*4.3. Core Process Selection*

According to Hammer and Champy [1], when the objective is to improve the process, a detailed analysis is not necessary. Rather, a general analysis is required that detects the critical aspects that demonstrate the causes of the deficiencies of the current process. The company operates with a process or functional organization, since the areas are grouped according to the equipment or machinery by similar functions, such as the Strobel department, the stitching department, the assembly department, the PU injection, the decoration area, and more, as shown in Figure 2.

**Figure 2.** Process mapping elaborated by the author. The colors represent the flow of materials and information by the department.

Regarding the process, before the product reaches the decorating area, it is processed in the Desma machine where a mixture is injected, for the elaboration of the sole of the industrial shoe. The company has 2 Desma. Each of them produces 1600 pairs of shoes in an 8-h workday. These shoes are stored in the P.U. Injection Machines department, where operators transfer them to the decorating area. This is the activity that generates the longest production time due to the lack of instruments. Since shipments of raw material to the decorating area are in large quantities, it is necessary to make them through batches by generating a large volume of warehouse usage, which causes delays in the process. The main operations are Flaming, Cleaning, Painting, and Applying Gloss Polish. Such a process is detailed below.

#### *4.4. Selection of Leader and Team Members*

The process for choosing the reengineering leader consisted of conducting different interviews with the general management and those involved in the decorating process, to assess how well they know the process, and investigate the scope they have in decision-making. According to Hammer and Champy [1], the characteristics of the team members are observed in Figure 3.

In consensus with the director of the company and after conducting the interviews, the team was defined. The information is presented in Table 1.

#### *4.5. Team Building and Training*

At this stage, it is necessary to discard the old patterns of thinking about how a process should be, and to generate new forms of operation and new possibilities that fundamentally modify the current process. The owner of the process and the reengineering team were trained in "doing reengineering." It was mentioned that reengineering does not intend to automate the current processes to make them faster. Rather it seeks to create a new agile process that is capable of satisfying the needs of the internal-external client. In addition, other main seminars that are shown in Figure 4 were developed based on Hammer and Champy's [1] techniques to conceive ideas. In these seminars, the importance of "search and destroy assumptions" and "search opportunities for creative application of technology." Subsequently, techniques such as nominal groups, brainstorming, and focus groups were used to define the strategies that would lead to the improvement proposal.

**Figure 3.** Characteristics of the roles in reengineering elaborated by the authors, according to Hammer and Champy [1].

**Figure 4.** Seminars elaborated by the author, taking Hammer and Champy [1] as a reference.


**Table 1.** Selection of the members of the reengineering team.

Moreover, the employees of the decorating area were trained in what was reengineering to better accept the changes that were proposed. Some significant ideas that were obtained after applying the different techniques were the following. It is necessary to highlight that they did it without considering restrictions in space, costs, and human resources.


In order to select the best idea, the process map detailed below was elaborated on.

### *4.6. Process Mapping*

Along with the proposal, the process map of the decoration area was made. The process is briefly described below, and a flow diagram is presented in Figure 5. The shoe is taken to the first activity of the decorating area, where the operator performs the flaming, which consists of removing the excess seams that the shoes have through the flaming machine. The next step is carrying the shoe to the work table where 3 to 4 operators are in charge of cleaning, which consists of removing burrs through a razor by taking care that the shoe is not scratched and cleaning the exterior dust. The third activity is placing paint on the soles. Then another operator applies the polish gloss. Then an operator places a paper inside the shoe for interior protection, and the shoelace is placed on the shoe and, thus, the shoe is finished. If the shoe is clean, it is packed and labeled according to the characteristics of the shoe. Otherwise, a cleaning operator is asked to clean it again and when it is ready it is packed. Lastly, an operator stows the boxes, until obtaining five pairs of shoes and placing a safety clasp through the strapping machine to transport to the "Finished Product Warehouse" area. In addition, the team takes times of the operations of both decorating lines in order to analyze the process.

**Figure 5.** Process flow diagram elaborated by the author.
