50 The New CFOs Are factories only for the routine? The second issue is the widely held belief that factories only produce routine and standardized products. Admittedly they are often associated with mass production, but remember that factories also produce some clever products that are sophisticated, nuanced, customized and of extreme value. Commu- nications satellites are made in factories as well as washing machines. In the same way, your finance factory can aspire to produce the highest quality, customized and knowledge-based advice, as well as the more routine services like ensuring that invoices are paid on time. A process perspective can be applied to a range of tasks; the simple and the complex, the straightforward and the difficult to define, the routine and the rarely encountered. In this chapter, we will define process and look at its major characteristics, before applying a process perspective to sophisticated advisory services, like law and finance. We will then walk through the five decision points in