Processes Systems and Information An

Introduction to MIS 3rd Edition

Mckinney Solutions Manual
Visit to download the full and correct content document: https://testbankdeal.com/dow
nload/processes-systems-and-information-an-introduction-to-mis-3rd-edition-mckinne
y-solutions-manual/
 1 of 14

Chapter 6
Using IS to Improve Processes

Chapter Objectives/Study Questions

Q1. What are the important characteristics of processes in organizations?

Q2. What are examples of common business processes?
Q3. How can management improve processes?
Q4. How can information systems be used to improve processes?
Q5. How can process management principles improve processes?
Q6. How do process teams diagram process improvement?
Q7. How can an IS hinder a process?

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.

 2 of 14

List of Key Terms

• Activity – a task with a business process.

• Actor – a resource that is either a human or a computer.
• As-is diagram – diagrams of the current process.
• Automation - means that a computer does an activity or a part of an activity that was
once done by a person.
• Bottleneck – a process bottleneck occurs when one activity reduces the performance
of the overall process.
• Business process – a network of activities, resources, facilities, and information that
interact to achieve some business function; sometimes called a business system.
• Control – limits behavior.
• Effectiveness – a process objective that helps achieve organizational strategy.
• Efficiency – a process objective that is resource oriented. A process is efficient if it
creats more output with the same inputs or the same output with fewer inputs.
• Exceptions - are unexpected or unwelcome outputs from a process that require an
action.
• Executive support system (ESS) – information systems that support strategic
processes.
• Feedback - the return of a part of the output of process to the input.
• Human resource processes – organizational processes that assess the motivations
and skills of employees, creates job positions, investigates employee complaints, and
staffs, trains, and evaluates personnel.
• Inbound logistics processes – receive, store, and disseminate product input.
• Information silo – islands of automation; information systems that work in isolation
from one another.
• Infrastructure processes – essential supporting processes in the organization that
enable day-to-day operations.
• KPI – key performance indicators. Metrics used to identify process efficiency and
effectiveness.
• Management information system (MIS) – an information system that helps
businesses achieve their goals and objectives.
• Managerial processes – processes that concern resource use. Includes planning,
assessing, and analyzing the resources used by the company in pursuit of its strategy.
• Measures – quantities that are assigned to attributes. In the process context, measures
help assess achievement of process objectives.
• Metrics – see Measures.
• Objective – a goal that people in an organization have chosen to pursue. In the
process context, managers develop and measure objectives for each process.
Objectives fall into two categories: effectiveness and efficiency.
• Operational processes – common, routine, everyday business processes such as
procurement and sales.
• Ought-to-be diagram – diagrams of suggested improvements to the current process.
• Outbound logistics processes – includes designing, testing, and developing
technology in support of the primary activities. These processes concern the

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.

 3 of 14

management of finished-goods inventory and the movement of goods from that

inventory to the customer.
• Process improvement – identifies when a process better achieves its objectives
based on its measures.
• Procurement – the operational process for acquiring goods and services.
• Resources – the items, such as people, computers, and data and document
collections, necessary to accomplish an activity.
• Role – a subset of the activities in a business process that are performed by a
particular actor.
• Sales processes – an operational outbound process that records the sales order, ships
the product, and bills the customer.
• Service – a repeatable task that a business needs to perform.
• Six Sigma – a popular strategy for process improvement that seeks to improve
process outputs by removing causes of defects and minimizing variability in the
process.
• Slack - the time an activity is idle.
• Strategic processes – business processes that seek to resolve issues that have long
range impact on the organization. These processes have broad scope and impact most
of the firm.
• Technology development processes – includes designing, testing, and developing
technology in support of the primary activities.
• Transaction processing system (TPS) – an information system that supports
operational decision making.

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.

 4 of 14

MIS InClass 6

1. In teams, diagram the Assembly process using BPMN symbols such as roles,
swimlanes, activities, and decisions. Name resources assigned to roles.

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.

 5 of 14

2. Use the ideas in this chapter to improve this Assembly process. Discuss the
objectives of the assembly line. If you were in charge of an assembly line like this
one, do you think your objective would be efficiency or effectiveness? Specify the
measures used to monitor progress toward your objective(s).
Student answers will vary. As this assembly line involves the creation of paper
airplanes, the objective should probably be effectiveness. A quality-made paper
airplane will fly a greater distance than one that was produced in a shorter time, but
with less fold accuracy. One measure would be to calculate the variation in fold
geometry of each completed paper airplane compared to a “master” template paper
airplane. Another measure would be to compare the distance traveled by each
completed paper airplane when tested under controlled conditions.

3. Assume that the WC folding is done by four machines. In that scenario, the
second run uses different software than the first run. Does this new IS improve
an activity, data flow, control, automation, or procedure?
It would improve the control of the amount of WIP in the “pipeline” throughout the
process. It may better control the pace at which each WC transforms inputs into
outputs.

4. Is any data in an information silo on the first or second runs?

In the first run, every WC is in an information silo, particularly regarding the status of
WC later in the process. Each will know if there is WIP in the “inbox,” but the status
of work after their “outbox” is unknown.

5. Which measure changed most significantly from the first to the second run? Did
you anticipate this? Are other processes with other measures just as subject to
change with a similar minor change in information?
Answers will vary, but WIP at the end of the run should be significantly reduced.

6. Were there any controls on the assembly process? Could an IS improve the
process by improving control? On which measure(s) will this improvement
appear?
Assembly controls are in place only as the participants in the process recognize them
and adhere to them. An IS would improve adherence to controls throughout the
process. Improvements should be seen in throughput, ending WIP quantities, and any
measures associated with them.

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.

 6 of 14

Using Your Knowledge

6-1. For each of the following processes, suggest how an IS can improve the
process. Specify if the improvement is due to improving an activity, improving
data flow, improving control, implementing automation, or improving
procedures.
a. the process of selecting a job after college
A job search database could be used to improve the process by improving data
flow.
b. the process of planning and executing a wedding or a funeral
A wedding planning resource like theknot.com could be used to improve the
wedding planning activity (e.g., checklists and timelines).
c. the process of taking photos and uploading the photos to Facebook
A photo sharing IS can be used to improve data flow.
d. the process the pizza shop uses to buy supplies
Enterprise Resource Planning software can be used to improve the supplies
buying activity.

6-2. For each process, specify an IS that supports the process and the first three
steps of the procedure that links that IS to the process.
a. IS: A job search database like one offered by careerbuilder.com or monster.com.
Procedure: Create an account with job search database. Upload resume. Submit
application to hiring firm(s).
b. IS: Wedding planning resource like theknot.com. Procedure: Visit theknot.com.
Join theknot.com. Select tool to utilize.
c. IS: Picasa or iPhoto. Procedure: Upload photos to software. Edit or tag photos.
Share with family or friends.
d. IS: Enterprise Resource Planning software. Procedure: Build Bill of Materials for
each pizza. Build Ingredient Suppliers. Populate current ingredient inventory.

6-3. For each of these processes, suggest how they may be improved by non-IS
means; that is, by management and by process management principles.
a. The process could be improved by having a counselor from Career Services (or
the relevant career placement office on campus) critique the applicant’s resume.
b. The process could be improved by having a close friend or family member who
was recently married assist the planner with preparations.
c. The process could be streamlined by removing Facebook from the equation and
sending the photo directly to the recipient’s smartphone.
d. One way to improve the process is to have a designated purchasing manager
buy the supplies for the pizza shop.

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.

 7 of 14

6-4. When you go to a restaurant, that restaurant must execute several operational
processes. Apply the concepts in this chapter to several of these processes.
These processes might include seating, ordering, cooking, delivering, and
paying.
a. Seating
i. Objective: Balance number of seated tables among available wait staff.
Measure: Average number of tables seated per section. IS: Maitre’D
software.
b. Ordering
i. Objective: Enter accurate orders. Measure: Number of pizzas remade to
meet the customers’ original requirements. IS: POS software that captures
orders before going to the kitchen.
c. Cooking
i. Objective: Prepare order in the shortest possible time. Measure: Total time
in kitchen. IS: Order monitoring software.
d. Delivering
i. Objective: Deliver order in shortest possible time. Measure: Average
delivery time. IS: GPS with real-time traffic updates.
e. Paying
i. Objective: Collect accurate payments from customers. Measure: Balanced
Till. IS: POS software.

6-5. How can your college use IS to make its processes better? Can you think of
ways to use new IS tools like smartphones and social media to make college
processes better? Specify the objective and measure that these IS help
improve. For two of these processes, describe the procedures. Does your
college have information silos? Which departments keep data needed by
processes outside the department?
Colleges can use IS to improve many of its processes. Information Systems can be
used to process tuition refunds, distribute assignment grades, and update academic
records. Social media can be leveraged to notify students about events on campus.
With the majority of students owning accounts, it would be a potential contact point
in addition to phone, email, and snail mail. The objective of social media is to
create additional contact points with the student body. It would be measured by the
number of followers on Twitter, contacts on Facebook, etc. Smartphones could be
used to submit electronic quiz answers. The objective of smartphones would be to
reduce distribution of printed materials. The measure would be the printing costs
borne by academic departments to duplicate quizzes. The procedure for engaging in
social media to notify students of events on campus would be to generate a list of
activities for the coming day or week, craft a promotional message, send the
message to followers, and track the engagement level through retweets, shares, and
likes. The procedure for using smartphones to submit quiz answers includes
developing or purchasing a quiz application, creating a Learning Management
backend for instructors to post questions and deadlines, creating quiz content, and
grading student responses. Information silos will exist on any college campus, no
matter how well the processes between departments are designed and executed.

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.

 8 of 14

Data needed by processes outside of a given department needs to be stored at the

campus level, where all other processes can find the data.

6-6. When you order a meal at McDonald’s, that data is stored in an enterprise IS
to be used by various processes. Make a list of the McDonald’s processes in
which your Happy Meal purchase will appear. You may want to review the
value chain processes discussed in Q2.
Create Order. Reduce raw materials inventory. Complete Sale. Order raw materials.
Compile Historical Sales.

6-7. Apply the process improvement steps to improve studying for this class. Go to
Studyblue.com and create an account. This site, like others, allows students to
share flashcards with other students in the same course at the same school. It
should help improve your studying process. To see how this IS can improve
your studying process, first decide on objectives and KPIs for your studying
process—perhaps one objective is to raise your grade to an A and the KPIs are
scores on tests and quizzes. Then use the flashcards for several chapters while
recording your KPIs. Afterward complete the following questions:

a. Are the objectives of your studying process effectiveness or efficiency

objectives?
Most objectives will be efficiency objectives such as:
• Increase exam and quizzes grades
• Come to class on time
• Turn-in all assignment
• Attend classes

b. What KPIs are appropriate for your studying process? Are these KPIs
reasonable, accurate, and consistent? If not, why not?
• Grades on exams, quizzes, and assignments
• Number of absences from class
• How may minutes late to class
• Number of times being late for class

c. In which of the five ways that IS improve a process is Studyblue improving

your studying process? Explain.
Improve control of activities: Use a digital alarm and reminders for course work;
use a digital calendar, use a PDA to better manage time and course work.

6-8. Assume you are flying to a vacation resort. Create a BPMN diagram of the five
to seven key activities in the process of getting your suitcase to its destination.
Specify objectives and measures for this process.

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.

 9 of 14

Diagram from www.gliffy.com.

The objective is to get a suitcase from point A to point B. The measure is whether
or not the suitcase arrives at point B. No process is perfect, so “percentage of bags
that arrive on time at the correct destination” would be an appropriate metric.

6-9. Create a BPMN diagram for a patient to be admitted to an emergency room as

described in the opening vignette. Assume the patient arrives conscious. The
end of the admission process is the patient in a bed in the ER before seeing a
nurse or doctor.

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.

 10 of 14

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.

 11 of 14

Collaboration Exercise 6

1. The first issue is the number of concession stands. Just considering the standard
level of service, make a list of the advantages and disadvantages of having fewer
and having many stands. Make sure your list addresses the objectives you set for
your standard service process— both efficiency and effectiveness objectives.
Also, specify the KPIs you will use.
Fewer Many
Advantages Fewer people to operate the More sales
stands Shorter waiting lines
Less costs Better service
Easier to manage
Disadvantages Lost sales More costs
Long waiting lines More people to operate the stands
Less customer satisfaction Harder to control and manage
KPIs Number of stands Number of stands
Cost savings Amount of sales
Number of people operating Number of customers
the stands

2. The second issue has to do with how a standard service stand operates. One
option is to receive customers’ orders, dispense items, calculate cost, and make
payment with one employee. A second is to have several employees in several
roles accomplish the activities. A third option is to have the customers serve
themselves (no order or dispense activities) and pay an employee.

What are advantages and disadvantages of each of the three processes?

Advantages Disadvantages
One employee does it Less labor costs Not fast enough
all Better understanding of the Long customer waiting
business times
Better control of operations Less customer satisfaction
Several employees Fast completion of More labor costs
customer orders Less control of operations
Serve more customers Communication among
Fewer and shorter waiting employees may become an
lines issue
More sales Employee management
Only a cashier Less labor costs Less control over
More customers can help operations
themselves More material waste
Less standardization

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.

 12 of 14

3. A third issue is configuration of the stand. One option is the one-station stand—
all activities are done at one spot. In contrast, multiple stations have the
customer ordering and employee dispensing at one stand and then moving to a
checkout location to calculate and pay. Again, advantages and disadvantages?
Answers are similar to part 2 above
Advantages Disadvantages
One-station Less labor costs Not fast enough
Better understanding of the Long customer waiting times
business Less customer satisfaction
Better control of operations
Multiple- Fast completion of customer More labor costs
stations orders Less control of operations
Serve more customers Communication among
Shorter waiting lines employees may become an
More sales issue
Employee management

4. Finally, how should a process work that serves the high-end customers? Again,
start with objectives and KPIs. These customers have a longer-term financial
connection to the university that presents new options for the calculate and pay
options. Specifically, the university already has a debit or credit card account
with these customers. Nominate three options you will present to the university
for this group; at least one must involve using new technology. Think outside the
box and make this group different.
Serving high-end customers
Objectives Increase customer satisfaction
Provide high quality service
Provide a quick service
Allow payment with university debit/credit card
KPIs Increase number of high-end customers
Have no waiting lines
Process takes less time
Keep stand clean
Increase donations to the university

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.

 13 of 14

Case Study 6

Where Are Ü Now, Justin Bieber?

6-10. Draw a simple EDM music creation process with five to eight activities.
The EDM music creation process is the process of creating electronic dance
music.
• Pick the songs and recordings
• Iterate composition and recordings
• Mix, alter, and recombine recordings
• Evaluate the EDM by marketers and producers
• Alter the recordings again (if necessary)
• Release the EDM

6-11. Figure 6-15 lists several ways that process management principles can
improve processes. Can any of these principles be used to improve this
process of creating music?
Improvement Category Examples in EDM
Improve activity Improve recording activity
Remove unproductive Remove unnecessary songs or beats
resources
Improve feedback Create an EDM prototype
Remove bottleneck Add more recording systems/equipment
Redesign the structure Add specialized artists
Outsource activity Outsource recording to professional studios
or producers

6-12. Is music creation a structured or dynamic process? Why? How is IS to be

used for that type of process (see Chapter 2)?
It is mostly a structured process in that the sequence of activities involved in the
EDM process is mostly standard.

The selection of songs and mixing of the sounds may be a dynamic process
because it requires a lot of creativity, experience, and artistic innovation.

6-13. What are the objectives and KPIs of the EDM music creation process?
Objectives Produce high quality EDM
Increase success of EDM
Enhance the popularity of EDM
KPIs Rank in Billboard’s Hot 100
Place in the top 10 songs of the year
Reviews of music critics
Demand for the EDM
Sales of the EDM

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.

 14 of 14

6-14. IS can improve a process in five ways. How can each of those five ways be
used to improve the music creation process for EDM?
Improve an Activity IS can improve the mix and manipulation activities of
EDM
Improve Data Flow IS can improve data flow among EDM producers,
Among Activities marketers, and distributors
Improve Control of IS can control the activities of mixing, manipulation,
Activities and altering of recordings in EDM
Use Automation IS can make recommendations on best mixes and
combinations of recordings
Improve Procedures IS can improve the recording procedure

6-15. How can each of the five ways be used to improve the music performance
process for EDM?
This question can be answered with the answers to 6-12 or 6-14.

6-16. Chapter 1, four employability skills were discussed. Which of these skills are
being used by Skrillex and Duplo? Explain your answer.
Collaboration Develop ideas and plans with others
Provide and receive critical feedback between them and
from others
Experimentation Create and test various mixes of EDM
Create and test different sequences of combinations and
sequences of recordings

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.