Introduction Flashcards
What is operations management?
The systematic design, direction and control of processes that transform inputs to products or services for customers
What is an operation?
Operations refer to the activities that convert resources (materials, labor, machines) into goods or services efficiently.
Example: Managing a supply chain, scheduling production, or optimizing workflow in a hospital
What is a process?
Input –> Process –> Output
What is the goal operations management?
Ensure that this transformation process from raw material to goods is performed efficiently and that the output is of greater value than the input
What is a value chain?
Series of activities from supplier to customer that add value to a product or service
There are 4 stages of performance that can be identified along with increasing involvement of operations in a firm? What are they called?
- Internal neutrality: no strategic advantage
- External neutrality: Companies starts to compare themselves with similar
- Internally supportive: Operations aspire to be best on market
- Externally supportive: Operations provide the foundation for its competitive success (one step ahead)
What are the 5 basic key performances of operations?
- Quality: meeting customer needs
- Speed: time between customer request–> delivery
- Dependability: Delivering as promised
- Flexibility: Change what, how or when
- Cost: The lower the production cost, the lower the price to their customers
What is mass customization?
When companies have achieved a remarkable balance between high volume and customization.
–> Customized products at low costs
Name 2 examples of how production systems can be represented?
- Functional: Black box
- Structural: how elements in the system are related to one another
- Hierarchial: One system can be a sub systems within a larger system and also super systems
What is an open system
A system that depends on its environment. Exchanging materials, energy, info (supply chain)
What is a closed system?
A closed system is not depending on its environment and other actors. For example reuse of products within a company
What is process design?
Make sure that the performance of the process is appropriate for what it is trying to achieve
What is throughput rate?
The rate at which units emerge from a process
- How fast units units are produced or goes through a machine
What is throughput time?
The time it takes for an input to become an output
Internal lead time
How long it takes to pass on a station/machine
What is work in process (WIP)?
WIP= Number of units in process
What is a bottleneck?
A special type of constraint that decreases the capacity of a process. work is restricted or slowed down, limiting overall performance or capacity. It acts as a choke point, causing delays and inefficiencies.
What is TOC?
Theory of Constraints. A management approach focusing on managing bottlenecks:
- The bottlenecks should be scheduled to maximize throughput time/rate in the process
Can you give an example of a bottleneck
A workstation in a production process that has the highest total time/unit processed
What is line balancing? When is it applicable?
The process of optimizing the allocation of tasks or work to different workstations in order to balance workloads and avoid bottlenecks
- Only applicable on assembly lines
What is the difference between cycle time and and throughput time?
The cycle time focuses only on the active work time, while the throughput time is the total time it takes for a product to go from start to finish including idle time etc.
What is Littles law?
Production balance method. Little’s Law is a fundamental principle in operations management and queuing theory that relates the average number of items in a system, the arrival rate of those items, and the average time an item spends in the system. Explains the relationship between number of WIP, cycle time and throughput rate
- WIP depends on how fast items are processed (throughput rate) and how long they take to produce (cycle time)
What is Overall Equipment Effectiveness?
A method for judging the effectiveness of operations equipment. Used in manufacturing to measure how efficiently a machine or production line is running. It helps identify losses in productivity and shows how much of the available time is truly productive.
Effectiveness= Availability * Quality * Speed
