Process Design

Question 1

What is process design?

Answer 1

Treat the two activities as interrelated
1.designing the product or service: designed in a way that they can be created efficiently

2. designing the process: should be designed so they can create all products and services which the operation is likely to introduce
   - both designs have an impact on the other
   - the overlap is usually greater in operations which produces services

Question 2

What are the different design processes?

Answer 2

• process types go by different names depending on whether they produce products or services
• process types are determined by volume and variety of items they process

1. Manufacturing process types
2. Service process types

Question 3

What is the manufacturing process type, project processes?

Answer 3

Type: one off projects, discrete, highly customized products and complex
Time: long timescale between completion of each item (well defined start and finish)
Activities: ill defined and uncertain
Resources: low volume and high variety, taken to the location
Examples: software design, movie production and construction companies

Question 4

What is the manufacturing process type, jobbing processes?

Answer 4

Type: one offs or only a few required, not as complex as projects since transportation is possible
Activities: specially made,
Skills: skill requirement is broad. Purpose built and hand made
Resources: low volume and high variety
Examples: made to measure tailors, furniture restorers

Question 5

What is the manufacturing process type,batch processes?

Answer 5

Type: standard products, repeating demand, but can make specials.
Activities: products are produced in different stages, different people are responsible for different stages, often a WIP inventory for each stage
Skills: specialized narrower skills, set ups at each stage of production
Resources: higher volumes and lower variety than for jobbing
Examples: machine tool manufacturing, productions of special gourmet food,

Question 6

What is the manufacturing process type, mass or line processes?

Answer 6

Type: standard repeat product runners, product range is narrower and difficult to customize
Activities: production process is split into a large number of steps and all products go through them sequentially
Skills: low and narrow skills, no set ups or change over or almost instantaneous ones
Resources: higher volumes than batch, narrow product range (little variety)
Examples: frozen food production, automatic packing lines, television factories

Question 7

What is the manufacturing process type, continuous processes?

Answer 7

Type: standard repeat product runners, high capital intensive and automated
Activities: few changeover required set up costs are very high and therefore avoided, difficult to start and stop the process (operates 24 hours, 365 days)
Skills: labour normally monitor the system performance
Resources: extremely high volumes and low variety: often single product
Examples: water processing, steel making and paper making

Question 8

How do these processes link with planning and scheduling? Make stock, assembly order, make to order, engineer to stock and engineer to order?)

Answer 8

1. Make stock: producers make stock before receiving a customer order: typical mass production or continuous processing
2. Assembly order: producers hold stock and WIP to quickly assemble order required by the customer: typical line or batch processes
3. Make to order:material ordered and product made only after the buyer order is received: typical batch
4. Engineer to stock: repeat business of low volume products allow generic engineering plants to be deployed: typical of jobbing
5. Engineer to stock: customers specify requirements and operations manager delivers requested products: typical project

Question 9

What service type is professional service?

Answer 9

Customer contact: high
Volume of customers: low, client spend considerable time in the service process
Resources: high variety/customization, flexibility/adaptability in services
Staff discretion: high
Base: people based not equipment
Example: doctors surgeries, architects

Question 10

What service type is service shops?

Answer 10

Customer contact: medium or mixed level
Volume of customers: medium
Resources: medium level of variety/customization
Staff discretion: medium or mixed
Example: banks, high street shops, holiday tour operators and car rental companies

Question 11

What service type is mass service?

Answer 11

Customer contact: low to medium level o
Customer volume: high 
Resources: low variety/customization 
Staff discretion: low or mixed 
Example: supermarkets, national rail network and airport and call centers

Question 12

What is e product process matrix?

Answer 12

• the most common method of illustrating the relationship between a process volume-variety position and its design characteristics
• the most important elements of process design are strongly related to volume variety position of the process
• moving off the natural diagonal of the product process matrix will incur excess costs

Question 13

What is process mapping?

Answer 13

• describes the processes in terms of how the activities within the process relate to each other. Identify the different types of activities that take place during the process , shoe flow of material, people or info,still through process

Question 14

What are the process mapping symbols?

Answer 14

Circle: operation (activity that directly adds value)
Square: inspection/check 
Arrow: transport
Round arrow: delay or wait 
Upside down triangle: storage 
Oval: beginning or end of process 
Rectangle: activity 
Tilted rectangle: Input or output of the process 
Thin arrow: direction of the flow 
Diamond: decision

Question 15

Distinguish between throughout time, cycle time, work in progress and work content?

Answer 15

Throughput time: the elapsed time between an item entering the process and leaving it
Cycle time: the average time between the items being processed
Work in progress: the number of items within the process at any point in time
Work content: tots amount of work required to produce a unit of output

Question 16

What is littles law? (Formula)

Answer 16

States that the average number of objects in a queue is the product of the entry rate and the average holding time.

Throughput time = work in progress X cycle time

Question 17

What are the two types of variability?

Answer 17

1. Variability in demand for processing at an individual stage within the process
2. Variability in the time taken to perform the activities at each stage