatic documentation for Word or HTML.

Kaetron Software

• 26119 Oak Ridge Drive
• Spring, TX 77380
• Ph. 800-938-8900 Fax 281-298-2520

www.kaetron.com

TopDown Flowcharter
For Mac and Windows. Creates network diagrams, timelines, flowcharts, org charts, entity relationship diagrams and more. Save documents as HTML for Web publishing.

Mainstay

• 591-A Constitution Ave.
• Camarillo, CA 93012
• Ph. 805-484-9400 Fax 805-484-9428

www.mstay.com

WinFlow
Produces top-quality diagrams fast, without tedious drawing. Present your company's organizational structure or design and document the manufacturing process. A fast, easy-to-use and flexible flowchart application.

Micrografx Inc.

• 8144 Walnut Hill Lane
• Dallas, TX 75231
• Ph. 800-744-1210 Fax 469-232-1190

www.micrografx.com

iGrafx FlowCharter 2000 Professional
Powerful diagramming with built-in intelligence. Diagram processes, networks, organizational structures and more. Comprehensive Microsoft Office and VBA support, HTML/Java, network-enabled deployment, media management, and collaboration.

iGrafx Process 2000
Offers integrated process diagramming, simulation and analysis features for process improvement. Features Microsoft Office compatibility, HTML/Java support, VBA extensibility and more. Fully integrated with iGrafx Professional.

New Learning Systems

• 19964 Winter Lane
• Saratoga, CA 95070
• Ph. 408-867-1828 Fax 408-867-8665

www.newlearningsystems.com

Q-Skills
Process-mapping-capable flowcharter that creates consistent, error-free flowcharts with time and costs calculations with minimal training. Attach subprocesses and automatically generate text or HTML documentation.

Patton & Patton Software Corp.

• 3815 N. Oracle Road
• Tucson, AZ 85705
• Ph. 800-525-0082 Fax 520-888-2937

www.patton-patton.com

Flow Charting PDQ
Allows you to draw professional flowcharts, org charts, process charts and other types of business diagrams (data flow, BPR, TQM, ISO 9000).

POWERWAY Inc.

• 6919 Hillsdale Court
• Indianapolis, IN 46250
• Ph. 800-964-9004 Fax 317-598-1740

www.powerway.com

Instruction Writer
Helps you create and maintain your Level III work instructions for ISO 9000/QS-9000 compliance. It provides the structure and format for instructions so you can focus on content. It also presents text, flow diagrams and a pictorial view of your instructions.

ProModel Corp.

• 1875 South State
• Orem, UT 84058
• Ph. 801-223-4622 Fax 801-226-6046

www.processmodel.com

ProModel
Do you want big performance gains? Break the rules, ask all the what-ifs without risk. ProModel simulation can dramatically reduce work in process, increase throughput, slash costs and improve service.

ProcessModel Inc.

• 32 W. Center St., Suite 301
• Provo, UT 84601
• Ph. 801-356-7165 Fax 801-356-7175

www.processmodel.com

ProcessModel
Easily redesign, simulate and optimize your business and manufacturing processes. ProcessModel is a high-tech, low-complexity software tool that provides powerful visualization and communication of new processes.

RFF Electronics

• 1053 Banyan Court
• Loveland, CO 80538
• Ph. 970-663-5767 Fax 970-669-4889

www.rff.com

RFFlow
A software program for creating flowcharts, organization charts, audit charts, quality system/ISO 9000 charts, IDEF0 and IDEF1X diagrams, cause-effect (fishbone) diagrams, database definitions and other business diagrams.

Rockwell Software

• 504 Beaver St.
• Sewickley, PA 15143
• Ph. 412-741-3727 Fax 412-741-5635

www.arenasimulation.com

Arena
Using key process inputs like resources, costs and time, Arena provides detailed, compelling animation of your process, revealing bottlenecks as they occur and providing graphical output of key performance measures.

Scitor Corp.

• 256 Gibraltar Drive
• Sunnyvale, CA 94089
• Ph. 800-549-9876 Fax 408-745-8301

www.scitor.com

Scitor Process v3
Offers an unrivaled combination of process management functionality and ease of use, providing remarkable advances in process mapping, simulation and communication functionality regardless of process complexity.

Silma

• 150 Rose Orchard Way
• San Jose, CA 95134
• Ph. 800-347-4562 Fax 408-432-3490

www.silma.com

CimStation Inspection
A 3-D graphics simulation and programming tool used to create and optimize programs for coordinate measuring machines (CMMs), shortening the CMM programming cycle, increasing CMM productivity and eliminating program errors and probe crashes.

Production Pilot
The only 3-D CAD-based assembly process planning and design software suite of its kind that provides engineers and designers with the ability to analyze and verify assembly processes.

Virtual CMM
Online programming and 3-D simulation tool that frees up your physical CMM for full-time production, giving you the advantage of debugging your programs without waiting for the physical part or CMM.

Skymark Corp.

• 7300 Penn Ave.
• Pittsburgh, PA 15208
• Ph. 800-826-7284 Fax 412-371-0681

www.skymark.com

PathMaker
Intuitive flowcharter offers rapid collaboration by multiple users in one chart. The flowchart is integrated in a process management suite. Provides project pathways, forms, brainstorm/affinity tree, and SPC tools.

Software Productivity Centre Inc.

• 1122 Mainland St., Suite 460
• Vancouver, BC V6B 5L1, Canada
• Ph. 877-548-1948 Fax 604-689-0141

www.spc.ca

EssentialSet Enterprise
Documentation is critical for reaching the repeatable level of the SEI's capability maturity model. Use EssentialSet's templates to document your processes and as a checklist for best practices in software development.

SPSS Inc.

• 233 S. Wacker Drive
• Chicago, IL 60606
• Ph. 800-543-2185 Fax 312-651-3690

www.spss.com

allCLEAR
Helps drive process change that makes organizations more effective and efficient. With allCLEAR, teams can quickly visualize processes, quantitatively analyze data in the process flows and communicate results enterprisewide.