A good start to a process re-engineering exercise is to gather all the staff concerned with the existing process, arm them with sticky-notes and offer them a large blank wall. Ask each of them to write down the steps of the process, one step per sticky-note, and place it on the wall. They should align their notes in order, in the right place in the sequence on the wall. Often, different staff will note different steps for the same part of the process. Spontaneous discussions break out which can be immediately useful in agreeing how a job is being done or should be done, and which steps are pointless. The diagram on the wall can be quite chaotic with loops and multiple options – this is normal.
This wall diagram can be a message in itself and can be left on display, if feasible.
The wall diagram can be transcribed into a more formal process diagram – but you may already be able to start simplifying and accelerating the process by removing redundant steps and loops.