4: DESIGN: Process Design

Question 1

What is process design?

Answer 1

Activities, which shape the physical form and purpose of products, services and processes

Question 2

What is the overall purpose of process design and what objectives should it have?

Answer 2

Purpose: to meet customers needs through the five performance objectives.
Other objectives: throughput time, throughput rate, work in process, utilization, cycle time

Question 3

Explain the objectives process design should have in details

Answer 3

Throughput rate (Flow rate): # units passing through the process per unit of time
Throughput time: cutting vegetable until is served, inputs becoming outputs
Work in process: # units in process as an average
Utilization: time that resources
are performing useful work within a process
Cycle time: time of a process (cutting vegetables)

Question 4

How do volume and variety affect process design? What are the two different processes?

Answer 4

Processes differ due to their volume and variety level. There are manufacturing and service processes

Question 5

Explain the manufacturing process in details (types, etc.)

Answer 5

Manufacturing process #1: Project: movie making, high variety, low volume. #2: Jobbing: building Golden Gate (for special customer), low volume, high variety, more and smaller products than Project. #3: Batch: wide range of volume and variety, bills of electricity, salary, end of month. #4: Mass production: high volume, low variety: things done by machines #5: Continuous: paper making, oil refining, chemicals, low variety, high volume

Question 6

Explain service process in details (types, etc.)

Answer 6

Professional services (dentists, doctors, lawyers) where you need a professional licence. Low volume and higher variety.
Service shops (restaurants, hotels, schools) where they have front and back offices, moderate volume and variety.
Mass service (call centers, computers-aided manufacturing systems) high volume, low variety

Question 7

How can you calculate throughput time?

Answer 7

Work in process X cycle time

Question 8

How can you calculate throughput efficiency?

Answer 8

Work content/throughput time X 100

Question 9

What is the relation between variability and waiting time?

Answer 9

The greater the variability the higher the waiting time