but a product can be 'soft' like a process or an algorithm even a recipe for cooking.

Workflow - an Idea for Process

In the past few years our kaffir lime trees had lot of fruits. This year is no exception. We collected some 50 kilos of kaffir limes (in the tray on the red trailer). We threw bad ones into the white bucket and put good ones in the blue bucket to wash with water and little vinegar. We cut the limes into quarters on a cutting board with a big knife. We had the cutting board on a crate on the trailer, so we could stand up straight and cut without bending our back. Cutting a thousand limes could really hurt if we didn't prepared the work area for 'good posture' too. Cut limes went into a clean plastic rubbish bag inside a clean rubbish bin. Later, we put in 5 kilos of raw sugar and 200 g of ammonium sulphate (fertilizer) and water enough to cover the limes. We closed the bag and tied it then closed the bin with a lid. We moved the bin into a shady place and left it to ferment for about 6 weeks.

Voila, this is how we make kaffir lime bio-juice which can be used to make soap, cleaning liquid, conditioning shampoo (in one) and a few other things (still in experiments).

So what is the good idea here? We have talked a lot about 'from idea to product', but a product can be 'soft' like a process or an algorithm even a recipe for cooking things. A product needn't be a solid piece/assembly of materials. It can be a 'workflow' -- a way to do some things.

In our workflow, we have "collection" (of kaffir limes) process, "clean-cut" process (shown in the picture), fermenting process (done by microbes in environment), and "tailoring end products" process. These processes must be done in certain order and in some certain ways else the whole thing may not produce what we have in mind.

Our workflow can be improved of course. We will change some tasks and workplaces to improve work safety and hygiene, and yes, to reduce cutting time ;-)