It sounds like you might be thinking of a value stream rather than a cell. A cell is simply a product oriented workspace. Many cells may be linked together as a product flows through a manufacturing operation.

The value stream concept is a bit cloudy when you start thinking of administrative work. There is a value stream for NPD, for example, that overlaps a value stream for order fulfilfilment. In your case, you can take it even further upstream and think of the user’s website experience while researching before requesting a quote.

I recommend a few things.

1. Go for simplicity. It is easy to get bogged down in minutia. Don’t neglect facts and data, but also don’t let data collection be a barrier to a project.

2. Focus on time. Look for the total time from when a customer first interacts with you until they have a product in their hands. The shorter that process is, the happier both you and the customer will be.

3. Look from the persective of the customer. Start at the end of the cycle, and keep looking upstream as if the customer was wading against the flow of your work.

World class companies never lose sight of the customer when working on their value stream.

Hope that helps.
Jeff

Thank you