Midterm Paper:
Benefits of Process Design
Anna M
BUS 453A Operations Management
Warner Pacific College
January 3, 2012
Midterm Paper: Benefits of Process Design Starting out this class, I did not know how much responsibility the Operations Manager truly has. Having to choose a topic to write about came down to picking one out of ten operations management decisions for me. The decisions include: design of goods and services, managing quality, process strategy, location strategy, layout strategy, human resources, supply-chain management, inventory management, scheduling, and maintenance. All those strategies are extremely important for virtually every business, but there is one strategy that stands out: the process strategy;
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p.279). In order to get a better understanding, higher productivity, and better quality, the tools can be used to help implement new processes.
Below is a sample of a value-stream mapping tool and how it looks; visuals are a great way of learning about a new tool, rather than just reading about it.
http://www.rff.com/value_stream_1.htm
When there is a visual of the process that is taking place, there is an opportunity to design it in a more efficient way if necessary. With value stream mapping it is usually best to create a past, present, and future layouts to show how the changes will be made and what would make them efficient and more productive. There are always ways of improving, and a business that focuses on improving will turn out to be more productive, efficient, and successful in the end. There are eight important strategies that can be used as
4. Process maps also describe the flow of information through an organization, use only a few symbols, and (to many) are among the easiest to draw and understand.
The above Flowchart is hard work and time consuming for a programmer that wanted to do the job as fast as possible. He would rather write a Pseudocode model. This Flowchart concept is best practice if the programmer wants to do presentation and demonstration of the way his/her program will flow.
(They can be easily mapped out in a program like RFFlow, Visio, OpenOffice.org Draw, or other visual diagramming software.)
Doris opted FLOW CHARTS are best method for transformation in system. She states that before drawing flowcharts one must have blue prints and clear goals of charts in regards of 1) what is it? 2) Why is it used 3) when is it used? 4) What does it look like? According to her view a process flowchart is always chronologically correct, mathematically accurate and simply artistic. She details the flowchart showing quality improvement in MD Anderson by STEEP
| The ProModel suite Create a dynamic, animated computer model of business environment from CAD files, process or value stream maps, or Process Simulator models. Clearly see and understand current processes and policies in action.
“Observation and documentation of workflow to better understand what is happening in the current environment and how it can be altered” is workflow analysis (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2015). Workflow analysis together with process mapping and diagramming use information technology to improve patient safety and patient care. Case in point of flowcharting is a workflow analysis process map for AmniSure testing.
The 7 tools of quality, “provide a simple, yet strong method for collecting, analyzing and visualizing information from various views” (Schule, 2014). The tools consist of the following items:
Operations Management in an organisation is repsonsible for managing and in making decisions concerning the activities that convert inputs into outputs , that is goods and services. This covers both short term actvities as well as longer term activities to meet strategic goals. Inputs can be the raw materaials need to manufacture goods such as furniture or the computers needed to create a service like online shopping site. Operation management’s role is to make decisions to improve how operation activities function, for example, to improve the final quality of the output or to change production methods to be more efficient in terms of cost and in time.
Value-stream mapping is the study of processes and systems required to bring a product or service from a provider to a manufacturer. The series of techniques used throughout value stream mapping are most often used for providing manufacturers with the ability to attain lean manufacturing process performance improvements by mitigating and eliminating the seven types of waste (Van Goubergen, Van Landeghem, Van Aken, Letens, 2003). The intent of this analysis is to evaluate the seven types of value stream mapping tools as analyzed by Hones and Rich (1997) in their analysis titled The Seven Value Stream Mapping Tools. Also within the article is a short case analysis of a distributor seeking to minimize waste and performance degradation of the upstream value stream aspects of their business which includes over 60,000 products (Hines, Rich, 1997).
Fawaz A.A, Jayant, R. (2007). “Analyzing the benefits of lean manufacturing and value stream mapping via simulation: A process sector case study”, International Journal of Producti
Other study conducted by Patricia and Caroline (2013). They presented a case study of the concrete slab process to show the application of VSM and the preliminary sustainable analyses too. The execution of research started with diagnosis of lean and sustainable concepts selected, and an analysis initial of the value stream mapping applicability in the concrete slab processes. In the second step, the authors analyzed the construction company. In the third step, the search conducted the semi-structured interviews with the engineer responsible for the works. In the sequence, it was chosen a standardized process for value stream mapping of current state (concrete process). As a result, through the analysis of the mapping
Flow Chart Analysis- The hospital consistently uses a flow chart tool to examine and re-examine ways to improve processes. The current process is below:
A flow chart is a graphical or symbolic representation of a process. Each step in the process is represented by a different symbol and contains a short description of the process step. The flow chart symbols are linked together with arrows showing the process flow direction.
Operations management is generally described as the planning, arrangement, and control of activities that change raw materials or an organization's input into finished products and services. The overall activities covered by operations management include the creation, development, manufacture, and distribution of products. The concept also relates to various activities such as inventory control, controlling purchases, quality control, logistics, storage, and evaluation ("Operations Management in McDonalds", n.d.). Since operations management covers the entire operations in an organization, it mainly focuses on the efficiency and effectiveness of the firm's processes.
The assignment being completed in this report asks the author to complete a few different questions. The first is which process design strategy each firm uses and the second is why these two processes would be configured differently. It is then asked what process issues would be an issue in one factor and not another and then it is asked what would be the competitive priorities of each. Lastly, the configuration of each facility and how that makes them competitive is asked.