COB 300 Ops Test 1
Buffering
(Flowcharting) A storage area in between stages where the output of a stage is placed prior to being used in a downstream stage. This is signified on the flowchart with an upside triangle.
Blocking
(Flowcharting) Occurs when the activities in a stage must stop because there is no place to deposit the item. E.g. Has no buffer, stage 2 is slow and stage 1 is fast
Startving
(Flowcharting) Occurs when the activities in a stage must stop because there is no work. E.g. Stage 2 is fast and stage 1 is slow.
How Much to inspect: low-cost, high-volume items
(i.e paper clips, roofing nails, and wooden pencils) often require little inspection because (1) the cost associated with passing defective items is quite low and (2) the processes that produce these items are usually highly reliable, so that defects are rare.
What is quality? Service specific dimensions
** test only up to here** 1. Convenience; the availability & accessibility of the service 2. Reliability; the ability to perform a service dependably, consistently, and accurately. 3. Responsiveness; the willingness of service providers to help customers in unusual situations and deal with problems 4. Time; the speed with which the service is delivered 5. Assurance; the knowledge exhibited by personnel who come into contact with a customer and their ability to convey trust and confidence 6. Courtesy; the way customers are treated by employees who come into contact with them 7. Tangibles; the physical appearance of facilities, equipment, personnel and communication materials 8. Consistency; the ability to provide the same level of good quality repeatedly - challenges: reality that customers expectations often change over time and that different customers tend to have different expectations, information on customer wants in service can sometime be difficult to pin down, customer complaints may be due to unrelated factors
The operations functions includes many interrelated activities such as:
- Capacity planning - Facilities and layout - Deciding where to locate facilities - Forecasting - Motivating employees - Managing inventories - Scheduling - Assuring quality -ETC...
Process control
- Cp and Cpk tell us whether the process will produce defective output as part of its normal operation; i.e is it "capable?" - control charts are maintained on an ongoing basis so that operators ensure that a process is not changing; i.e drifting to a different level of performance, is it "in control" - Cpk - takes the process mean into account
Local, state, national, and international laws and regulations
- OSHA( occupational safety health administration) - DOT (Department of Transportation) - FDA (Food & Drug Administration) - DEQ ( Department of Environmental Equality) - EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) - TSA (Transportation Security Administration) - USCG (United States Coast Guard)
Ideas for Process Flow Time Reduction
- Perform activities in parallel - Change the sequence of activities - Reduce interruptions
Project teams
- Pure project Team members only report to one boss, lines of communication are shortened - Functional project - Matrix project There are two bosses, it is doomed to failure, unless the project manger has strong negotiation skills
Time to market impact on competitiveness
- Responsiveness to customers/ competitors - Quality of design; close to market - Frequency of projects; model life
divergence/ complexity relationship
- a minimum service format would have lower complexity/ divergence - an upscale format would have higher complexity/ divergence
Specifications
- a range of acceptable values established by engineering design or customer requirements
flowchart
- a standard tool for process design & improvement ( for both manufacturing & services) - Service blueprint = A flowchart with a line of visibility - poka-yokes= procedures that block a mistake from becoming a defect
Many ways to improve quality
- benchmarking* - Total quality mgt (TQM) including Kaizen or continuous improvement - LEAN or the Toyota Production system - Six sigma -ISO standards - Quality Function Deployment (QFD) - Business Process Reengineering (BPR) - Quality circle - Taguchi method - Object-oriented quality management (OQM) - Kansei engineering - Zero defects - Theory of Inventive Problem solving (TRIZ)
Operations strategy
- business org have a vital, strategic interest in achieving and maintaining high quality standards; best businesses view quality as a never ending journey, no matter what it can always be improved and there are benefits for doing so - for tqm to be successful, majority of those in the org. have to buy in to the idea; otherwise, there is a risk that a significant portion of the benefits of the approach will not be realized. - top down approach: top mgt needs to be visibly involved and needs to be supportive, both financially and emotionally; important as well is education of managers and workers in the concepts, tools, and procedures of quality - Caution:: customer satisfaction does not always guarantee customer loyalty; may need to develop retention strategy to deal with this possibility
Type II error
- concluding a process is in control when it is not - the probability of failing to reject the null hypothesis when the null hypothesis is false - Consumer's risk - in theory, the costs of making each error should be balanced by their probabilities
Type I error
- concluding a process is not in control when it actually is; - the probability of rejecting the null hypothesis when the null hypothesis is true - manufacturers risk - Ex: if +/- 2 SD limits are used, they would include 95.5 percent of the values. Consequently, the complement of that number (100%- 95.5%= 4.5%) would not be included. The % or prob is type 1, where the "error" is concluding that nonrandomness is present when only randomness is present. Aka alpha risk because its the sum of the prob in the two tails - using wider limits reduces the prob of a type 1 error because it decreases the area in the tails; wider limits make it more difficult to detect non-random variations if they are present
Attribute data
- data that counts items - Discrete - Utilizes c-chart, p-chart -Pchart: fraction of defective items in a sample; appropriate when the data consists of two categories of items. - C Chart: number of defects per unit
Benefits of good quality
- enhanced reputation for quality - ability to command premium prices - increased market share - greater customer loyalty - lower liability costs - fewer production or service problems- which yields higher productivty, lower production costs & higher profits
Quality circles
- groups of workers who meet to discuss ways of improving products or processes - valuable source of worker input AND motivation for workers, if handled properly, by demonstrating management interest in workers ideas. - Less structured and more informal than teams involved in continuous improvement, but in some org. quality circles have evolved into continuous improvement teams - Major distinction between the two is: authority. Quality circles have very little authority to implement any but minor changes and continuous improvement teams are sometimes given a great deal of authority- added motivation generated by empowerment
Where to inspect in the process
- many operations have numerous possible inspection points; it is important to restrict inspection efforts to the points where they can do the most good. In manufacturing, some of the typical inspection points are: 1. Raw materials and purchased parts: there is little sense in paying for goods that do not meet quality standards and in expending time and effort on material that is bad to begin with. 2. Finished products: Well- designed processes, products and services, quality at the source, and process monitoring can reduce or eliminate the need for inspection. 3. Before a costly operation: point is not to waste costly labor or machine time on items that are already defective 4. Before an irreversible process: in many cases, items can be reworked up to a certain point and beyond that point they cannot. 5. Before a covering process: painting, plating, and assemblies often mask defects - inspection can be used as part of an effort to improve process yield; the ratio of good product to the total output - in the service sector, inspection points are incoming purchased materials and supplies, personnel, service interfaces (service counter) and outgoing completed work. - Read pg 247 for specific examples
Process variability
- natural or inherent variability in a process
Assignable cause of variation
- nonrandom variation or (special variation by deming); main sources of assignable variation can usually be identified and eliminated. -Ex: tool wear, equipment that needs adjustment, defective materials, human factors, and problems with measuring devices are typical sources
Taguchi cost function
- nontraditional view of what constitutes poor quality, and hence the cost of poor quality. The traditional view is that as long asoutput is within specifications, there is no cost. Taguchi belives that any deviation from the target value represents poor quality, and that the farther away from a target deviation is, the greater the cost; - reducing the variation inherent in a process will result in lowering the cost of poor quality
Process Capability
- once the stability of a process has been established, it is necessary to determine if the process is capable of producing output that is within an acceptable range.
Assemble-to-order (ATO)/ Hybrid
- partially manufactured and held in unfinished state - customer order dictates final and configuration - quicker response than MTO and more flexible than MTS
Project categories
- product change and process change - research and development - alliances and partnerships
Mean control chart
- referred to as X bar chart, is based on a normal distribution - UCL & LCL : x bar +/- standard normal deviate * standard deviation of distribution of sample means - standard deviation of distribution of sample means: Standard deviation/ square root of n . - if an observation on a control chart is on or outside either control limit, the process would be stopped to investigate the cause of the value, if no source of error is found, the value could simply be due to chance.
Six sigma
- refers to its goal of achieving a process variability so small that design specifications represent six standard deviations above and below the process mean; that means a process capability index equal to 2.00, resulting in an extremely small probability of getting any output not within the design specifications
Make-to-order (MTO)
- response to an actual order; standard or custom - WIP and finished goods inventory kept to a minimum - tends to have longer response time - sustainable for items with low-medium and variable demand
Process improvement
- systematic approach to improving a process; involves documentation, measurement, and analysis for the purpose of improving the functioning of a process - Typical goals: increasing customer satisfaction, achieving high quality, reducing waste, reducing cost, increasing productivity, and reducing processing time. overview of process improvement: A. Map the process B. Analyze the process C. Redesign the process
Brainstorming
- technique for generating a free flow of ideas in a group of people - ideas on identifying problems, and finding causes, solutions, and ways to implement solutions. - in successful brainstorming, criticism is absent, no single member dominates, and all ideas are welcomed; ensure everyone participates
Control charts
- tests data that is too extreme to be considered random; investigate points outside control limits
Run charts
- tests for non-random data - investigate patterns - checks for patterns in a sequence of observations- enables an analyst to do a better job of detecting abnormalities in a process and provides insights into correcting a process that is out of control. - the presence of patterns, such as trends, cycles, or bias in the output indicates that assignable, or nonrandom, causes of variation exist.
Common (random) cause of variation
- the natural or inherent process variations in process output are referred to as chance or random variations. - due to the combined influences of countless minor factors, each one so unimportant, that even if it could be eliminated, the impact on process variations would be negligible. -Ex: older machines generally exhibit a higher degree of natural variability than newer machines, partly because of worn parts and partly because new machines may incorporate new design improvements that lessen the variability in their output.
C- Chart
- use only when the number of occurences per unit of measure can be counted; non-occurrences cannot be counted (i.e scratches, chips, dents, or errors per item, cracks or faults per unit of distance, breaks or tears per unit of area, bacteria or pollutants per unit of volume, calls complaints failures per unit of time) -goal is to control the number of occurrences (e.g defects) per unit - use of the poisson distribution assumes that defects occur over some continuous region and that the probability of more than one defect at any particular point is negligible. - mean number of defects per unit is, C - standard deviation is square root of c - when the computed lower control limit is negative, the effective lower limit is zero - if an observation falls below the lower control limit on a p-chart or a c-chart, the cause should be investigated Formulas: UCL= c-bar + 3 (sd) LCL= c-bar - 3 (sd) (sd2)= c-bar (sd)= sqrt of c-bar
Total quality management
-a philosophy that involves everyone in an organization in a continual effort to improve quality and achieve customer satisfaction; 3 key philosophies: 1. Continuous improvement 2. involvement of everyone 3. customer satisfaction Describing the approach: 1. find out what customers want; might involve surveys, focus groups, interviews, or other technique that integrates the customers voice in the decision making process * be sure to include internal customer ( next person in the process) & external customer ( final customer) * 2. design a product or service that will meet (or exceed) what customers want, easy to use, and easy to produce 3. design processes that facilitate doing the job right the first time. Strive to make the process "mistake-proof." Fail-safing is where elements are incorporated in product or service design that make it virtually impossible for an employee (sometimes customer) to do something incorrectly; jap term for this is pokayoke [i.e appliance plugs that can be inserted into a wall outlet the correct way only]. 4. Keep track of results, and use them to guide improvement in the system; never stop trying to improve 5. extend these concepts throughout the supply chain [ visually from slide] top mgt commitment; *ultimate responsibility*, institute programs to improve quality as well as guide, direct, and motivate managers and workers. Need to set an example by being involved in quality initiatives employee involvement-- training & development-- Reward & recognition-- Measurement -- all lead to.......... --customer focus --continuous process improvement; philosophy that seeks to make never-ending improvements to the process of converting inputs into outputs --total involvement
Performance Dimension: Time to Market
-measures the frequency of new product introductions. -Time from initial concept to market introduction. -Number started and number completed - Actual vs plan - % of sales coming from new products
On-site vs. centralized.
-some situations require that inspections be performed on site. ex: inspecting the hull of a ship for cracks requires inspectors to visit the ship. - centralized: other times, specialized tasks can best be performed in a lab (e.g performing medical tests, analyzing food samples,etc.) -The central issue in on-site or centralized is whether the advantages of specialized lab tests are worth the time and interruption needed to obtain the results. -Reasons favoring on-site inspection include quicker decisions and avoidance of introduction of extraneous factors. - Reasons favoring centralized are that specialized equipment and a more favorable test environment offer strong arguments for using a lab.
inspection decision
1. How much to inspect and how often 2. At what points in the process inspection should occur 3. Whether to inspect in a centralized or on-site location 4. Whether to inspect attributes (i.e count the number of times something occurs) or variables (i.e measure the value of a characteristic)
Obstacles to implementing TQM
1. Lack of companywide definition of quality; efforts arent coordinated, addressing different issues, using different meaures of success 2. lack of a strategic plan for change; 3. Lack of a customer focus; 4. Poor intraorganizational communication; leads to frustration and waste 5. Lack of employee empowerment; impression of not trusting employees to fix problems 6. View quality as a "quick fix"; 7. Emphasis on ST financial results; needs to be ST and LT 8. Inordinate presence of internal politics and "turf" issues; 9. lack of strong motivation 10. Lack of time to devote to quality initiatives; dont add more work without additional resources 11. Lack of leadership
Process Types
1. Market Pull; firm begins development with a market opportunity and then uses whatever available technologies are required to satisfy the market need 2. Technology push; firm begins with a new proprietary technology and looks for an appropriate market in which to apply this technology. 3. Platform products; built around a preexisting technological subsystem 4. Process-Intensive Products; production process has an impact on properties of the product so that product design cannot be separated from the production process design. EX: foods, chemicals, and paper. Usually produced at very high volumes and are bulk 5. Customized Products; slight variations of standard configurations and are typically developed in response to a specific order by a customer. EX: switches, motors, batteries, and containers 6. High risk products; those that entail unusually large uncertainties related to the technology or market so that there is substantial technical or market risk 7. Quick Build products; process takes advantage of the fast prototyping cycle by using the result of each cycle to learn how to modify the priorities for the next cycle. 8. Complex systems; when developing complex systems, modifications to the generic product development process address a number of system-level issues. System is decomposed into subsystems and these further into many components; teams are assigned to develop each component ** will add more detail to each from text
What is quality? Product specific dimensions
1. Performance; main characteristics of the product 2. Aesthetics; appearance, feel, smell, taste 3. Special features; extra characteristics 4. conformance; how well a product corresponds to design specifications ( top 4 judged by fitness for use by customer ) 5. Reliability; durable performance 6. durability; ability to perform overtime 7. Perceived quality; indirect evaluation of quality (reputation) 8. Serviceability; handling of complaints or repairs
List and briefly explain the four basic sources of variation, and explain why it is important for mangers to be able to effectively deal with variation
1. The variety of goods or services being offered: The greater the variety of goods and services, the greater the variation in production or service requirements. Deliberate choice of a business. 2. Structural variation in demand, such as trends and seasonal variations. These are generally predictable. They are particularly important for capacity planning. 3. Random variation. This natural variability is present to some extent in all processes, and it also present in demand for services and products, and cannot generally be influenced by managers. 4. Assignable causes of variation: Variation caused by defective inputs, incorrect work methods, out of adjustment equipment, and so on. This type of variation can be reduced or eliminated by analysis and corrective action. Variations can be disruptive to operations and supply chain processes, interfering with optimal functioning. Variations result in additional cost, delays and shortages, poor quality, and inefficient work systems. Poor quality and product shortages or service delays can lead to dissatisfied customers and damage an organization's reputation and image.
3 Categories of business processes
1. Upper-management process; govern the operation of the entire organization EX: organizational governance and organizational strategy 2. Operational processes; these are the core processes that make up the value stream. EX: purchasing, production and/or service, marketing, and sales. 3. Supporting processes; these support the core processes. EX: accounting, human resources, and IT
4 basic accommodation strategies
1. classic accommodation; extra employees or skills to compensate for variations among customers 2. low cost accommodation; uses low cost labor, outsourcing, and self service 3. classic reduction; customer to engage in more self-service or adjust expectations 4. uncompromised reduction; uses knowledge of the customer to develop procedures that enable good service, while minimizing the variation impact on the service delivery system
No matter what approach is taken, there are 7 typical characteristics of a well-designed system
1. consistency with operating focus 2. user friendly 3. robust; cope effectively with variations in demand and resource availability 4. consistent performance is easily maintained 5. effectively links back office and the front office 6. manages evidence of service quality well 7. cost-effective
4 determinants of quality
1. design 2. how well the product or service conforms to the design 3. ease of use 4. service after delivery
Strategic uses of the matrix
1. enabling systematic integration of operations and marketing strategy 2. clarifying exactly which combination of service delivery the firm is in fact providing 3. permitting comparison with how other firms deliver specific services 4. indicating evolutionary or life cycle changes that might be in order as the firm grows
Product Design Process
1. idea development 2. product screening 3. preliminary design and testing 4. final design
Major areas affected by quality
1. loss of business; poor designs or services 2. liability; injury or damages resulting either from faulty design or poor workmanship, this applies to both product and service 3. productivity; poor quality can adversely affect productivity during the manufacturing process if parts are defective and have to be reworked or if an assembler has to try a number of parts to find the right tone 4. costs; earlier problem is identified, the cheaper the cost to fix it
Limitations of capability indexes
1. process may not be stable, in which case a capability index is meaningless 2. process output may not be normally distributed; 3. process is not centered but the Cp index is used, is giving misleading result
How service design is different from product design **
1. the process and the product must be developed simultaneously; the process IS the product 2. A service operation lacks the legal protection commonly available to products 3. the service package constitutes the major output of the development process 4. Many parts of the service package are defined by the training individuals receive before they become part of the service organization 5. Many service organizations can change their service offerings virtually overnight
Supply Chain
A sequence of activities and organizations involved in producing and delivering goods or service
System
A set of interrelated parts that must work together
Critical path
Activities in a critical path will have 0 slack ;Longest path. The length will always be less than or equal to the sum of all activity times of a project.
Services
Activities that provide some combination of time, location, form, and psychological value
List five important differences between goods production and service operations; then list five important similarities.
Among the important differences between manufacturing and service operations are: a. The nature and consumption of output. b. Uniformity of input. c. Labor content of jobs. d. Uniformity of output. e. Measurement of productivity.
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 augment production 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 the firm 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.
Process flowchart: Failure points, Quality points, Bottleneck is a
Circle with an F1 in the middle or Q1 in the middle
A process that emphasizes cross-functional integration and concurrent development of a product and its associated processes is known as...
Concurrent engineering
Process capability ratio,
Cp= specification width/ process width (centered process; used when centered) Cp= upper specification - lower specification/ 6sigma - If Cp>1.000 the process is considered capable (barely). We should aim for process capability of 1.33 -Cp; computation does not involve process mean; unless the target value (i.e process mean) is centered between the upper and lower specifications, the Cp index can be misleading
Capability index: process not centered
Cpk = Min ( xbar- LCS/ 3 sigma, UCS- x bar/ 3 sigma) LCS-- lower control specification UCS- upper control specification x bar= "grand" mean of process performance sd= standard deviation of process performance - if Cpk is>1.00, then the process is considered capable (barely); should aim for process capability of 1.33; the greater the capability index, the greater the probability that the output of a process will fall within design specifications - For processes that are not capable you can: 1. performing 100% inspection to weed out unacceptable items 2. improving the process to reduce variability 3. switching to a capable process 4. outsourcing, etc.
Service-design matrix;
Degree of customer/server contact going from a buffered core of none to a permeable system (some) to reactive system (much). Left side of matrix shows what we believe to be logical market proposition, namely, the greater the amount of contact, the greater the sales opportunity; the right side shows the impact on production efficiency as the customer exerts more influence on the operation. 1. mail contact(none) 2. internet and on-site technology(none) 3. phone contact(in middle of none & some) 4. face-to -face tight specs (some)- situations where there is little variation in the service process- neither customer nor server has much discretion in creating the service 5. face-to-face loose specs( in middle of some & much)- refers to situations where the service process is generally understood but there are options in how it will be performed or in the physical goods that are part of it 6. face-to-face total customization (much)- service encounters whose specifications must be developed through some interaction between the customer and server Sales opportunity increases with a more reactive system and production efficiency is lower with more contact Worker requirements increase with more contact clerical skills-- helping skills-- verbal skills-- procedural skills-- trade skills(called for loose specs)-- diagnostic skills ( called for in total customization) Focus of operations increases with more contact paper handling-- demand mgt-- scripting calls-- flow control-- capacity mgt-- client mix Technological innovations increases with more contact office automation-- routing methods-- computer databases-- electronic ads-- self serve-- client/worker teams
How is efficiency different from productivity?
Efficiency relates to a fixed set of tools or conditions. Productivity is wider in scope. Efficiency can be improved by better use of existing labor and equipment; productivity can be improved by changing work methods, but also by changing equipment or conditions.
High-risk products
Entail unusually large uncertainties about the technology or market. The development process takes steps to address those uncertainties.
Scientific Management
Frederick W. Taylor, who is often referred to as the father of scientific management, spearheaded the scientific management movement. The science of management was based on observation, measurement, analysis, improvement of work methods, and economic incentives. Management should be responsible for planning, carefully selecting and training workers, finding the best way to perform each job, achieving cooperation between management and workers, and separating management activities from work activities.
Designing products for aesthetics and with the user in mind is generally called what?
Industrial design
Controlling Process Variability
Input-- Transformation Process-- output; control happens at all stages
Slack time
Is the time an activity may be delayed without delaying the project. Is equal to = latest start time - earlier start time
Feedback
Measurements taken at various points in the transformation process for control purposes
Generic Product Development Process has 5 Phases which are:
Phase 0: Planning: beings with corporate strategy and includes assessment of technology developments and market objectives; output of this phase is the project mission statement Phase 1: Concept Development; needs of the TM are identified, alternative product concepts are generated & evaluated, and one or more concepts are selected for further development and testing Phase 2: System-level design; definition of the product architecture and the decomposition of the product into subsystems and components. Output is usually a geometric layout of the product, functional specification of each of the products subsystems, and a preliminary process flow diagram Phase 3: Design Detail; complete specification of the geometry, materials, and tolerances of all the unique parts in the product and the identification of all the standards parts to be purchased from suppliers. Output is the drawings or computer files describing the geometry of each part, specifications of purchased parts, and process plans for fabrication & assembly of the product. Phase 4: Testing and refinement; construction and evaluation of multiple preproduction versions of the product. prototypes are tested to determine whether the product will work as designed/ satisfies customer needs Phase 5: Production ramp-up; product is made using the intended production system. Purpose is to train the workforce and to work out any remaining problems. Transition from production ramp-up to ongoing production is usually gradual The generic product development process works primarily in a market-pull situation.
Platform products
Products are designed and built around a preexisting technological subsystem.
How does the QFD approach help? What are some limitations of this approach?
QFD helps to get the voice of the customer into the design process using interfunctional teams. The limitations of QFD relate to the culture of the organization. In the United States, we tend to be vertically oriented and try to promote breakthrough. This can work against interfunctional teamwork, which is needed for QFD success. If a breakthrough culture can be maintained with a continuous improvement mentality through interfunctional teams, this would lead to tremendous improvements in productivity.
Types of Process flowchart
Serial flow process: a single path for all stages of production. Parallel process: Some of the operations has alternative paths where two or more resources are used to increase capacity. Logistics process: Movement of things such as materials, people, or finished goods.
Throughput
The amount of material or items passing through a system or process.
What is the Balanced Scoreboard and how is it useful?
The balanced scorecard is a top-down management system that helps managers focus attention on strategic issues related to finance, internal processes, customers, and learning and growth.
Value-added
The difference between the cost of inputs and the value or price of outputs
Operations Management
The management of systems or processes that create goods and/or provide services. These processes involve the planning, coordination, and execution of all activities that create goods and services.
Value Analysis (VA)/ Value Engineering (VE)
The objective is to achieve equivalent or better performance at a lower cost. The purpose is to simplify products and processes. VA deals with products already in production VE is performed before the production stage
Describe operations function
The operations function consists of all activities that are directly related to producing goods or providing services.
Process-intensive products
The production process has an impact on the product properties. Therefore, product design and process design cannot be separated.
Utilization
The ratio of the time that a resource is actually used/activates relative to the time that is available for use.
Lead time
The time between ordering a good or service and receiving it. Beginning of appointment and when you leave.
Little's Law
There is a long-term relationship between inventory, throughput, and flow time. Inventory = Throughput X Flow Time
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.
Process flowcharting
Use of a diagram to present the major elements of a process. Elements including - taks or operations - flows of materials or customers - decision points - storage areas or queues An ideal methodology to be used to being analyzing a process. Flowchart symbols: square: tasks or operations upside down triangle: storage areas or queues (waiting lines) diamond: decision points arrow: flows of material or customers
Quality control
a process that evaluates output relative to a standard and takes corrective action when output doesn't meet standards.
service guarentees
a promise of service satisfaction backed up by a set of actions that must be taken to fulfill the promise; 1. any guarentee is better than none 2. involve the customer + employees in design 3. avoid complexity or legalisitic language 4. do not quibble when customer invokes guarantee 5. make it clear you are happy for customers to invoke guarantee
Efficiency
a ratio of the actual output of a process relative to some standard; alternatively used to measure the loss or gain in a process
Supply chain
a sequence of activities and organizations involved in producing and delivering a good or service simple product supply chain: suppliers' suppliers-- direct suppliers-- producer-- distributor-- final customers
ethical framework
a sequence of steps intended to guide thinking and subsequent decision or action
A system is
a set of interrelated parts that must work together; this approach is essential whenever something is being designed, redesigned, implemented improved, or other-wise changed. Global competition and outsourcing are increasing the length of companies supply chains, making it more important for companies to use the systems approach
core competency
a set of knowledge and skills that make the organization superior to competitors and create value for customers and higher profits
Ethics
a standard of behavior that guides how one should act in various situations
Control Charts
a time ordered plot of representative sample statistics obtained from an ongoing process (e.g sample means), used to distinguish between random and nonrandom variability.
Net present value analysis
a type of cost-benefit analysis of the cash flow streams associated with an investment
Virtue principle
actions should be consistent with certain ideal virtues. EX: honesty, compassion, generosity, etc.
Common Good principle
actions should contribute to the common good of the community EX: ordinance on noise abatement`
Rights principle
actions should respect and protect the moral rights of others EX: not taking advantage of a vulnerable person
contract manufacturer
an organization that performs manufacturing and/or purchasing needed to produce a product or device not for itself, but as a service to another firm
ROQ( return on quality)
approach focuses on the economics of quality efforts. Quality improvement projects are viewed as investments, and, as such, they are evaluated like any other investment, using metrics related to ROI
Process flowchart: Flow of materials and/or Customer is a
arrow
Explicit service then implicit service
benefits that are observable by the senses & consist of the essential or intrinsic features of the service ex; response time of an ambulance implicit: psychological benefits that the customer may sense only vaguely or the extrinsic features of the service ex; status of a degree from an ivy league school
Statistical process control
control efforts that occur during production
Cost of quality
cost of quality increases exponentially as you go from prevention-- appraisal-- internal failure-- external failure
Appraisal costs
costs of activities designed to ensure quality or uncover defects; relate to inspection, testing & the cost of inspectors, testing, test equipment, etc
Prevention costs
costs of preventing defects from occurring; such as planning and administration systems, working with vendors, training, quality control, etc.
that item, which we believe operationally distinguishes one service system from another in its production function, is the extent of
customer contact in the creation of the service
The first step in developing a house of quality is to develop a list of ______
customer requirements for the product
Process flowchart: Line of Visibility is a
dashed line; Line of visibility is a separate between what the customer is involved in/seen; this includes everything that the customer does not see
Information
data provided to the customer to enable efficient and customized services ex; tee-off times
Value Added
defined as the difference between the cost of inputs before the transformation process and the value or the price of output after the transformation process.
Process flowchart: Decision alternative is a
diamond
Internal failure
discovered during production process; occur because of defective material, incorrect machine settings, faulty equipment, etc. Costs are loss production time, scrap and rework, possible equipment damage, etc.
Control limits
dividing lines between random and non random deviations from the mean of the distribution.
Cycle time
elapsed time between starting and completing a job. Another related term is flow time- includes the time that the unit spends actually being worked on together with the time spent waiting in a queue.
Concurrent engineering
emphasizes cross-functional integration and concurrent development of a product and its associated processes
Henry Ford
great industrialist; employed scientific mgt techniques in his factories
Frank Gilbreth
industrial engineer who is often referred to as the fahter of motion study;
I/E costs vs A/P costs
internal & external failure costs represent costs related to poor quality, whereas appraisal and prevention costs represent investments for achieving good quality - prevention costs will be outweighed by savings in appraisal and failure costs.
Mass production
involves producing a few standardized goods at high volume of output with low skilled workers utilizing specialized equipment. The main advantage is low cost, efficient production. The main disadvantage is that it does not allow easy changes in volume of output, product or process design. Examples: automobiles, computers, mail sorting, appliances, paper, soft drink bottling, etc.
Craft production
involves producing high variety of customized goods, low volume output with skilled workers, and utilizing general-purpose equipment. The main advantage is the flexibility to produce a wide variety of outputs providing many choices for the need of customers. The main disadvantage is its inability to produce at low cost. Examples: tailoring, machine shop, print shop,
Lean Production
involves producing more variety of goods than most production at moderate to high volume of output. It requires high skilled workers, quality, employee involvement, teamwork and flatter organizational structure with fewer levels of management. It combines the advantages of both mass production (high volume, low cost) and craft production (variety, flexibility). Examples: similar to mass production.
Productivity
is the ratio of output to input
Facilitating goods
material purchased by the buyer or the items provided to the customer or the items provided by the customer Ex; golf clubs
Partial factor productivity
measured based on an individual input, labor being the most common. Answers the question of how much output we can get from a given level of input
The purpose of a control chart is to
monitor process output to see if it is random. A necessary but not sufficient condition for a process to be deemed "in control" or stable, is for all the data points to fall between the upper and lower control limits- essence of statistical process control is to assure that the output of a process is random so that future output will be random - basis for the control chart is the sampling distribution, describes the random variability; the theoretical distribution extends in either direction to infinity; limit is set at 3 SD form the mean , anything further is not random
As a rule, operations with a high proportion of human involvement,
necessitate more inspection effort than mechanical operations. A stable process will require only infrequent checks, whereas an unstable one or one that has recently given trouble will require more frequent checks.
Quality
our goal is to meet or exceed customer expectations; ability of a product or service to consistently meet or exceed customer expectations. - difference between performance and expectations: if it is zero= expectations have been met. If difference is negative= expectations have not been met. If difference is positive= performance exceeded customer expectations - product/ service free of deficiencies - fitness for use - conformance to requirements
throughput rate
output rate that the process is expected to produce over a period of time
Interchangeable parts
parts of a product made to such precision that they do not have to be custom fitted
Supporting facility
physical resources that must be in place before a service can be offered
Acceptance sampling
quality assurance that relies primarily on inspection of lots (batches) before and after production
Process velocity
ratio of the value added time to the flow time; where value-added time is-- time in which useful work is actually being done on the unit. Value added time should be the sum of the activity operation times in the process
Henry Gannt
recognized the value of nonmonetary rewards to motivate workers
Quality of conformance
refers to the degree to which goods and services conform (achieve) the intent of the designers. This is affected by: capability of equipment used skills/training/motivation of workers extent to which the design lends itself to production monitoring process to asses conformance taking of corrective action important key to quality is reducing the variability in process outputs
Process capability
refers to the inherent variability of process output relative to the variation allowed by the design specifications;
The purpose of value analysis/value engineering is to __________
simplify products and processes
Job enrichment
specialized work is made more interesting by giving the worker a greater variety of tasks greater variety of tasks (horizontal)-- intended to counteract oversimplification involved in planning, organizing, and inspecting his/her own work (veritcal)-- attempts to broaden workers' influence in the transformation process by giving them certain managerial powers over their own activities
Operation time
sum of the setup time and run time for a batch of parts that are run on a machine
SIPOC diagram
suppliers-- inputs-- process-- outputs-- customers
Operations management is the management of
systems or processes that create goods and/or provide services; operations is concerned with the supply of goods and/or services. The scope of operations management ranges across the organization
How much to inspect: high-cost, low-volume items
that have large costs associated with passing defective products often require more intensive inspections. In high-volume systems, automated inspection is one option that may be employed.
Who/ what should be the focal point of all decisions & actions? the way we now view services
the customer; the service strategy, employees, and support systems are all connected around the customers and to the customers as well service package- a bundle of goods and services that is provided in some environment; consists of 5 features. 1. supporting facility 2. facilitating goods 3. information 4. explicit service 5. implicit service
Service blueprint
the flowchart of a service process, emphasizing what is visible and what is not visible to the customer; top level: activites under control of customer 2nd level: activities performed by the service manager handling the customer 3rd level: repair activities performed in the garage; lowest level: internal accounting activity
Utilitarian principle
the good done by an action or inaction should outweigh any harm it causes or might cause EX: not allowing who has had too much to drink to drive
The service development Process: Complexity
the number of steps involved in a service and possible actions that can be taken at each step
The service development Process: divergence
the number of ways a customer/ service provider interaction can vary at each step according to the needs of abilities of each
Run time
the time required to produce a batch of parts; calculated by multiplying the time required to produce each unit by the batch size.
If customers participate in a service system,
there can be increased potential for a negative perception of quality;
Improving process capability
this means less need for inspecton, lower warranty costs, fewer complaints about service, and high productivity
external failure
those discovered after delivery to the customer; costs include warranty work, handling of complaints, replacements, liability/litigation, payments to customers or discounts used to offset the inferior quality, etc.
Setup time
time required to prepare a machine to make a particular item; long set up time usually leads to parts runned in batches. Often not included in the utilization of a process
Range control charts
used to monitor the process dispersion; they are sensitive to changes in process dispersion. Control limits for range charts are found using the average sample range in conjunction with these formulas: - x bar charts are always used in conjunction with a range chart - R Chart is a sample range; - center line is the range mean ( r bar) UCL: D4 R bar LCL: D3 R bar where values of D3, D4 are obtained from a table
Process
One or more actions that transform inputs into outputs
Frederick Winslow Taylor
"father of scientific mgt" gave new emphasis to quality by including product inspection and gauging in his list of fundamental areas of manufacturing management
Bottleneck
(Flowcharting) Stage that limits the capacity of the process. E.g. the slowest part of the process.
PChart
- used to monitor the proportion of defective items generated by process. - observations can be placed into 2 categories: good or bad, pass or fail, operate or dont operate - p= total # of defectives/ total # of observations - theoretical basis for a p-chart is the binomial distribution; constructed and used in much the same way as a mean chart. - Center line on chart is the average fraction of defective in the population, p. - standard deviation of the sampling distribution when p is known, is square root of p(1-p)/ n - Control limits: UCL & LCL: p +/- z* standard dev of p - if p is unknown, it can be estimated from samples ** only use 3 for Z**
Make-to-stock (MTS)
-Meet expected/forecast demand. -Shorter lead time for stocked items, much longer for out of stock and risk of obsolescence - suitable for times with high and stable demand -required when customer lead time is less than manufacturing lead time
Technology-push products
A firm with a new proprietary technology seeks out a market where that technology can be applied.
Inventory used in productivity measure
Inventory turnover equation is used. Measures how frequently average inventory is sold/ how efficiently inventory is used.
In a flowchart, what is used to represent a storage activity in the process?
Inverted triangle
Quality Function Deployment (QFD)
Is a tool for translating customer requirements into concrete opening and engineering goals. In addition, facilitating inter-functional cooperation between marketing, engineering and manufacturing.
Contrast organization strategy and operations strategy
Operations strategy is the approach consistent with the organization strategy, which is used to carry out operations.
Discuss the various impacts of outsourcing
Outsourcing can result in lower costs, the ability to take advantage of others' expertise, and allow businesses to focus on their core business. Outsourcing generally results in layoffs and some loss of control. Also, outsourcing to companies in other nations may result in problems due to cultural or language differences, and increased shipping times for products.
Goods
Physical items produced by business organizations
Fortnightly
Produced every two weeks
Contrast the terms strategies and tactics
Strategy is the basic approach used by an organization to achieve its goal where tactics are the methods and actions are taken to accomplish strategies and carry out operations.
Sustainability
Sustainability refers to service and production processes that use resources in ways that do not harm ecological systems that support both current and future human existence.
Which phase of the generic development process involves construction and evaluation of multiple preproduction versions of the product?
Testing and refinement
Measures of product development success
Time to market, productivity, and quality
Time-based strategies
Time-based strategies are approaches that focus on reducing the time needed to conduct the various activities in a process.
The 5 Main types of Transformation processes are
Transformation process- the efficient management of resources used to create value; answers how we do it well 1. Physical; manufacture of goods 2. Locational; transportation or warehousing 3. Exchange; retail (online, catalog, or in-store) 4. Psychological; entertainment 5. Informational; communications, analysis
Which work measurement technique is most appropriate for tasks that are infrequent or have a long cycle time?
Work sampling
Harriongton Emerson
encouraged the use of experts to improve organizational efficiency
Fairness principle
equals should be held to, or evaluated by, the same standards EX: equal pay, equal work
Job design
function of specifying the work activities of an individual or group in an organizational setting. Its objective is to develop job structures that meet the requirements of the organization and its technology and that satisfy the jobholders' personal and individual requirements
Specialization of labor
simple, repetitive jobs are assigned to each worker
Process flowchart: Inventory/stock is a
triangle ( storage areas or queues (waiting lines) )
Most common process metric is
utilization; the ratio of time that a resource is actually being used relative to the time that it is available for use; it is always measured in reference to some resource. It measures the actual activation of the resource
Fully integrated firm
where all activities from the design to the fabrication of the individual parts are handled in-house. At the other extreme is a company that only sells products and outsources all the design and manufacturing functions