COB 300 Operations Chp 4
Efficiency
the ratio of the actual output of a process relative to some standard. Doing something at the lowest possible cost. Used to measure theloss or gain in a process. Actual output/Standard output
operation time
the sum of the setup time and run time for a batch of parts that are run on a machine. Set up time + run time
Value-added time
the time in which useful work is actually being done on the unit.
Set up time
the time required to prepare a machine to make a particular item. In practice, setup time is often not included int he utilization process, considered downtime.
Run time
the time required to produce a batch of parts. Time required to produce each unit by the batch size
Queue Time
the time that a part waits for a resource while the resource is busy with something else. This refers to the buffers being used and how long they wait there
Total average value of inventory
the total average investment in raw material, work-in-process and finished goods inventory. Sum of the value (at cost). Sum of the value of raw materials, work in process and finished goods. The total average value of inventory might be useful for evaluating the performance of a process within a firm. Depends greatly on the size of the firm, type of strategy being used, and the relative cost of the product being used.
You are in a line at the bank drive-through and 10 cars are in front of you. You estimate that the clerk is taking about five minutes per car to serve. How long do you expect to wait in line?
50 minutes.
Given a demand of 30 per week, and the average cost of 80$ per unit. What is the annual cost of goods sold? Weekly Average inventory level? Average inventory investment? Every 2 weeks?
52 weeks in a year COGS= 30*80*52= 124,800 Weekly Average inventory level? Average inventory investment? Beg inventory= 30 Ending inventory = 0 Average inventory level ( 30+0)/2= 15 Average inventory investment= 15*80= 1200 Inventory for two weeks? Beg= 60 Ending= 0 Average inv entory level (60+0)/2=30 Average inventory investment= 30 * 80- 2,400 Inventory turnover = 124,800/2,400= 52
Process
Any set of activities performed by an organization that takes inputs and transforms them into outputs ideally of greater value to the organization than the original inputs. The output of many processes are services.Converts investment in resources to value for which customers pay. A good process: Adds value, keep costs as low as possible
How does seasonal variability in demand affect the flow and waiting time through a process? How might a company respond to reduce the effect of this variability?
As demand peaks during busy season the process can be overwhelmed if there is insufficient capacity in the system to meet demand when it occurs. Orders can backup, creating increased WIP inventory and extending the wait time for orders in the system. In a make-to-stock system the firm can manage the varying demand by building up inventory during the slow periods to augmentproduction during peak periods. In a make-to-order system the company can try to level demand by offering promotions and discount pricing during the traditionally slow periods to shift some of the peak demand to the off-peak periods. Where feasible, another option is postponement, where thefirm might build up inventory of partially completed products, and perform the final customizing steps as orders come in. Of course there is always the option of increasing the capacity of the system, but that can be quite expensive.
Describe cycle time as it relates to business processes. Why is it important to the management of business processes? How does it relate to concepts like productivity and capacity utilization?
Cycle time is the average time between completions of successive units in a process. It is directly related to the output capacity of the system - as cycle time is reduced, the process can produce more units in the same period of time, increasing the best operating level used in capacity analysis.Without an actual increase in production volume, capacity utilization will decrease as cycle time decreases but productivity remains the same. As the process produces more output per time period, productivity and capacity utilization will then increase.
Process: Basic performance Measures
Cycle time: average time between completions of successive units. Determined by bottleneck. Determined by bottleneck! Utilization: The ratio of the time that a resource is actually used/activated relative to the time that it is available for use.
Compare McDonald's old and current processes for making hamburgers. How valid is McDonald's claim that the new process will produce fresher hamburgers for the customer? Comparing McDonald's current process to the processes used by burger king and Wendy's, which process would appear to produce the freshest hamburger?
Exhibit 11.2 illustrates the various processes. McDonald's old process was a make-to-stock, where orders were pulled from finished goods. However, McDonald's new process will assemble-to-order. Therefore, McDonald's claim of a fresher hamburger should hold. Burger King's process is a combination of McDonald's old and new processes. The best Burger King can hope to do is match McDonald's with their orders that are assembled-to-order. The ones that are taken from finished goods will generally not be as fresh. Wendy's, on the other hand, should beat both McDonald's and Burger King on freshness, since they cook-to-order (Make-to-order)!
A process is part of an organization that takes _________________, turns them into_______________, and adds ___________________ while doing so.
Inputs, outputs, value
Time study vs. sampling vs predetermined motion time data vs. Elemental
Highly detailed, repetitive work usually calls for time study and predetermined motion time data analysis. When work is done in conjunction with fixed-processing time equipment, elemental data are often used to reduce the need for direct observation. When work is infrequent, or entails a long cycle time, work sampling is the tool of choice.
A firm has redesigned its production process so that it now takes 10 hours for a unit to be made. Using the old process it took 15 hours to make a unit. If the process makes one unit each hour, on average, and each unit is worth 1500, what is the reduction in work-in-process value?
Inventory= throughput * flow time Inventory= 1 * 15 * 1500= 22,500 Inventory after= 1 * 10 * 1500= 15,000 22,5000-15,000= 7,500 Reduction in WIP
Day-of-supply
Inverse of inventory turns scaled to days. The inverse of inventory turn scaled to days. If a firm turns inventory six times per year, the days of supply is equal to one-sixth time per year or approximately every 61 days.
In a flowchart, what is used to represent a storage activity in the process?
Inverted Triangle
State in your own words what Little's Law means. Think of an example that you have observed where Little's Law applies.
Little's Law shows the relationship between throughput rate, throughput time, and the amount of work-in-process inventory. Specifically, it is throughput time equals amount of work-in-process inventory divided by the throughput rate. Little's Law is useful for examining the performance of a process. Example 11.1 illustrates an application of Little's Law.
Assemble-to-order ATO/ Hybrid
Partially manufactured and held in unfinished states. Customer order dictates final configuration, quicker response than MTO and more flexible than MTS. Combines the features of both make-to-order and make-to-stock. The most common hybrid, generic product is made and stock at some point in the process, then finished in a final process based on actual orders. Example: Make cheeseburger, but do not add toppings till you find out what customer wants.
Materials in process
in two stages 1: Materialis moving in transit to the second stage 2. Material that is sitting in inventory and acting as a buffer waiting to be used.
Make-To-Stock (MTS) vs. Make-To-Order (MTO)
Make-To-Stock: Process that produces standard products that can be delivered quickly to the customer, quick process, ends with finished goods inventory; customer orders are then served from this inventory. Made to meet expected/forecasted demand. Served from target stocking level, shorter lead time for stocked items. Much longer for out of stock items, risk of obsolesce, shrink. Suitable for items with high and stable demand. Required when customer lead time is less than manufacturing lead time. Make-to-stock processes can be controlled based on the actual or anticipated amount of finished goods inventory. Make-to-stock process is also used when demand is seasonal and the firm does not have enough capacity to keep up during the peak season Make-To-Order: Process is activated only in response to an actual order. Inventory is kept to a minimum (both work-in-process and finished goods). Services by their nature often use make-to-order processes. Process activated in response to an actual order, may either standard or custom product. WIP and finished goods inventory kept to a minimum, tends to have longer response time, suitable for items with low-medium and variable demand.
Explain how having more work-in-process inventory can improve the efficiency of a process? How can this ever be bad?
More work-in-process inventory can be used to buffer multiple stage processes. Specifically, it can help with blocking or starving. Blocking is when the activities in the stage must stop because there is no place to deposit the item just completed. Starving is when the activities in a stage must stop because there is no work. Buffer inventories between operations can help relieve these problems, and improve the efficiency of the overall process. Increasing work-in-process inventory can be bad in that it involves more investment in inventory, as well as taking-up valuable floor space. Also, the JIT philosophy views work-in-process as being negative for a variety of reasons (more on JIT in a later chapter).
Single stage vs. multiple-stage process
Multiple: multiple group of activities that are linking through the flow. Stage: Used to indicate that multiple activities have been pulled together for analysis purposes. Single: Stage 1 -> Multi: Stage 1 -> Stage 2 -> Stage 3
A processor makes two components, A and B which are then packaged together as the final product (each product sold contains one A and on B) the processor can do only one component at a time, either it can make As or it can make Bs. There is a setup time when switching from A to B. Current plans are to make 100 units of component A, then 100 units of component B, then 100 units of component A, then 100 units of component B, and so forth, where the setup and run times for each component are given as follows: Component: A Setup time/changeover time= 5 minutes, run time/unit= .2 minutes B Set up time/changeover time= 10 minutes, run time/unit= .1 minute. Assume the packaging of the two components is total automated and takes only two seconds per unit of the final product. This packaging time is small enough that you can ignore it. What is the average hourly output, in terms of the number of units of packaged product (which includes on of A and B)?
Only one can be made at a time, set up for switching. Plan: Make 100 of A then 100 of B Then 100 of A then B and so on... A takes 5 minutes to set up, and makes 1 unit per .2 minutes. B takes 10 minutes to set up, and makes 1 unit per .1 minute. What is the average hourly output of A + B together? *** 5 + 10 + .2(100) + .1(100) = 15 + 30 = 45 minutes/100 units45/100 = 60/X X = 133.3 units/hr.
paced vs. nonpaced
Pacing is the movement of items through a process is coordinated through a timing mechanism
A local market research firm has just won a contract for several thousand small projects involving data gathering and statistical analysis. In the past, the firm has assigned each project to a single member of its highly trained professional staff. This person would both gather and analyze the data. Using this approach, an experienced person can complete the average of 10 such projects in an eight-hour day. The firm's management is thinking of assigning two people to each project in order to allow them to specialize and become more efficient. the process would require the data gatherer to fill out a matrix on the computer, check it, and transmit it to the statistical analysis program for the analyst to complete. Data can be gathered on one project while the analysis is being completed on another, but the analysis must be complete before the statistical analysis program can accept new data. After some practice, the new process can be completed with a standard time of 20 minutes for the data gathering and 30 minutes for the analysis. a. What is the production (output per hour) for each alternative? What is the productivity (output per labor hour)? b. How long would it take to complete 1,000 projects with each alternative? What would be the labor content (total number of labor hours) for 1,000 projects for each alternative?
Past: Single person, 10 projects in 8 hours 2 people: 8 hour shifts. 20 minutes for data, 30 minutes for the analysis. a. What is the production (output per hour) for each alternative? What is the productivity (output per labor hour)? Single person= 10/8 = 1.25 per hour Output per labor hour= 1 laborer makes 1.25 per hour. Two people= 16/8= 2 per hour Output per labor hour= 2 laborers make 2 per hour, so 1 per labor hour. b. How long would it take to complete 1,000 projects with each alternative? What would be the labor content (total number of labor hours) for 1,000 projects for each alternative? Single: 1,000 projects / 1.25 hours= 800 hours Labor content: 800 hours Double: 1,000 projects / 2 = 500 hours Labor content: 500 * 2= 1,000
Throughput time cannot be reduced in a process by:
Performing activities using a serial approach Feedback: Performing activities in parallel reduces throughput time.
In practice, often __________ is not included in the utilization of the process.
Set up and machine time.
Parallel process
Some of the operations has alternative paths where two or more resources are used to increase capacity.
Little's Law
States a mathematical relationship between throughput rate, flow time, and the amount of work-in-process inventory Inventory= throughput rate * flow time the analysis assumes that the process is operating in steady state, the amount that is produced by the factory is equal to the amount shipped to customers. Throughput rate of the process is equal to average demand. Little's Law shows the relationship between units and time. Inventory is measured in pieces, flow time in days, and throughput in pieces per day. Useful when diagnosing a plant's performance. Suppose a process has just started with no inventory on hand, little's law will not hold. But after the process has been operating for a while, and there is inventory at every step, the process stabilizes and then the relationship holds. It can be applied to single work stations, multistep production lines, factories, or even entire supply chains. Applies variability in the arrival rate and processing time. Single or multiple product systems. also applies to non- production systems where inventory represents people, financial orders, or other entities.
A manufacturing company has a small production line dedicated to the production of a particular product. The line has four stations in serial. Inputs arrive at station 1 and the output from station 1 becomes the input to station 2. The output from station 2 is the input to station 3 and so on. The output from station 4 is the finished product. Station 1 can process 2,700 units per month, station 2 can process 2,500/month, station 3 can process 2,300/month, and station 4 2,100/month. What station sets the maximum possible output from this system? What is that maximum output number?
Station 4 sets the maximum output from this system, 2,100 per month.
Analysing a process
Step 1. Analyze the current process Step 2. analyze the new process Step 3. Compare Step 4. Consider other processes from other companies. Suppose the whole process takes 6 minutes: Lead time.
Starving
The activities in a stage must stop because there is no work. Two-stage process, 1 has a cycle time of 30 seconds 2 has a cycle time of 45 seconds. If you were to produce 100 units, you could do so this way: 1st process: 30 seconds * 100 units= 3,000 seconds 2nd process: 45 * 100 units= 4,500 seconds. OR .... If stage 2 is very fast but stage 1 is very slow, stage 2 will be starved for work.
Throughput rate
The output rate that the process is expected to produce over a period of time: 120 units per hour is an example Mathematical inverse of cycle time. Throughput rate: 1/cycle time
Recently some Operations Management experts have begun insisting that simple maximizing process velocity, which actually means minimizing the time that it takes to process something through the system, is the single most important measure for improving a process. Can you think of a situation when this might not be true?
The problem with focusing exclusively on process velocity is that other dimensions might be ignored, such as quality or safety. There are many examples. One would be if drying time was reduced, this might impact the quality of the process. Another example would be whiskey, reducing the aging time would probably impact its quality.
Utilization
The ratio of the time that a resource is actually used/activated relative to the time that it is available for use. most common process metric. Ratio of the time that a resource is actually being used relative to the time it is available for use. Measures the actual activation of the resource. Time activated/Time Available
Process velocity (throughput ratio)
The ratio of the value-added time to the flow time. Should be the sum of the activity operation times in the process. Value-added time/Flow time
Why are work measurement and time standards important for a firm? Are there any negatives to the implementation of these standards? Are there ways to achieve the same objectives without setting firm standards?
The reasons for work measurement and time standards are outlined in the chapter: 1.To schedule work and allocate capacity 2.To provide an objective basis for motivating the workforce and measuring workers' performance 3. To bid for new contracts and evaluate performance on existing ones4.To provide benchmarks for performance.Essentially they are important to have a baseline measure against which to evaluate and set goals for the system. They can have a negative effect on workers' attitudes towards the job and the firm, especially if they are unreasonable or unachievable. Various managerial approaches can be used to try and increase workers' motivation for the job and improved performance. Job enrichment as discussed in the chapter is one such example.
Inventory turn
Too little or too much inventory is NOT good. Entered as asset in financial statements. COGS divided by the average inventory value. a measure of the expected number of times inventory is replaced over the year. Better measure then total average value of the inventory. Some comparability across similar firms Inventory used in productivity measure COGS during the past 12 months/Average inventory investment during the past 12 months If you can achieve the same amount of sales with less inventory, that is better. Measures how frequently average inventory is sold/how efficiently inventory is used. Generally, higher the turnover better it is. Desirable number of turns varies across industry. Average inventory investment= Average level of inventory * unit cost of inventory Average level of inventory= (Beginning inventory - ending inventory) / 2
What are the four basic techniques for measuring work and setting time standards?
Two direct methods: time study, work sampling; and two indirect methods: predetermined motion-time data systems (PMTS), elemental data.
Flowcharting
Use a diagram to present the major elements of a process. An ideal methodology to be used to being analyzing a process. Drawing a picture is always the first step in analyzing a process, a diagram showing the basic elements of a process. Tasks or operations are shown as rectangles. Flows of material or customers as arrows. Storage areas of queues (waiting lines) inverted triangles. Decision points are diamonds. Separating the different horizontal or vertical bands sometimes is useful because it allows the separation of tasks that are part of the process. Large buffers allow the process to operate independently, whereas small buffers require more attention. These items have a value, so they also represent money.
What is the effect of waiting time on a manufacturing process? Why is it good to reduce waiting time? Can it be eliminated altogether?
Waiting time is non-productive time for material in the process. As waiting time increases, average WIP inventory increases. Decreasing wait time reduces the investment in inventory and improves theflow of material through the system. Completely eliminating waiting time would be very difficult if not impossible to eliminate in most systems. Variability in any process is likely to induce wait time at some point in the system.
An enterprising student has set up an internship clearinghouse for business students. Each student who uses the service fills out a form and lists up to 10 companies that he or she would like to have contacted. The clearinghouse has a choice of two methods to use for processing the forms. The traditional method requires about 20 minutes to review the form and arrange the information in the proper order for processing. Once this setup is done, it takes only 2 minutes per company requested to complete the processing. The other alternatives uses an optical scan/retreive system, which takes only a minute to prepare but requires five minutes per company for completing the processing. If it costs about the same amount per minute for processing with either of the two methods, when should each be used? What if you use the breakeven point?
Which method should be used? traditional: 10 companies on sheet. 20 minutes to review, 2 minutes processing. 20 + 2*10 20 + 20 = 40 Traditional method should be used. other: 10 companies on sheet. 1 minute to prepare, 5 minutes processing. 1 + 5*10 1 + 50 = 51 This can also be thought of more generally as a breakeven point question. The breakeven point occurs when 20 + 2x= 1 + 5x, where x= 6 and 1/3. If an applicant selects 6 or fewer firms, use the alternativemethod. If the applicant selects 7 or more firms, use the traditional method.
Which work measurement technique is most appropriate for tasks that are infrequent or have a long cycle time?
Work sampling
Productivity
a measure of how well resources are used. Output/Input Partial factor productivity: measured based on an individual input, how much output we can get from a given level of input.
bottleneck
a resource that little the capacity of maximum output of the process. Stage that limits the capacity of the process. Example: If the first stage takes longer then the second stage, the first stage would be the bottleneck.
Serial flow process
a single path for all stages of production
Buffering
a storage area between stages where the output of a stage is placed prior to being used in a downstream stage. Allows the stages to operate independently. If one stage feeds a second stage with no intermediate bugger, the assumption is that the two stages are directly linked. Waiting area for the jobs.
At the children's hospital in seattle there are, on average, 60 births per week. Mother and child stay, on average, two days before they leave the hospital. At the Swedish Hospital (also in Seattle), the average number of births per week is 210. Mothers and children stay in the hospital two days, on average. a. How many new mothers on average are staying at the children's hospital? b. How many new mothers on average are staying at the Swedish hospital? c. The director of the two hospitals are negotiation unifying the maternity wards of the two hospitals. They believe this will help reduce the number of new mothers staying in the unified ward. Are they correct? How many new mothers will stay, on average, in the unified ward? You may assume that the average number of births and the length of the stay of the new mothers will not change.
a. Inventory = throughput time * flow time throughput= 60 births/week Flow time= 2/7 days 60 * 2/7= 17.1 new mothers b. Inventory= throughput time * flow time Throughput time= 210 births/week Flow time= 2/7 days 210 * 2/7= 60 new mothers c. 210 + 60= 270 * 2/7 = 77 new mothers on average will stay, which is the same.
Avis Company is a car rental company that is located three miles from the los Angeles Airport. Avis is dispatching a bus from its offices to the airport every 2 minutes. The average traveling time *round-trip is 20 minutes. a. How many avis buses are traveling to and from the airport? b. The branch manager wants to improve the service and suggests dispatching buses every .5 minutes. She argues that this will reduce average traveling time from the airport to the avis offices to 2.5 minutes. Is she correct? If you answer is negative, what will the average traveling time be?
a. Inventory per hour = throughput * flow time Flow time per hour: 20 minutes/ 60 minutes= 1/3 an hour Throughput rate= 1 bus per 2 minutes = 6o minutes/hour/2 minutes per bus= 30 buses per hour traveling to and from. Inventory per hour= 1/3 * 30 buses= 10 traveling. b. This reduces the average waiting time, but has no effect on the average traveling time. The average traveling time does not change and will remain 20 min. Average waiting time reduction= 1 bus per .5 minutes= 60 minutes per hour/.5 minutes per bus = 120 buses. 1/3 * 120= 40 buses
Problems with directly linked processes
blocking and starving
What's useful about categorizing a process?
can show similarities and differences between the process
cycle vs flow time
cycle time: Average time between completion of units Flow time: Average time for a unit to move through the system
Measuring process performance
metrics tell a firm if progress is being made towards improvement. Process performance metrics show how productively a process is currently operating as well as the change over time. Process metrics: Operation time Flow Time Velocity Cycle Time Throughput rate Efficiency Productivity Utilization Little's Law
Logistics Process
movement of things such as materials, people or finished goods. Not as important right now.
The National State Bank is trying to make sure that they have enough tellers to handle the Friday afternoon rush of workers wanting to cash their paychecks. They are only concerned with the last hour of the day from 4:00 to 5:00 P.M. It takes 5 minutes per customer to be processed by the tellers. The average customer arrivals are shown in the table below. https://www.coursehero.com/tutors-problems/Operations-Management/9491788-Chapters-9-11-Chapters-9-11-The-National-State-Bank-is-trying-to-m/ The bank currently has 8 teller stations, and all are staffed during the Friday afternoon rush hour. a. What is the current maximum output at the bank during rush hour? b. Can the bank process all the customers by 5:00 P.M.? c. What is the maximum waiting time for customers, and what time period does it occur in? (Round your answer to 2 decimal places.)
one hour 5 minutes per customer a. What is the current maximum output at the bank during rush hour? Given 8 tellers, each working 5 minutes per customer Can each get through 12 customers in that hour , 96 total. b. Can the bank process all the customers by 5:00 P.M.? No. Look at canvas. c. What is the maximum waiting time for customers, and what time period does it occur in? (Round your answer to 2 decimal places.) Look at canvas.
Wally's Widget Warehouse takes orders from 7am to 7pm. The manager wants to analyze the process and has provided the process flow diagram shown below. There are three steps required to ship a customer order. The first step is to take the order from a customer. The second step is to pick the order for the customer, and the third step is to pack the order for shipping. Wally promises that every order placed today gets shipped tomorrow. That means that the picking and packing operations must finish all orders before they go home (i.e., picking and packing can work up to 24 hours per day). Take orders: 100 customers/hour Pick orders: 80 customers/hour Pack orders: 60 customers/hour a. What is the maximum capacity of the process assuming that the order taker works 7am-7pm and that picking and packing work a full 24 hours? b. How long will the picking and packing operations have to work if we have a day where the order taker works at his maximum capacity? c. Given b, what is the maximum number of orders waiting to be picked? D. Given b, what is the maximum number of orders waiting to be packed? E. If we double the packing capacity (from 60 to 120 orders per hour), what impact does this have on your answers in parts b, c, and d?
open 12 hours every order placed today gets shipped tomorrow, picking and packing goes up to 24 hours per day. a. What is the maximum capacity of the process assuming that the order taker works 7am-7pm and that picking and packing work a full 24 hours? Assuming that everyone workers for 12? 12 hour= 100 *12 = 1200 taking orders, maximum. 80 * 12= 960 hours 60 *12= 720 hours, slowest so this one if doing 12. b. How long will the picking and packing operations have to work if we have a day where the order taker works at his maximum capacity? pick: 1200 * 80= 15 hours pack: 1200 * 60= 20 hours c. Given b, what is the maximum number of orders waiting to be picked? Waiting to be picked: 100 orders per hour- 80 hours picked= 20 orders per hour waiting to be picked. 12 hours * 20 orders per hour= 240 waiting. D. Given picked, what is the maximum number of orders waiting to be packed? Waiting to be packed: 80 orders per hour- 60 orders being packed= 20 hours waiting to be packed after being picked. 15 hours picked * 20 = 300
work measurement
setting time standards for a job. Necessary for four reasons: 1. Schedule work and allocate capacity 2. Provide an objective basis for motivating the workforce and measuring workers performance 3. To bid for new contracts and to evaluate performance on existing 4. To provide benchmarks for improvement limitations: set standards cannot be regularly achieved, workers who find a better way of doing the job get penalized by having a revised rate set Pros: Proved effective, work quickly, tightly engineered, professionally set standards are appropriate. Basic techniques for measuring work and setting standards. Direct methods are time study and sampling. Indirect methods are predetermined motion time data systems and elemental date. Time study: Stopwatch Sampling: Observations Predetermined motion time data systems: Sum data from tables of generic movement times developed in the laboratory to arrive at a time for the job. Elemental: Sums times from a database of similar combinations of movements to arrive at job time.
Specialization of labor
simple, repetitive jobs are assigned to each worker. extreme specialization often has serious adverse effects on workers for productivity, determines how much specialization is enough
job enrichment
specialized work is made more interesting by giving the worker a greater variety of tasks A job is said to be horizontally enlarged if the worker performs a greater variety of tasks. Counteract simplification, learn about whole unit of work. Vertically enlarged when involving planning, organizing and inspecting his work. Broaden workers influence, transformation process, managerial powers. Quality improves dramatically, individuals are responsible for their work output, likely to catch errors and make corrections.
job design
specification of the work activities of an individual or group. Meet the requirements of the organization, satisfy the jobholders personal and individual requirements.
blocking
the activities in the stage must stop because there is no place to deposit the item just completed. Activities in a stage must stop because there is no place to deposit the item. Two-stage process, 1 has a cycle time of 30 seconds 2 has a cycle time of 45 seconds. Over time the 1st process would have to wait 15 seconds to go to the 2nd process, this is called blocking.
flow time
the average time it takes a unit to move through an entire process Amount of time actually being worked on, time spent waiting in a queue. cycle time is often used to mean flow time. AKA Lead time.
