Process Flow Analysis

Chapter 7

Methods to use in analyzing and

improving process flows of materials,
information, and customers in service
operations.
 Measuring Process Flows

• Little’s Law
- Relates number of items in the system to
arrival rate and length of time in the system.
- Formula:
I=TxR
I = average number in the system
T = average throughput time
R = average flow rate into the process
• Assumes system is in a “steady state”
 Measuring Process Flows

• Capacity of a system is the maximum rate of

output that can be sustained over a period of
time.
-The resource that is the most constraining is
called a bottleneck.

• The flow rate of a process is the minimum of

- supply
- demand
- capacity
 Problem

• Judy’s Cake Shop makes fresh cakes to customer orders. After

receiving the order by Judy’s assistant, which takes two minutes,
Judy then takes 8 minutes to mix the ingredients for the cake and
loads a cake pan for baking. Then the cake pan is put in the oven for
30 minutes. The oven can hold three cakes at one time. When the
cake is taken out of the oven it is cooled for 1 hour. The assistant
then takes 2 minutes to pack the cake for pickup and bills the
customer, taking 3 minutes.

a. What is the capacity of the process and what is the bottleneck?

b. What is the throughput time and for a typical cake?

c. If on average five orders are taken per hour, how many cakes are
there in the process (work in progress inventory)?
 Flow-Process Chart

• Purpose: to describe a process visually to find

ways of improving the current process.
- Find repetitive operations
- Identify bottlenecks
- Describe directions and distances of flows
(people, materials and information)
- Reduce waste.

• Required for certification such as ISO 9000.

 Process Flow Analysis Might Change:

• Raw materials

• Product design

• Job design

• Processing steps used

• Equipment or tools

• Suppliers

• i.e. anything but the customers may be changed!

Symbols for Flow-Process Chart

Operation (a task or work activity)

Inspection (an inspection of the product for

quantity or quality)

Transportation (a movement of material from

one point to another)

Storage (an inventory or storage of materials

awaiting the next operation)

Delay (a delay in the sequence of operations)

 Questions to Ask in FPA
• What does the customer need? Can some operations be eliminated,
combined, or simplified?

• Who is performing the job? Can the operation be redesigned to use

less skill or less labor? Can operations be combined to enrich jobs?

• Where is each operation conducted? Can layout be improved?

• When is each operation performed? Is there excessive delay or

storage? Are some operations creating bottlenecks?

• How is the operation done? Can better methods, procedures or

equipment be used?
Information Flow Analysis
Origin of record (used to identify an operation that involves the addition
of significant data to a blank form)

Subsequent writing (a step in which significant data is added to an existing

record)

Handling operations (any nonproductive step, such as sorting, stapling, or

folding)

Move (a step in which the record is transported from one person, department,
or work place to another)

Inspection (used when the step involves examination of the quality or

clearness of a record)

Delay, file, and destroy (identifies a point or time at which the record is
inactive
 Service Blueprinting – Service Operations
Flow-Charting
• Shows the cycle of service

• Points on SBP are moments of truth

• Ask the same questions as in PFA (what, who,

where, when, and how)
 Problem
• Draw a service blueprint for the following
services:

a. Pizza delivery

b. Automobile repair

• Analyze the blueprints in a and b above for

possible improvements. Use what, who, when,
where, and how questions.
 Business Process Reengineering

• Defined by Hammer and Champy, 1993.

– “BPR is the fundamental rethinking and
radical redesign of business (or
organizational) processes to achieve dramatic
improvements in critical, contemporary
measures of performance, such as cost,
quality, service and speed.”
 Principles of BPR
• Organize around outcomes.

• Have the people who do the work, process their

own information.

• Put the decision point where work is performed

and build control into the process.

• Eliminate unnecessary steps in the process.

 H& J’s 17 Reasons BPR Fails in Some
Cases
• Trying to fix the process instead of changing it.
• Not focusing on business processes.
• Focusing only on process redesign.
• Neglecting people’s values and beliefs.
• Settling for minor results.
• Quitting too early.
• Constraining the scope of the problem and effort.
• Letting corporate culture and management attitude to
prevent reengineering from getting started.
• Trying to make reengineering happen from the bottom
up.

Source: Hammer & Champy, Reengineering the Corporation, chapter 14.

 17 Reasons (cont)
• Assigning a leader who doesn’t understand BPR
• Skimping on resources.
• Not making BPR a top corporate priority.
• Trying to do too much at once and dissipating
resources.
• Concentrating only on design and not on
implementation.
• Trying to keep everyone happy.
• Pulling back if people resist.
• Dragging out the effort and taking too long.
 BPR Today
• H and C decreased their emphasis on radical
redesign over time, focusing more on continuous
improvement.

• Important point is to focus on the process, rather

than to have a radical change.