from Prof. Goldsman’s lecture notes Process Flow from Prof. Goldsman’s lecture notes

Main Concerns… Transform inputs into outputs Internal measurement (process performance) versus External measurement (customer satisfaction) Productivity level (output/input) Which one is controllable by the managers? Remember … “Work smart, not hard” Systematic approach: find easier and better ways to accomplish a task Steps: Identify problems -- Obtain facts -- Question the facts -- Develop and test an improved method -- Simulate the method -- Apply the method -- Review the method Let’s look into the flow…

Chart Types Process Flow Chart Left-Hand-Right Hand Charts (analyze the work performed by one person at one specific WS) Multiple Activity Chart (>= 2 objects/persons are shown) Work Distribution Chart (all activities/person/ department) Operation Process Chart Gantt Chart

Process Flow Diagram Elementary School Middle School State Exam High Pass Georgia Tech Fail

Flow Diagram

Multiply Activity Chart

Gantt Chart

Process Flow Concepts Process boundaries Process flow rate: R (Throughput) Process inventory: I (WIP, Inventory, Bottleneck) Unit flow time: T (on average, amount of time a flow unit spends within the system) Little’s Law Flow unit What is the flow unit in a kitchen in restaurant, gas station pump, gas station, or clothes store?

Process Flow Concepts (Cont’d) Inventory: What are the inventory in a … University? Gas station? Kitchen in a restaurant? Flowtime for a particular item in a system: = time it leaves system - time it enters system Usually is on average, the amount of time a flow unit spends in system i.e. how long does a dollar remains in your checking account?

Process Flow Concepts (Cont’d) Throughput: rate of flow unit through a point What is the throughput in … A Kitchen in a restaurant? Gas station? Gas pump? Clothes store?

Sneak Preview … Let’s observe a bank teller, What do we actually observe?

Sneak Preview … (Cont’d) We can observe: Events: Arrive at the “in” queue Leave the “in” queue, starts service Finishes service, enter the “out” queue Leave the “out” queue Arrival Process Service Process

Sneak Preview … (Cont’d) Averaged them out over time, VOILA! Little’s Law! Rate in = rate out (steady state) Similar to physics (v x t = d) Applicable to most systems even those with variability Throughput rate x flowtime = inventory R x T = I or I = R x T Now, how can we determine the inventory in a university?

Process Flow Concepts (Cont’d) Bottleneck: Definition: reduce rate, reduce throughput In a university? Flowlines usually have bottlenecks -- Assembly Line Balancing Jobshops are more complex; less easily applicable Often become unclear when variability exists

Ok.. Little’s Law is awesome... BUT, what about resource requirements? How much capacity is “required”? Estimating capacity requirement Operation Capacity Required = R x (resource/flow unit) -- utilization Example: labor hours req’d = 200 pc/day x .25 hrs/pc = 50 hrs/day or 7.14 workers -- at 100% utilization

Utilization isn’t 100% Whenever the inventory goes to zero, the process is idle, thus the utilization is less than 100% Thus, estimate the utilization to be less than 100% Revisit the previous example: Suppose utilization is 75%, the labor hours req’d is… 66.67 hrs/day or 9.52 workers

Look at a “network” of processes… and apply theoretical CPM

Process Flow Process Flow Graph Process Flow Chart Shows only the structure of the flow Used to “map” the actual path and document resource usage Process Flow Chart Shows the structure of the flows and detailed operation information Used to “document” times and distances, and identify unquantified delays

How to improve flow time efficiency?

Critical Path Concept Calculate the longest path in the process flow graph = Critical Path

Flow Time Efficiency Theoretical Flow Time (T*)= Σ quantified process times on the longest path Actual Flow Time, T, is never less than T*, why? Thus, the flow time efficiency is T*/T should be >, <, or = 1? The inverse of flow time efficiency is called the “x factor”

How to Improve It? Focus on Critical Path! Reduce work content of operations on critical path Increase lot size to reduce the number of setups Reduce product rework Reduce or eliminate inspection “Balancing” the CP and non-CP

Dilbert Observation If you are evaluated on the basis of flow time efficiency, i.e., T*/T, one way to make your efficiency better is to increase T* while holding T constant What do you think?

What about the maximum rate at which units can be produced?

What is the Maximum R?

Now you are the Little’s Law Expert! Hopefully…