Chapter 2

Process design
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Process design

Operations
strategy

Operations
Design Improvement
and flow

Supply
network design
Layout
 Planning and control

management

Process
technology

People, jobs
and
organization
 design

Product/ service

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Nature and purpose of the design activity

Products, services and the processes which produce

them all have to be designed.
Decisions taken during the design of a product or
service will have an impact on the decisions taken
during the design of the process which produces those
products or services and vice versa.
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Nature and purpose of the design activity

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The design of products/services and processes are

interrelated and should be treated together

• Products and services should be designed in

such a way that they can be created
effectively.

• Product/service design has an impact on the

process design and vice versa.

• Processes should be designed so they can

create all products and services which the
operation is likely to introduce.
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The overlap of activities is greater in service design

• In manufacturing operations overlapping the

activities of product and process design is
beneficial.
• In most service operations the overlap between
service and process design is implicit in the nature
of service.

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Designing processes

• There are different ‘process types’.

• Process types are defined by the volume and

variety of ‘items’ they process.

• Process types go by different names depending

on whether they produce products or services.
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Manufacturing process types

Process tasks
Diverse/ complex
Repeated/ divided
Process flow
Intermittent Continuous

Project
h

Jobbing
 Batch
y

Mass

Contin
uous
w

Low Volume
High

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Project processes
One-off, complex, large scale, high work content
‘products’

Specially made, every one customized

 Defined start and finish: time, quality and cost

objectives Many different skills have to be coordinated.

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Jobbing processes
Very small

quantities: ‘one-offs’, or only a few required

Specially made. High variety, low repetition. ‘Strangers’

every one customized

Skill requirements are usually very broad

 Skilled jobber, or team, complete whole product.

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Batch Processes

Higher
volumes
and
lower
 variety than for jobbing

Standard products, repeating demand. But can make

specials

Specialized, narrower skills

Set-ups (changeovers) at each stage of production.

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Mass (line) processes

 Higher
volumes
than
batch

Standard, repeat products

 (‘runners’) Low and/or narrow skills

No set-ups, or almost instantaneous ones.

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Continuous processes
Extremely high volumes and low variety: often single
product

Standard, repeat products (‘runners’)

 Highly capital-intensive and automated

Few changeovers required

Difficult and expensive to start and stop the process.

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Service process types

Process tasks
Diverse/ complex
Repeated/ divided
Process flow
Intermittent Continuous

Professional
g

service
H
 Service shop
y

Mass service
w

Low Volume High

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Professional service
 High levels of
customer (client) contact.
 Clients spend a considerable time in the service process.

High

levels of customization with service processes being

highly adaptable.

Contact staff are given high levels of discretion in

servicing customers.

People-based
rather than equipment-based.
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Service shops

Medium levels of volumes of customers

 Medium, or mixed, levels of customer

contact Medium, or mixed, levels of

customization Medium, or mixed, levels of

staff discretion.

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Mass service
High levels of volumes of customers Low

to medium levels of customer contact

Low, or mixed, levels of customization

Low, or mixed, levels of staff discretion.

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Process mapping

▪ Process mapping simply involves

describing processes in terms of how the
activities within the process relate to each
other.
▪ There are many techniques which can be
used for process mapping (or process
blueprinting, or process analysis).
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Process mapping symbols

▪ Process mapping symbols are used to

classify different types of activity.
▪ Symbols can be arranged in order, and in
series or in parallel, to describe any
 process.

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Process mapping derived from ‘Scientific

Management’
symbols
Operation (an activity
that directly adds
Process mapping symbols value)
Inspection (a check of
some sort) Beginning or end of
process
Transport (a movement
of something) Activity

Delay (a wait, e.g. for materials)

Input or Output from the
process
Storage (deliberate
storage, as opposed to a
delay) Direction of flow

Decision (exercising discretion)

Process mapping symbols derived
from Systems Analysis

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Customized sandwich – old

processRaw

Stored
materials Assembly sandwiches
Stored sandwiches
Sell Take payment
Standard sandwich
process Customer
Move to outlets request
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Flow process charts for processing expense

15 16 17 18 19 processing Reports to batch control
12
Check employee record 13
20 21
Send to account 14
1 Description of activity 1
payable Attach payment 15
2 Report arrives 2
voucher Log report
3 Wait for processing 3
4 Check against rules

5
Check expenses report
Stamp and date report
Wait for batching
4
5
Before
Collect retorts into
6 6 Description of activity
Send cash to receipt batch Batch to audit Report arrives
7 desk Wait for 7
desk
8 processing 8 Stamp and date report
Wait for processing
9 Check advance payment 9 Check expenses report
Batch of reports logged
10 11 Send to accounts 10 Attach payment voucher
Check payment voucher Wait for batching
12 13 14 receivable Wait for 11
Collect retorts into
batch Batch to audit
desk After
Wait for processing
Check reports and
vouchers Reports to
batch control Batch
control number Copy of
reports to filing Reports
filed
Payment voucher to
keying Confirm payment

Totals 55221
filing Reports filed activities from 26 down to 15. •
Payment voucher to keying Confirm payment Combined activities 8, 10 and 11
Totals
(payable’s activities and cash
receipt’s activities of checking
Using process maps to employees’ past expense accounts). •
22 23 24 25 26
Batch control number Copy of reports to improve processes Eliminated activities 5 and 7.
• New process cut the number of 78551

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Throughput, cycle time and work-in-process

• Throughput rate (or flow rate)

– the rate at which units emerge from the
process, i.e. the number of units passing
through the process per unit of time.

• Throughput time
– the average elapsed time taken for inputs to
move through the process and become
outputs.
– the time for a unit to move through the
 process.

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Throughput, cycle time and work-in-process

• Cycle time
– the average time between units of output
emerging from the process.

• Work content
– the total amount of work required to produce a
unit of output.
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Throughput, cycle time and work-in-process

• Work in process
– The number of units in the process (also
called the ‘work in process’ or in-process
inventory), as an average over a period of
time.
• Utilization
– The utilization of process resources is the
proportion of available time that the resources
within the process are performing useful work.

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• For example, suppose that the time to

assemble and sell a sandwich (the work
content) was two minutes and that two
people were staffing the process during the
 busy period.
• Each person could serve a customer every
two minutes, therefore every two minutes two
customers were being served, so on average
a customer is emerging from the process
every minute.

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• This is called the cycle time of the process,

the average time between units of output
emerging from the process.
• When customers join the queue in the
process they become work-in-process (or
work-in-progress) sometimes written as WIP.
• If the queue is ten people long (including that
customer) when the customer joins it, he or
she will have to wait ten minutes to emerge
from the process.

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Throughput (TH) = Work In Process (WIP) x Cycle Time (CT)

In this case,
10 minutes wait = 10 people in the system x 1 minute person

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 Little’s law (a really quite useful law)

Throughput (TH) = Work In Process (WIP) x Cycle Time (CT)

Cycle time
= 2 mins

WIP = 10
Throughput time = ?

Throughput time = 10 × 2 mins

Throughput time = 20 mins

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Little’s law (a really quite useful law) (Continued)

Throughput (TH) = Work In Process (WIP) x Cycle Time (CT)

Marker need to mark 500 exam scripts in 5 days (working 7 hours a day). Takes
1 hour to mark a script. How many markers are needed?

Throughput time = 5 days × 7 hours = 35 hours

35 hours = 500 scripts × Cycle times

 Cycle time = 35 hours

500 scripts= 0.07 hours

Number of markers = Work content = 1 hour = 14.29

Cycle time 0.07

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Throughput efficiency

Throughput efficiency is the work content of whatever is

being processed as a percentage of its throughput time
 Throughput efficiency = Work content
Throughput time × 100

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Exercise - Little’s law

Suppose it is decided that, when the new process is introduced,

the average number of customers in the process should be limited
to around ten and the maximum time a customer is in the process
should be on average four minutes.
If the time to assemble and sell a sandwich (from customer
request to the customer leaving the process) in the new process
has reduced to 1.2 minutes, how many staff should be serving?

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