Chapter 4 – Product and Service Design

Learning Objectives:
After completing this chapter, you should be able to:
1. Explain the importance of product and service design.
2. List some key reasons for new or revised designs.
3. Name some sources of ideas for new or revised designs.
4. Discuss key issues in product and service design.
5. Explain the difference between recycling and remanufacturing.
6. Name the advantages and disadvantages of standardization in product
and service design.

What Does Product and Service Design Do?

A range of activities fall under the heading of product and service design.
The activities and responsibilities of product and service design include the
following (functional interactions are shown in parenthesis):
1. Translate customer wants and needs into product and service
requirements. (Marketing)
2. Refine existing products and services. (Marketing)
3. Develop new products and/or services. (Marketing, operations)
4. Formulate quality goals. (quality assurance, operations)
5. Formulate cost target. (accounting)
6. Construct and test prototypes. (marketing, operations)
7. Document specifications.

Objectives of Product and Service Design

The objectives of product design and service design differ somewhat, but
not as much as you might imagine. The overall objective for both is to
satisfy the customer while making a reasonable profit.
Quality, of course, is typically high on the list of priorities in product and
service design.
Lastly, but certainly not the least, it is crucial for designers to take into
account the capabilities of the organization to produce or deliver a given
product or service. This is sometime referred to as design for operations.

Life Cycles

Many new products and services go through a life cycle in terms of

demand. When an item is introduced, it may be treated as a curiosity.
Demand is generally low because potential buyers are not yet familiar with
the item. Many potential buyers recognize that all of the bugs have
probably not been worked out and that the price may drop after the
introductory period. Production methods are designed for low volume. With
the passage of time, design improvements usually create a more reliable
and less costly product. Demand then grows for these reasons and
because of increasing awareness of the product or service. Higher
production volume will involve different methods and contribute to lower
costs. At the next stage in the life cycle, the product or service reaches
maturity: there are few, if any, design changes, and demand levels off.
Eventually, the market becomes saturated, which leads to a decline in
demand. In the last stage of a life cycle, some firms adopt a defensive
research posture whereby they attempt to prolong the useful life of a
product or service by improving its reliability, reducing costs of producing it,
redesigning it, or changing the packaging.

Standardization
- refers to the extent to which there is absence of variety in a product,
service, or process. Standardized products are made in large quantities of
identical items; calculators, computers, and 2 percent milk are examples.

Recycling vs. Remanufacturing

Recycling – recovering materials for future use.
Remanufacturing – refurbishing used products by replacing wornout or
defective components
LESSON 5
Chapter 5 – Capacity Planning
Learning Objectives:
After completing this chapter, you should be able to:
1. Explain the importance of capacity planning.
2. Discuss ways of defining and measuring capacity.
3. Discuss the major considerations related to developing capacity
alternatives.
4. Describe the factors that determine effective capacity alternatives.
5. Explain the importance of capacity planning.
6. Discuss ways of defining and measuring capacity.

Capacity
- The upper limit or ceiling on the load that an operating unit can
handle.
- The operating unit might be a plant, department, machine, store or
worker.
It enables managers to quantify production capability in terms of inputs or
outputs, and hereby make other decision or plans related to those
quantities. It’s the maximum amount of units that your factory can produce.
The goal is to achieve a match between the long-term supply capabilities of
an organization and the predicted level of long-run demands.

Guide Questions:
1. What kind of capacity is needed?
2. How much capacity is needed to match demand?
3. When is it needed?
Kind of capacity is needed depends on the products and services that
management intends to produce or provide. Discuss the perfect point
where you have enough capacity to match the exact amount of demand.
And management must review product and service choices periodically to
ensure that company makes capacity changes when they are needed for
cost, competitive effectiveness.
The Importance of Capacity Decisions
1. Capacity decisions have a real impact on the ability of the organization to
meet future demands for products and services; capacity essentially limits
the rate of output possible.
2. Capacity decisions affect operating costs. Ideally, capacity and demand
requirements will be matched, which will tend to minimize operating costs.
3. Capacity is usually a major determinant of initial cost. The greater the
capacity of a productive unit, the greater its cost.
4. Capacity decisions often involve long-term commitment of resources and
the fact that, once they are implemented, it may be difficult or impossible to
modify those decisions without incurring major cost.
5. Capacity decisions can affect competitiveness. If a firm has excess
capacity, or can quickly add capacity, that fact may serve as a barrier to
entry by other firms.
6. Capacity affects the ease of management; having appropriate capacity
makes management easier that when capacity is mismatched.

Defining and Measuring Capacity

Capacity often refers to an upper limit on the rate of output. The subtle
difficulties in actually measuring capacity in certain cases. These difficulties
arise because of different interpretations of the term capacity and problems
with identifying suitable measures for a specific situation.
The preferred alternative use to measure of capacity refers to availability of
inputs. Thus, a hospital has a certain number of beds, a factory has a
certain number of machine hours available, and a bus has a certain
number of seats and a certain amount of standing room.
In selecting a measure of capacity, it is important to choose one that does
not require updating. Example, dollar. The amounts are often a poor
measure of capacity because price changes necessitate updating of that
measure.
Business Inputs Outputs
Number tables, seating Number of meals
Restaurant
capacity served per day
Number of tickets sold
Theater Number of seats
per performance

Two useful definitions of capacity:

Design Capacity
- The maximum output that can possibly be attained
- Output rate or service capacity and operation, process, of facility is
designed for.
Effective Capacity
 Design capacity minus allowances such as personal time
 The maximum possible output given a product mix, scheduling
difficulties, machine maintenance, quality factors, and so on.
These different measures of capacity are useful in defining two measures
of effectiveness: efficiency and utilization. Efficiency is the ratio of actual
output to effective capacity. Utilization is the ratio of actual output to design
capacity.

Efficiency = 𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝐸𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦

Utilization = 𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦
Actual Output - The rate of output actually achieved; It cannot exceed
effective capacity

Example:

The efficiency and the utilization of the vehicle repair department.

Design capacity = 50 trucks per day
Effective capacity = 40 trucks per day
Actual output = 36 trucks per day

Solution:
Efficiency = 𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝐸𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 = 36 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑘𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑎𝑦 40
𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑘𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑎𝑦 = 90%
Utilization = 𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 = 36 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑘𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑎𝑦50 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑘𝑠
𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑎𝑦 = 72%

Hence, increasing utilization depends on being to increase effective

capacity, and this requires a knowledge of what is constraining effective
capacity.
Determinants of Effective Capacity
Many decisions about system design have an impact on capacity. The
same is true for many operating decisions. This section briefly describes
some of these factors.

Facilities Factors
The design of facilities, including size and provision for expansion, is key.
Locational factors, such as transportation costs, distance to market, labor
supply, energy sources, and room for expansion, are also important.

Product / Service Factors

Product or service design can have a tremendous influence on capacity.
For example, when items are similar, the ability of the system to produce
those items is generally much greater than when successive items differ.

Process Factors
The quantity capability of a process is an obvious determinant of capacity.
A subtler determinant is the influence of output quality.

Human Factors
The tasks that make up a job, the variety of activities involved, and the
training, skill, and experience required to perform a job well have an impact
on the potential and actual output. Employee motivation has a very basic
relationship to capacity, as do absenteeism and labor turnover.

Operational Factors
Inventory shortages of even one component of an assembled item can
cause a temporary halt to assembly operations until new components
become available. This can have a major impact on effective capacity.
Thus, insufficient capacity in one area can affect overall capacity.

External Factors
Product standards, especially minimum quality and performance standards,
can restrict management’s options for increasing and using capacity. Thus,
pollution standards on products and equipment often reduce effective
capacity, as does paperwork required by government regulatory agencies
by engaging employees in nonproductive activities.
Determinants of Effective Capacity
Capacity planning decisions involve both long-term and short-term
considerations.
- Long-term considerations relate to overall level of capacity, such as
facility size
- Short-term considerations relate to probable variations in capacity
requirements created by such things as seasonal, random, and irregular
fluctuations in demand.
We determine long-term capacity needs by forecasting demand over a time
horizon and then converting those forecasts into capacity requirements.
Short-term capacity needs are less concerned with cycles or trends that
with seasonal variations and other variations from average. These
deviations are particularly important because they can place a severe strain
on a system’s ability to satisfy demand at some times and yet result in idle
capacity at other times.
When time intervals are too short to have seasonal variations in demand,
the analysis can often describe the variations by probability distributions
such as a normal, uniform, or Poisson distribution. Service systems in
particular may experience a considerable amount of variability in capacity
requirements unless requests for service can be scheduled.
The link between marketing and operating is crucial to realistic
determination of capacity requirements. Through customer contracts,
demographic analyses, and forecasts, marketing can supply vital
information to operations for ascertaining capacity needs for both the long-
term and short-term.

Developing Capacity Alternatives

Aside from the general considerations about the development of
alternatives, there are other things that can be done to enhance capacity
management:

1. Design flexibility into systems

The long-term nature of many capacity decisions and the risks inherent in
long-term forecasts suggest potential benefits from designing flexible
systems. Other considerations in flexible design involve layout of
equipment, location, equipment selection, production planning, scheduling,
and inventory policies.
2. Differentiate between new and mature products or services
Mature products or services tend to be more predictable in terms of
capacity requirements, and they may have limited life spans. The
predictable demand pattern means less risk of choosing an incorrect
capacity, but the possible limited life span of the product or service may
necessitate finding an alternative use for the additional capacity at the end
of the life span.
3. Take a “big picture” approach to capacity changes
When developing capacity alternatives, it is important to consider how parts
of the system interrelate. For example, when making a decision to increase
the number of rooms in a hotel, one should also take into account probable
increased demands for parking, entertainment and food, and
housekeeping. This is a “big picture” approach.
4. Prepare to deal with capacity “chunks”
Capacity increases are often acquired in fairly large chunks rather than
smooth increments, making it difficult to achieve a match between desired
capacity and feasible capacity.
5. Attempt to smooth out capacity requirements
Unevenness in capacity requirements also can create certain problems.
For instance, during periods of inclement weather, public transportation
ridership tends to increase substantially relative to periods of pleasant
weather. Consequently, the system tends to alternate between
underutilization and overutilization. Increasing the number of buses or
subway cars will reduce the burden during periods of heavy demand, but
this will aggravate the problem of overcapacity at other times and certainly
add to the cost of operating the system.
Variability in demand can pose a problem for managers. Simply adding
capacity by increasing the size of the operation is not always the best
approach, because that reduces flexibility and adds to fixed costs.
Consequently, managers often choose to respond to higher than normal
demand in other ways. One way is through the use of overtime work.
Another way is to subcontract some of the work.
6. Identify the optimal operating level
Production units typically have an ideal or optimal level of operation in
terms of unit cost of output. At the ideal level, cost per unit is the lowest for
that production unit; larger or smaller rates of output will result in a higher
unit cost.
In choosing the capacity of an operating unit, management must take these
relationships into account along with the availability of financial and other
resources and forecasts of expected demand. To do this, it is necessary to
determine enough points for each size facility to be able to make a
comparison among different sizes.

Planning Service Capacity

The very important factors in planning service capacity are:
1. The need to be near customers.
2. The inability to store services, and
3. The degree of volatility of demand.
Convenience for customers is often an important aspect of service.
Generally, a service must be located near customers. For example, hotel
rooms must be where customers want to stay; having a vacant room in
another city won’t help. Thus, capacity and location are closely tied.
Capacity must also be matched with the timing of demand. Unlikely goods,
services can bot be produced in one period and stored for use in a later
period.
Demand volatility presents problems for capacity planners. Demand
volatility tends to be higher for services that for good, not only in timing of
demand, but also in the time required to service individual customers.
Demand management is a strategy that can be used to offset capacity
limitations. Pricing, promotions, discounts, and similar tactics can help to
shift some demand away from peak periods and into slow periods, allowing
organization to achieve a closet match in supply and demand.

Evaluating Alternatives
An organization needs to examine alternatives for future capacity from a
number of different perspectives. Most obvious are economic
considerations: will an alternative be economically feasible? How much will
it cost? How soon can we have it? What will operating and maintenance
costs be? What will its useful life be? Will it be compatible with present
personnel and present operations?
A number of techniques are useful for evaluating capacity alternatives from
an economic standpoint. Some of the more common are cost-volume
analysis, financial analysis, decision theory, and waiting-line analysis.
Calculating Processing Requirements
When evaluating capacity alternatives, a necessary piece of information is
the capacity requirements of products that will be processed with a given
alternative. To get this information, one must have reasonably accurate
demand forecasts for each product, and know the standard processing time
per unit for each product on each alternative machine, the number of
workdays per year, and the number of shifts that will be used.

Example:
A department works one eight-hour shift, 250 days a year and has these
figures for usage of a machine that is currently being considered:
Standard Processing
Annual
Product Processing Time Time Needed
Demand
per Unit (Hr) (Hr)
#1 400 5.0 2,000
#2 300 8.0 2,400
#3 700 2.0 1,400
5,800

Working one eight-hour shift, 250 days a year provides an annual capacity
of 8 x 250 = 2,000 hours per year. We can see that three of these
machines would be needed to handle the required volume:

5,800 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠
= 2.90 Machines
2.000 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟/𝑚𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑒

Cost-Volume Analysis
Cost-volume analysis focuses on relationship between cost, revenue, and
volume of output. The purpose of cost-volume analysis is to estimate the
income of an organization under different operating conditions. It is
particularly useful as a tool comparing capacity alternatives.
Use of the technique requires identification of all costs related to the
production of a given product. These costs are then designated as fixed
cost or variable costs.

Fixed costs – tend to remain constant regardless of volume of output.

Examples include rental costs, property taxes, equipment costs, heating
and cooling expenses, and certain administrative costs.

Variable costs – vary directly with volume of output. The major components
of variable costs are generally materials and labor costs.

The total cost associated with a given volume of output is equal to the sum
of the fixed cost and the variable cost per unit times volume:

Break-even Point (BEP) – The volume at which total cost and total revenue
are equal.

Rearranging terms, we have

P = Q (R – v) – FC

The required volume, Q, needed to generate a specified profit is:

Q = 𝑃+𝐹𝐶
𝑅−𝑣

A special case of this is the volume of output needed for total revenue to
equal total cost. This is the break-even point, computed using the formula:

QBEP = 𝐹𝐶
𝑅−𝑣

Capacity alternatives may involve step costs, which are costs that increase
stepwise as potential volume increases.

Cost-volume analysis can be a valuable tool for comparing capacity

alternatives If certain assumptions are satisfied:
1. One product is involved.
2. Everything produced can be sold.
3. The variable cost per unit is the same regardless of the volume.
4. Fixed costs do not change with volume changes, or they are step
changes.
5. The revenue per unit is the same regardless of volume.
6. Revenue per unit exceeds variable cost per unit.
As with any quantitative tool, it is important to verify that the assumptions
on which the technique is based are reasonably satisfied for a particular
situation.

Cost-volume analysis works best with one product or a few products that
have the same cost characteristics.

Financial Analysis
A problem that is universally encountered by managers is how to allocate
scare funds, a common approach is to use financial analysis to rank
investment proposals.

Two important terms in financial analysis are:

1. Cash flow – refers to the difference between the cash received from
sales (of goods or services) and other sources (e.g., sale of old equipment)
and the cash outflow for labor, materials, overhead, and taxes.

2. Present value – expresses in current value the sum of all future cash
flows of an investment proposal.

The three most commonly used methods of financial analysis:

Payback – is a crude but widely used method that focuses on the length of
time it will take for an investment to return its original cost. Payback ignores
the time value of money. Its use is easier to rationalize for short-term than
for long-term projects.

The present value (PV) – method summarizes the initial cost of an

investment, its estimated annual cash flows, and any expected salvage
value in a single value called the equivalent current value, taking into
account the time value of money.

The internal rate of return (IRR) – summarizes the initial cost, expected
annual cash flows, and estimated future salvage value of an investment
proposal in an equivalent interest rate/ in other words, this method identifies
the rate of return that equates the estimated future returns and the initial
cost.

Decision Theory

Decision theory is a helpful tool for financial comparison of alternatives

under conditions of risk or uncertainty. It is suited to capacity decisions and
to a wide range of other decisions manager must make. Decision theory is
described in the supplement to this chapter.

Waiting-line Analysis

Analysis of lines is often useful for designing service systems. Waiting lines
have a tendency to form in a wide variety of service system. The lines are
symptoms of bottleneck operations. Analysis is useful in helping managers
choose capacity level that will be cost-effective through balancing the cost
of having customer wait with the cost of providing additional capacity.
LESSON 5
Chapter 5 – Capacity Planning
Learning Objectives:
After completing this chapter, you should be able to:
1. Explain the importance of capacity planning.
2. Discuss ways of defining and measuring capacity.
3. Discuss the major considerations related to developing capacity
alternatives.
4. Describe the factors that determine effective capacity alternatives.
5. Explain the importance of capacity planning.
6. Discuss ways of defining and measuring capacity.

Capacity
- The upper limit or ceiling on the load that an operating unit can
handle.
- The operating unit might be a plant, department, machine, store or
worker.
It enables managers to quantify production capability in terms of inputs or
outputs, and hereby make other decision or plans related to those
quantities. It’s the maximum amount of units that your factory can produce.
The goal is to achieve a match between the long-term supply capabilities of
an organization and the predicted level of long-run demands.

Guide Questions:
1. What kind of capacity is needed?
2. How much capacity is needed to match demand?
3. When is it needed?
Kind of capacity is needed depends on the products and services that
management intends to produce or provide. Discuss the perfect point
where you have enough capacity to match the exact amount of demand.
And management must review product and service choices periodically to
ensure that company makes capacity changes when they are needed for
cost, competitive effectiveness.
The Importance of Capacity Decisions
1. Capacity decisions have a real impact on the ability of the organization to
meet future demands for products and services; capacity essentially limits
the rate of output possible.
2. Capacity decisions affect operating costs. Ideally, capacity and demand
requirements will be matched, which will tend to minimize operating costs.
3. Capacity is usually a major determinant of initial cost. The greater the
capacity of a productive unit, the greater its cost.
4. Capacity decisions often involve long-term commitment of resources and
the fact that, once they are implemented, it may be difficult or impossible to
modify those decisions without incurring major cost.
5. Capacity decisions can affect competitiveness. If a firm has excess
capacity, or can quickly add capacity, that fact may serve as a barrier to
entry by other firms.
6. Capacity affects the ease of management; having appropriate capacity
makes management easier that when capacity is mismatched.

Defining and Measuring Capacity

Capacity often refers to an upper limit on the rate of output. The subtle
difficulties in actually measuring capacity in certain cases. These difficulties
arise because of different interpretations of the term capacity and problems
with identifying suitable measures for a specific situation.
The preferred alternative use to measure of capacity refers to availability of
inputs. Thus, a hospital has a certain number of beds, a factory has a
certain number of machine hours available, and a bus has a certain
number of seats and a certain amount of standing room.
In selecting a measure of capacity, it is important to choose one that does
not require updating. Example, dollar. The amounts are often a poor
measure of capacity because price changes necessitate updating of that
measure.
Business Inputs Outputs
Number tables, seating Number of meals
Restaurant
capacity served per day
Number of tickets sold
Theater Number of seats
per performance

Two useful definitions of capacity:

Design Capacity
- The maximum output that can possibly be attained
- Output rate or service capacity and operation, process, of facility is
designed for.
Effective Capacity
 Design capacity minus allowances such as personal time
 The maximum possible output given a product mix, scheduling
difficulties, machine maintenance, quality factors, and so on.
These different measures of capacity are useful in defining two measures
of effectiveness: efficiency and utilization. Efficiency is the ratio of actual
output to effective capacity. Utilization is the ratio of actual output to design
capacity.

Efficiency = 𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝐸𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦

Utilization = 𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦
Actual Output - The rate of output actually achieved; It cannot exceed
effective capacity

Example:

The efficiency and the utilization of the vehicle repair department.

Design capacity = 50 trucks per day
Effective capacity = 40 trucks per day
Actual output = 36 trucks per day

Solution:
Efficiency = 𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝐸𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 = 36 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑘𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑎𝑦 40
𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑘𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑎𝑦 = 90%
Utilization = 𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 = 36 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑘𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑎𝑦50 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑘𝑠
𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑎𝑦 = 72%

Hence, increasing utilization depends on being to increase effective

capacity, and this requires a knowledge of what is constraining effective
capacity.
Determinants of Effective Capacity
Many decisions about system design have an impact on capacity. The
same is true for many operating decisions. This section briefly describes
some of these factors.

Facilities Factors
The design of facilities, including size and provision for expansion, is key.
Locational factors, such as transportation costs, distance to market, labor
supply, energy sources, and room for expansion, are also important.

Product / Service Factors

Product or service design can have a tremendous influence on capacity.
For example, when items are similar, the ability of the system to produce
those items is generally much greater than when successive items differ.

Process Factors
The quantity capability of a process is an obvious determinant of capacity.
A subtler determinant is the influence of output quality.

Human Factors
The tasks that make up a job, the variety of activities involved, and the
training, skill, and experience required to perform a job well have an impact
on the potential and actual output. Employee motivation has a very basic
relationship to capacity, as do absenteeism and labor turnover.

Operational Factors
Inventory shortages of even one component of an assembled item can
cause a temporary halt to assembly operations until new components
become available. This can have a major impact on effective capacity.
Thus, insufficient capacity in one area can affect overall capacity.

External Factors
Product standards, especially minimum quality and performance standards,
can restrict management’s options for increasing and using capacity. Thus,
pollution standards on products and equipment often reduce effective
capacity, as does paperwork required by government regulatory agencies
by engaging employees in nonproductive activities.
Determinants of Effective Capacity
Capacity planning decisions involve both long-term and short-term
considerations.
- Long-term considerations relate to overall level of capacity, such as
facility size
- Short-term considerations relate to probable variations in capacity
requirements created by such things as seasonal, random, and irregular
fluctuations in demand.

We determine long-term capacity needs by forecasting demand over a time

horizon and then converting those forecasts into capacity requirements.
Short-term capacity needs are less concerned with cycles or trends that
with seasonal variations and other variations from average. These
deviations are particularly important because they can place a severe strain
on a system’s ability to satisfy demand at some times and yet result in idle
capacity at other times.
When time intervals are too short to have seasonal variations in demand,
the analysis can often describe the variations by probability distributions
such as a normal, uniform, or Poisson distribution. Service systems in
particular may experience a considerable amount of variability in capacity
requirements unless requests for service can be scheduled.
The link between marketing and operating is crucial to realistic
determination of capacity requirements. Through customer contracts,
demographic analyses, and forecasts, marketing can supply vital
information to operations for ascertaining capacity needs for both the long-
term and short-term.

Developing Capacity Alternatives

Aside from the general considerations about the development of
alternatives, there are other things that can be done to enhance capacity
management:

1. Design flexibility into systems

The long-term nature of many capacity decisions and the risks inherent in
long-term forecasts suggest potential benefits from designing flexible
systems. Other considerations in flexible design involve layout of
equipment, location, equipment selection, production planning, scheduling,
and inventory policies.
2. Differentiate between new and mature products or services
Mature products or services tend to be more predictable in terms of
capacity requirements, and they may have limited life spans. The
predictable demand pattern means less risk of choosing an incorrect
capacity, but the possible limited life span of the product or service may
necessitate finding an alternative use for the additional capacity at the end
of the life span.
3. Take a “big picture” approach to capacity changes
When developing capacity alternatives, it is important to consider how parts
of the system interrelate. For example, when making a decision to increase
the number of rooms in a hotel, one should also take into account probable
increased demands for parking, entertainment and food, and
housekeeping. This is a “big picture” approach.
4. Prepare to deal with capacity “chunks”
Capacity increases are often acquired in fairly large chunks rather than
smooth increments, making it difficult to achieve a match between desired
capacity and feasible capacity.
5. Attempt to smooth out capacity requirements
Unevenness in capacity requirements also can create certain problems.
For instance, during periods of inclement weather, public transportation
ridership tends to increase substantially relative to periods of pleasant
weather. Consequently, the system tends to alternate between
underutilization and overutilization. Increasing the number of buses or
subway cars will reduce the burden during periods of heavy demand, but
this will aggravate the problem of overcapacity at other times and certainly
add to the cost of operating the system.
Variability in demand can pose a problem for managers. Simply adding
capacity by increasing the size of the operation is not always the best
approach, because that reduces flexibility and adds to fixed costs.
Consequently, managers often choose to respond to higher than normal
demand in other ways. One way is through the use of overtime work.
Another way is to subcontract some of the work.
6. Identify the optimal operating level
Production units typically have an ideal or optimal level of operation in
terms of unit cost of output. At the ideal level, cost per unit is the lowest for
that production unit; larger or smaller rates of output will result in a higher
unit cost.
In choosing the capacity of an operating unit, management must take these
relationships into account along with the availability of financial and other
resources and forecasts of expected demand. To do this, it is necessary to
determine enough points for each size facility to be able to make a
comparison among different sizes.

Planning Service Capacity

The very important factors in planning service capacity are:
1. The need to be near customers.
2. The inability to store services, and
3. The degree of volatility of demand.
Convenience for customers is often an important aspect of service.
Generally, a service must be located near customers. For example, hotel
rooms must be where customers want to stay; having a vacant room in
another city won’t help. Thus, capacity and location are closely tied.
Capacity must also be matched with the timing of demand. Unlikely goods,
services can bot be produced in one period and stored for use in a later
period.
Demand volatility presents problems for capacity planners. Demand
volatility tends to be higher for services that for good, not only in timing of
demand, but also in the time required to service individual customers.
Demand management is a strategy that can be used to offset capacity
limitations. Pricing, promotions, discounts, and similar tactics can help to
shift some demand away from peak periods and into slow periods, allowing
organization to achieve a closet match in supply and demand.

Evaluating Alternatives
An organization needs to examine alternatives for future capacity from a
number of different perspectives. Most obvious are economic
considerations: will an alternative be economically feasible? How much will
it cost? How soon can we have it? What will operating and maintenance
costs be? What will its useful life be? Will it be compatible with present
personnel and present operations?
A number of techniques are useful for evaluating capacity alternatives from
an economic standpoint. Some of the more common are cost-volume
analysis, financial analysis, decision theory, and waiting-line analysis.
Calculating Processing Requirements
When evaluating capacity alternatives, a necessary piece of information is
the capacity requirements of products that will be processed with a given
alternative. To get this information, one must have reasonably accurate
demand forecasts for each product, and know the standard processing time
per unit for each product on each alternative machine, the number of
workdays per year, and the number of shifts that will be used.

Example:
A department works one eight-hour shift, 250 days a year and has these
figures for usage of a machine that is currently being considered:
Standard Processing
Annual
Product Processing Time Time Needed
Demand
per Unit (Hr) (Hr)
#1 400 5.0 2,000
#2 300 8.0 2,400
#3 700 2.0 1,400
5,800

Working one eight-hour shift, 250 days a year provides an annual capacity
of 8 x 250 = 2,000 hours per year. We can see that three of these
machines would be needed to handle the required volume:

5,800 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠
= 2.90 Machines
2.000 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟/𝑚𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑒

Cost-Volume Analysis
Cost-volume analysis focuses on relationship between cost, revenue, and
volume of output. The purpose of cost-volume analysis is to estimate the
income of an organization under different operating conditions. It is
particularly useful as a tool comparing capacity alternatives.
Use of the technique requires identification of all costs related to the
production of a given product. These costs are then designated as fixed
cost or variable costs.

Fixed costs – tend to remain constant regardless of volume of output.

Examples include rental costs, property taxes, equipment costs, heating
and cooling expenses, and certain administrative costs.

Variable costs – vary directly with volume of output. The major components
of variable costs are generally materials and labor costs.

The total cost associated with a given volume of output is equal to the sum
of the fixed cost and the variable cost per unit times volume:

Break-even Point (BEP) – The volume at which total cost and total revenue
are equal.

Rearranging terms, we have

P = Q (R – v) – FC

The required volume, Q, needed to generate a specified profit is:

Q = 𝑃+𝐹𝐶
𝑅−𝑣

A special case of this is the volume of output needed for total revenue to
equal total cost. This is the break-even point, computed using the formula:

QBEP = 𝐹𝐶
𝑅−𝑣

Capacity alternatives may involve step costs, which are costs that increase
stepwise as potential volume increases.

Cost-volume analysis can be a valuable tool for comparing capacity

alternatives If certain assumptions are satisfied:
1. One product is involved.
2. Everything produced can be sold.
3. The variable cost per unit is the same regardless of the volume.
4. Fixed costs do not change with volume changes, or they are step
changes.
5. The revenue per unit is the same regardless of volume.
6. Revenue per unit exceeds variable cost per unit.
As with any quantitative tool, it is important to verify that the assumptions
on which the technique is based are reasonably satisfied for a particular
situation.

Cost-volume analysis works best with one product or a few products that
have the same cost characteristics.

Financial Analysis
A problem that is universally encountered by managers is how to allocate
scare funds, a common approach is to use financial analysis to rank
investment proposals.

Two important terms in financial analysis are:

1. Cash flow – refers to the difference between the cash received from
sales (of goods or services) and other sources (e.g., sale of old equipment)
and the cash outflow for labor, materials, overhead, and taxes.

2. Present value – expresses in current value the sum of all future cash
flows of an investment proposal.

The three most commonly used methods of financial analysis:

Payback – is a crude but widely used method that focuses on the length of
time it will take for an investment to return its original cost. Payback ignores
the time value of money. Its use is easier to rationalize for short-term than
for long-term projects.

The present value (PV) – method summarizes the initial cost of an

investment, its estimated annual cash flows, and any expected salvage
value in a single value called the equivalent current value, taking into
account the time value of money.

The internal rate of return (IRR) – summarizes the initial cost, expected
annual cash flows, and estimated future salvage value of an investment
proposal in an equivalent interest rate/ in other words, this method identifies
the rate of return that equates the estimated future returns and the initial
cost.

Decision Theory

Decision theory is a helpful tool for financial comparison of alternatives

under conditions of risk or uncertainty. It is suited to capacity decisions and
to a wide range of other decisions manager must make. Decision theory is
described in the supplement to this chapter.

Waiting-line Analysis

Analysis of lines is often useful for designing service systems. Waiting lines
have a tendency to form in a wide variety of service system. The lines are
symptoms of bottleneck operations. Analysis is useful in helping managers
choose capacity level that will be cost-effective through balancing the cost
of having customer wait with the cost of providing additional capacity.
Chapter 6 – Process Selection and Facility Layout
Learning Objectives:
After completing this chapter, you should be able to:
1. Explain the strategic importance of process selection.
2. Describe the basic processing types.
3. Discuss automated approaches to processing.
4. Describe the basic layout types.

Process Selection
 Processes convert inputs into outputs. Process selection refers to
deciding on the way production of goods or services will be
organized. It affects the entire organization and its ability to achieve
its mission and effective supply chain system

Key aspects help in process selection are:

1. Capital Intensity – The mix of equipment and labor that will be used by
the organization.
2. Process Flexibility – The degree to which the system can be adjusted to
changes in processing requirements due to such factors as changes in
product or service design, changes in volume processed and changes in
technology.

Guide Questions:

a. How much variety in products or services will the system need to

handle?
b. What degree of equipment flexibility will be needed?
c. What is the expected volume of output?

Technology - refers to applications of scientific discoveries to the

development and improvement of goods and services and/or the processes
that produce or provide them.

Three kinds of technology:

1. Product and service technology - is the discovery and development of
new products and services.
2. Process technology - includes methods, procedures, and equipment
used to produce goods and provide services.
3. Information technology (IT) - is the science and use of computers and
other electronic equipment to store, process, and send information.

Process Types:

Job Shop
A job shop usually operates on a relatively small scale. It is used when a
low volume of high variety goods or service will be needed. Here
processing is intermittent – work includes small jobs, each with different
processing requirements. High flexibility using general purpose equipment
and skilled workers are important characteristics of a job shop Organization
producing state of the art tools Hospital medical service.

Batch
Batch processing is used when a moderate volume of goods or services is
desired. Also it can handle a moderate variety in products or service. The
equipment need not be as flexible as in a job shop but processing is still
intermittent. The skill level of workers does not need to be as high as in a
job shop because there is less variety in the jobs Bakeries which make
bread, cakes, cookies in batches Plane carrying batches of people from
airport to airport Class room lecture, Concerts, Television programs.
Repetitive
When higher volumes of more standardized goods or services are needed,
repetitive processing is used. Standardized output means only slight
flexibility of equipment is needed. The requirement of skilled workers is
generally low manufacturing plants producing pencils, television sets etc.
Automatic carwash, cafeteria lines etc.

Continuous Flow
When a very high volume of non-discrete, highly standardized output is
desired, a continuous system is used. These systems have almost no
variety in output and hence no need for equipment flexibility. Highly
specialized equipment can turn down the requirement of expert worker
Factory producing sugar, flour, steel, salt Internet service.

Project
A non-repetitive set of activities directed toward a unique goal within limited
time frame. A project is used for work that is non-routine, with a unique set
of objectives to be accomplished in a limited time frame. Equipment
flexibility and worker skill can range from low to high Building a dam,
making a motion picture, Launching a new product or service.

Product and Service Profiling

Product or service profiling can be used to avoid any inconsistencies by
identifying key product or service dimensions and then selecting
appropriate processes. Key dimensions often relate to the range of
products or services that will be processed, expected order sizes, pricing
strategies, expected frequency of schedule changes, and order-winning
requirements.

Automation
Automation is machinery that has sensing and control devices that enable it
to operate automatically ◦ Automation can range from factories that are
completely automated to a single automated operation. Nowadays service
is also enjoying automation. For example, Bank ATM system. Automation
offers a number of advantages over human labor.

It has low variability whereas it is difficult for a human to perform a task in

exactly the same way, in the same amount of time. Machines do not get
bored or distracted, nor they go out on strike, ask for higher wages or for
labor grievances

Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM)

- refers to the use of computers in process control, ranging from robots to
automated quality control.
Numerically controlled (N/C)
- machines are programmed to follow a set of processing instructions
based on mathematical relationships that tell the machine the details of the
operations to be performed.
Individual machines may have their own computer; this is referred to as
computerized numerical control (CNC). Or one computer may control a
number of N/C machines, which is referred to as direct numerical control
(DNC)
Facilities Layout
Layout refers to the configuration of departments, work centers, and
equipment, with particular emphasis on movement of work (customers or
materials) through the system.

Layout decisions are important for three basic reasons:

1. Require substantial investments of money and effort;
2. Involve long-term commitments, which makes mistakes difficult to
overcome; and
3. Have a significant impact on the cost and efficiency of operations.

The basic objective of layout design is to facilitate a smooth flow of work,

material, and information through the system. Supporting objectives
generally involve the following:
 To facilitate attainment of product or service quality.
 To use workers and space efficiently.
  To avoid bottlenecks.
 To minimize material handling costs.
 To eliminate unnecessary movements of workers or materials.
 To minimize production time or customer service time.
 To design for safety.
 Product layouts are most conducive to repetitive processing
 Process layouts are used for intermittent processing.
 Fixed-position layouts are used when projects require layouts.

The three basic types of layout are product, process, and fixed-
position

1. Product layouts are most conducive to repetitive processing.

2. Process layouts are used for intermittent processing.
3. Fixed-position layouts are used when projects require layouts.

Repetitive Processing: Product Layouts

Product layouts are used to achieve a smooth and rapid flow of large
volumes of goods or customers through a system.

Non-repetitive Processing: Process Layouts

Process layouts are designed to process items or provide services that
involve a variety of processing requirements.

Fixed-Position Layouts
In fixed-position layouts, the item being worked on remains stationary, and
workers, materials, and equipment are moved about as needed.
Fixed-position layouts are widely used in farming, firefighting, road building,
home building, remodeling and repair, and drilling for oil. In each case,
compelling reasons bring workers, materials, and equipment to the
“product’s” location instead of the other way around.

Combination Layouts

a. Supermarket layouts - are essentially process layouts, yet we find that

most use fixed-path material-handling devices such as roller-type
conveyors in the stockroom and belt-type conveyors at the cash registers.
b. Hospitals - also use the basic process arrangement, although frequently
patient care involves more of a fixed-position approach, in which nurses,
doctors, medicines, and special equipment are brought to the patient.
c. Faulty parts - made in a product layout may require off-line reworking,
which involves customized processing. Moreover, conveyors are frequently
observed in both farming and construction activities.

Cellular Layouts

Cellular production - is a type of layout in which workstations are grouped

into what is referred to as a cell.

Single-minute exchange of die (SMED) - enables an organization to quickly

convert a machine or process to produce a different (but similar) product
type.

Right-sized equipment - is often smaller than equipment used in traditional

process layouts, and mobile, so that it can quickly be reconfigured into a
different cellular layout in a different location.

Effective cellular manufacturing must have groups of identified items with

similar processing characteristics. This strategy for product and process
design is known as group technology and involves identifying items with
similarities in either design characteristics or manufacturing characteristics,
and grouping them into part families.

Flexible Manufacturing Systems

A flexible manufacturing system (FMS) - is a group of machines that

include supervisory computer control, automatic material handling, and
robots or other automated processing equipment. Reprogrammable
controllers enable these systems to produce a variety of similar products.
Systems may range from three or four machines to more than a dozen.
They are designed to handle intermittent processing requirements with
some of the benefits of automation and some of the flexibility of individual,
or stand-alone, machines (e.g., N/C machines).

- relatively narrow range of part variety

- requires longer planning and development times
 - Companies sometimes prefer a gradual approach to automation, and
FMS represents a sizable chunk of technology.

Computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) - is a system that uses an

integrating computer system to link a broad range of manufacturing
activities, including engineering design, flexible manufacturing systems,
purchasing, order processing, and production planning and control.

Service Layouts

Many service organizations use process layouts because of variability in

customer processing requirements.

Unlike manufacturing layouts, service layouts must be aesthetically

pleasing as well as functional.

Warehouse and Storage Layouts

The design of storage facilities presents a different set of factors than the
design of factory layouts.
 Frequency of order
 Correlations between items
 Widths of aisles
 The height of storage racks
 Rail and/or truck loading and unloading
 Need to periodically make a physical count of stored items.

Retail Layouts
The objectives that guide design of manufacturing layouts often pertain to:
 Cost minimization
 Product flow
 Traffic patterns
 Traffic flow

Office Layouts
Office layouts are undergoing transformations as the flow of paperwork is
replaced with the increasing use of electronic communications. That means
there is less need to place office workers in a layout that optimizes the
physical transfer of information or paperwork. Another trend is to create an
image of openness; office walls are giving way to low-rise partitions.
Designing Product Layouts: Line Balancing

The goal of a product layout is to arrange workers or machines in the

sequence that operations need to be performed.
The sequence is referred to as a production line or an assembly line. These
lines range from fairly short, with just a few operations, to long lines that
have a large number of operations. Automobile assembly lines are
examples of long lines. At the assembly line for Ford Mustangs, a Mustang
travels about nine miles from start to finish.

Designing Process Layouts

The main issue in designing process layouts concerns the relative
positioning of the departments involved. Departments must be assigned to
locations. The problem is to develop a reasonably good layout; some
combinations will be more desirable than others.
Layouts can also be influenced by external factors such as the location of
entrances, loading docks, elevators, windows, and areas of reinforced
flooring. Also important are noise levels, safety, and the size and locations
of restrooms.
A major obstacle to finding the most efficient layout of departments is the
large number of possible assignments. For example, there are more than
87 billion different ways that 14 departments can be assigned to 14
locations if the locations form a single line. Different location configurations
(e.g., 14 departments in a two-by-seven grid) often reduce the number of
possibilities, as do special requirements (e.g., the stamping department
may have to be assigned to a location with reinforced flooring). Still, the
remaining number of layout possibilities is quite large. Unfortunately, no
algorithms exist to identify the best layout arrangement under all
circumstances. Often planners must rely on heuristic rules to guide trial-
and-error efforts for a satisfactory solution to each problem.

Measures of Effectiveness
One advantage of process layouts is their ability to satisfy a variety of
processing requirements. Customers or materials in these systems require
different operations and different sequences of operations, which causes
them to follow different paths through the system. Material oriented
systems necessitate the use of variable-path material-handling equipment
to move materials from work center to work center. In customer-oriented
systems, people must travel or be transported from work center to work
center. In both cases, transportation costs or time can be significant.
Because of this factor, one of the major objectives in process layout is to
minimize transportation cost, distance, or time. This is usually
accomplished by locating departments with relatively high
interdepartmental work flow as close together as possible.
Other concerns in choosing among alternative layouts include initial costs
in setting up the layout, expected operating costs, the amount of effective
capacity created, and the ease of modifying the system. In situations that
call for improvement of an existing layout, costs of relocating any work
center must be weighed against the potential benefits of the move.

Information Requirements
The design of process layouts requires the following information:
A list of departments or work centers to be arranged, their approximate
dimensions, and the dimensions of the building or buildings that will house
the departments.
A projection of future work flows between the various work centers.
The distance between locations and the cost per unit of distance to move
loads between locations. The amount of money to be invested in the layout.
A list of any special considerations (e.g., operations that must be close to
each other or operations that must be separated).
The location of key utilities, access and exit points, loading docks, and so
on, in existing buildings.
The ideal situation is to first develop a layout and then design the physical
structure around it, thus permitting maximum flexibility in design. This
procedure is commonly followed when new facilities are constructed.
Nonetheless, many layouts must be developed in existing structures where
floor space, the dimensions of the building, location of entrances and
elevators, and other similar factors must be carefully weighed in designing
the layout. Note that multilevel structures pose special problems for layout
planners.

Minimizing Transportation Costs or Distances

The most common goals in designing process layouts are minimization of
transportation costs or distances traveled. In such cases, it can be very
helpful to summarize the necessary data in from-to charts.

Closeness Ratings
Although the preceding approach is widely used, it suffers from the
limitation of focusing on only one objective, and many situations involve
multiple criteria. Richard Muther developed a more general approach to the
problem, which allows for subjective input from analysis or managers to
indicate the relative importance of each combination of department pairs.