OIDD 101 Midterm Flashcards
Process scope
Can be defined at the micro level it’s multiple sub processes and also at an aggregate level which tracks the process as a whole
Process
Set of activities that accepts inputs and produces outputs.
Flow unit
The flow unit is what is tracked thru the process and generally defines the process output of interest
Little’s Law
I = R * T
I in Little’s law
Inventory
The average flow units in the process (units)
R in Little’s law
Flow rate
Average rate at which flow units enter or leave the process
(Units / time)
T in Little’s law
Flow time.
Average time a flow unit is in the process. (Time)
Make sure to do a Little’s Law sample calculation
For example, incoming calls —> call center —> completed calls
What is I, R, and T?
I will be the average number of callers on the phone with the call center
R is the average number of incoming or completed calls per min (what goes in must go out)
T is the average time a caller spends with the call center
Why do we need inventory?
Flow time
Seasonality
Batching
Buffers —> a buffer is inventory between processes. Allows one process to work while another doesn’t, possibly preventing a reduction in the overall flow rate
Uncertain demand —> produce in advance to reduce chance of running out of inventory
Pricing —> buy when cheap and sell later at higher price
4 diff ways to count inventory
In terms of: 1. Flow units 2 dollars 3. Days of supply 4. Turns
Counting inventory in terms of flow units
The I in I=RT
Number of wetsuits, patients, etc.
Useful when the focus is on one particular flow unit
Just measuring in terms of the flow unit
Counting inventory in terms of dollars
The I in I=RT
The dollar value of inventory
Intuitive measure of firms total inventory
Problem is this isn’t relative
Based on cost to purchase good, not sell it
Measuring inventory in terms of days of supply
The average number of days a unit spends in the system
Number of days the average amount of inventory would last at the average R if no replenishments
The T in I = RT
Can also be weeks, months, years of supply
T = I/R = inventory /flow rate
Measuring inventory in terms of turns
The number of times the average amount of inventory exits the system
= 1/T or R/I
For example, say T =2 months
Then annual turns = 6
So, average inventory lasts 2 months. Avg inventory will exit the system once every 2 months or 6 times per year. So annual turns = 6
Cost of goods sold
This is the flow rate
Flow rate isn’t sales, as inventory is measured in the cost to purchase goods, not in the sales revenue.
R =COGS
Problem with having too much inventory
Opportunity cost of capital —> money in inventory could be invested in some other asset
Storage, insurance, maintanance costs
Obsolescence costs—> inventory may be worth less tomorrow than it is worth today
Inflation provides benefit to hold inventory, as with inflation cheaper to buy today than tomorrow.
Two ways to measure inventory holding costs
- Dollars per flow unit per unit time.
For example, 25 cents per customer per minute
$114 per ton of milk powder per year - % of cost of goods
Measuring inventory holding costs as percent of cost of goods sold
For example, cost of holding inventory is 40%per year.
If a component cost $120, then it costs .4(120) =$48 to hold it for one year or $4 per month
This percent captures all inventory costs
We can also write the annual holding cost as a percentage of COGs as:
Annual inventory holding cost percent / yearly turns
Example of inventory holding cost
Suppose Walmart annual inventory holding cost is 25%
I = 44,469
R = COGS = 360,984
Annual inventory holding cost = .25(I) = 11,175
Annual inventory holding cost as percent of COGs = this divided by R
Skip a step and just do annual inventory holding cost percent /yearly turns = .25/8.12 = 3.1%
Gross margin percent
Example:
Sell drill for $50,purchase it for $30
(Price - cost) / price
(50-30)/50 = 40%
Capacity
The maximum flow rate through a resource.
Be sure to use same units (unit / time)
If 6 mixers, 22,000 hotdogs per batch, 20 min to mix, what is capacity?
22000 (6)/ 20 = 6600 dogs / min
Capacity of the entire process
The minimum capacity among the resources
Resource that constrains the entire process is called the bottleneck
While at any minute could produce more than the average, the average capacity is the bottleneck.
Processing time, activity time, service time
Duration that a flow unit has to spend at a resource, not including any waiting time.
Capacity relation to processing time
If one worker, capacity = 1 / processing time
If multiple workers, capacity = m/ processing time, where m is the number of workers or machines for a given part of the process.
Demand
Rate at which flow units are requested from the process. (People / hr, widgets / min, etc.)
Input
Rate at which flow units can begin the process (unit / time)
Flow rate for a process
The rate at which flow units enter or leave the process.
R.
Min (process capacity, demand, input)
Usually input isn’t the min so min of proc cap and demand.
Utilization
Fraction of time working
Flow rate / capacity
Supply constrained
Process Capacity < demand
This means that the flow rate will equal the process capacity, the capacity of the bottleneck
So, utilization will be 100% for one of the steps in the process.
Demand constrained
Process capacity > demand
Flow rate = demand
Now utilization isn’t 100% for any step
Flow time
Time a unit spends in the process.
This is just T = I/R using Little’s law.
Cycle time
Time between when units exit the process.
(Min/unit)
1/R
Time to go through an empty worker paced process (1 unit)
Sum of the processing times.
Time thru an empty machine paced process (conveyer belt) (1 unit)
Number of resources in sequence * processing time of the bottleneck step
Time to produce N units starting with a full system (machine or worker paced)
N * cycle time
N is the number of flow units you want to produce.
Time to produce N units starting with empty worker paced system
Sum of processing times + (N-1) * cycle time
Takes longer with empty system
First unit goes thru for whole processing times, rest go thru every (cycle time)min
Time to produce N units starting with empty machine paced system
Number of stations * cycle time + (N-1)(cycle time)
Conveyer belt. Everyone works at the bottleneck speed.
Cost of direct labor
Labor cost per flow unit
How much labor cost per unit we produce
($/unit)
Wages per unit of Time / R
Note that wagers per unit of Time = wages per worker per unit of Time * number of workers
Labor content
Total LABOR time to produce a flow unit.
Sum of processing times involving labor
Machine processing times aren’t included
(Time / unit)
Labor utilization
Average utilization across workers
R / labor capacity
Labor capaocy = N/ labor content
So labor útil = labor content * (R/N)
Or labor content / (N* cycle time)
Remember cycle time = 1/R
If everything in a process is labor then labor útil =process útil
Takt Time
Time between when flow units are demanded (min/unit)
1/demand rate
Target manpower
Minimum number of workers needed to satisfy demand (assumes 100% útil)
Labor content / Takt time
Minimum number of workers to get the demand rate that we need.
Process improvement
Replicate process, add 1 worker, add 2 workers, balance tasks, integrate work
Adding 1 worker
Could move the bottleneck to a different step. New min capacity
Balancing tasks
People split two tasks, evenly divides the total processing times of these tasks between the two people.
Capacity goes up
Integrating work
Each person does every task. Naturally balanced lines. Never waiting for someone else.
Add up total processing time, that is processing time per worker now.
Then 1/this is the capacity per worker and then multiply by workers to get total capacity
This will be highest capacity, as no idle time and each worker has 100 percent útil.
Problem is this requires more training and different skills. Heart surgeon won’t perform knee surgery and answer phones
Line balancing
Attempting to achieve even útil across resources in a process and minimize idle time.
Why we line balance
To improve capacity of total process without adding resources.
Integrating work is best way to improve line balancing.
When not every flow unit goes thru each resource, what do we do?
Use yields to determine demand.
Yield of a resource
Flow rate of good output / flow rate of input
Say a yield is .336. This means 33.6% of the inputs make it thru the process while the rest are rejected.
Yield of a process
Product of resources’ yields.
How to get demand per resource when we have attrition loss— some units rejected after each resource
Use yields
For example, 110 applications are demanded and the first step, underwriting, has a yield of .336
So, 110(1-.336) = 73 are rejected after underwriting and 110(.336) = 37 make it thru to the next step, Q and C
This step has a yield of .784
So, 110(.336)(.784)=29mane it thru to get funded and 110(.336)(1-.784)=8 get rejected after second step.
To get demand on resource, add these numbers up.
So underwriting demand is 110and Q and C is 37 loans / day
Implied utilization
Demand /capacity of a resource
Can be bigger than 100%
Bottleneck in cases with attrition loss
Resource with highest implied utilization is the bottleneck.
Big error with this
Make sure that when calculating resources demand you evaluate it as if it is the only resource in the process.
How to achieve a target flow rate
Get the whole process yield. Do this by multiplying the resources yields.
Input needed =target output /process yield
Ex. Say we want a target output of 30loans per day
Proces yueld is .263
So 30/.263= 114 loans / day
So, we need 114 loans / day on the underwriting resource and multiply by that resource’s yield to get capaocty for Q and C
Process with rework
If a flow unit needs to go thru a process multiple times.
Make sure to use processing times not capacity—>
Say 80%of travelers go thru it once and have a capaocty of 3 travelers /min while 20% go thru twice and cap = 1.5/min
Processing times are 1/3and 1/1.5=2/3
So do average processing time = (,8)(1/3)+(.2)(2/3) =.4 min / traveler
Then invert this to get capaocty = 2.5 travelers /min
Be sure to not take weighted average of capacities!!! Do it with processing times!!!