Spaghetti Diagram Template

About the Spaghetti Diagram Template

The Spaghetti Diagram Template can help you visualize the flow of people, materials, documentation, and products in your processes, as well as how these elements interact with each other.

Spaghetti diagrams are also part of LEAN tools, a set of problem-solving methods designed to increase process efficiency. These tools are particularly helpful when reengineering business processes.

This template enhances your understanding of a current process, helping you identify redundancies and spot areas for improvement. You can also use the template to map out a workflow before implementing a process change.

For example, you might use this template to map out a patient's experience at a hospital. You'll also want to include the management hierarchy for staff, emergency protocols, and information about the supplies needed in each department.

This way, employees at all levels of the organization can understand how their work processes fit into the hospital's process flow as a whole and identify areas that need improvement.

Keep reading to learn more about the Spaghetti Diagram template.

What is a spaghetti diagram?

A spaghetti diagram, also known as “spaghetti chart,” “spaghetti plot,” or “spaghetti model,” is a visualization tool used in process mapping to show the flow of information, people, and products.

In a spaghetti diagram, each part of the process flow is represented as a strand. These strands come together at decision points or "intersections" to form a network.

A set of tasks are represented by colorful, semi-transparent strands that connect up to show how they're related in time, space, or agreement with one another.

For instance, let's say you are designing a website and want to plan out the basic page flow. You could represent each web page as one of the noodles in the diagram, and then you could show which pages link to one another (dependencies) with connecting noodles.

Or you could show what pages people visit before they purchase a certain product, what steps are involved in the purchasing process (work sequences), and who they're working with (agreements) during the purchasing process.

In short, a spaghetti plot is a quick and easy way to track distances between parts, people, or work that otherwise would be hard to represent.

Benefits of using a Spaghetti Diagram Template

Some of the benefits of spaghetti diagrams include:

• Quickly identify process waste and inefficiencies: Since spaghetti diagrams are simple and easy to read, it's easy to identify problems quickly and improve the quality of a process.

• Identify non-value added time: Since the spaghetti diagram freezes work-in-progress for a particular time slice, you can see how much time is actually spent doing standard work versus how much time is wasted organizing tasks or attending.

• Keep everyone on the same page: This diagram can be helpful when you want to visually track work that needs to be done between different departments or stakeholders and make sure everyone’s on the same page.

• Track the working schedule of people and machines: When there are multiple work areas or production lines, a spaghetti diagram can help you track everyone’s and everything’s working schedule.

• Maximize productivity: Since spaghetti diagrams (can) provide a quick way to see and understand the big picture, you can make sure everyone is working on things that are most important.

Create your own spaghetti diagram

With Miro, you can create your own spaghetti diagram in minutes. Get started by opening our Spaghetti Diagram Template.

This template comes pre-loaded with sticky notes and connector lines.

Step 1: Start by adding your first noodle or set of tasks. Begin to build the spaghetti diagram by adding other noodles.

Step 2: Drag and drop noodles to connect them to each other, or move noodles by dragging them around on the canvas.  The connector lines will adjust automatically to maintain the connection.

Step 3: Add a sticky note by double-clicking on a noodle and typing in the text of your choice.  You can also move the note by dragging it around on the canvas.

Step 4: When you're done, simply save your spaghetti diagram and share it with any relevant team members.

With Miro, collaborating with team members is pretty straightforward. You can invite your team to collaborate on a specific template and edit your data in real-time.

Example of a spaghetti diagram in action

Let’s imagine that you’re the owner of a car manufacturing company and want to improve your stamping process. Let’s also imagine that your stamping process has four steps:

1. Find the type of metal the part should be made from

2. Punch out the corresponding shapes

3. Stamp or punch out additional shapes

4. Clean up the final product

To manage this process, you create a spaghetti diagram with four noodles labeled ‘1’ through ‘4’.  You then create four labels on each noodle that say ‘Metal Type,’ ‘Punch Shapes,’ ‘Stamp Shapes,’ and ‘Cleanup.’

You then color code each label with the same color as the noodle it’s on and finish by drawing connection lines between each step.

This allows you to visualize your entire stamping process and understand how the different steps connect.