Process Design

Operations Operations in
Strategy Context
Product/Service Design
Sustainable Operations
Process Design
Direct Agile Operations
Steering operations

Design Develop
Shaping products, services Improving the operation’s
and systems capabilities

Deliver
Operations System Design Planning and controlling Lean Operations
ongoing operations
Global Network Operations Operations Improvement

Capacity Management, Operations Planning & Control, Supply Chain Management

 Key Topics

◼ Process types

◼ Process analysis

◼ Optimised production technology

Core Reading: Textbook Chapters 5(Sections

5.1, 5.2) &6
 Process Design

◼ Products & services need to be designed, but so do the processes

which produce them
◼ There are different process types
◼ Process types are defined by the volume and variety of ‘items’ they
process
◼ Process types go by different names depending on whether they
produce products or services
 Effects of Volume/Variety

low volume high

few variety many

The volume-variety position of a process influence almost

every aspect of its design.
 Different volume–variety
characteristics for different process

Ensure that the performance of

the process is appropriate for
whatever it is trying to achieve.
 Different volume–variety
characteristics for different process
No one type of process design is best for all circumstances.
Process types on the volume-variety spectrum
High

Project/Job
Process

Batch Process
(FLEXIBILITY)
VARIETY

Human-paced
Line Process
Machine-paced
Line Process

Continuous
Process

Low High
VOLUME (EFFICIENCY)
 Project Process
• One-off, large scale, discrete,
high work content “products”

• Highly customised products,

specially-made, everyone
customized

• Long timescale

• Complex due to uncertain

activities which is needed to be
judged by professionals

• Defined start and finish: time,

quality and cost objectives e.g. shipbuilding, most construction companies, movie
production companies, drilling oil wells, large fabrication
• Many different skills have to be operations (manufacturing large turbo generators, and
coordinated installing a computer system
 Job Process
• More and usually smaller
quantities: “one-offs”, or
only a few required,
• Resources to be shared
with other products
• Specially-made. High
variety, low repetition.
“Strangers” everyone
customized”
• Skill requirements are
usually very broad
• Skilled jobber, or team,
complete whole product e.g. precision engineering, ‘made to measure’ tailors,
• Typically, high variable furniture restorer, bespoke tailors, printer producing
costs and low equipment ticket for local social event
utilization
Job Process
 Batch Process
• Producing more than one
‘product’ at a time (as the
name implies)

• Higher volumes and lower

variety than for jobbing (A
wider range of volume and
variety)

• Standard products, repeating

demand. But can make
specials

• Specialized, narrower skills

e.g. Machine tool manufacturing, specialist
• Set-ups (changeovers) at gourmet frozen foods, manufacture of most
each stage of production component parts that go into mass-produced
assemblies
 Line Process
• Higher volumes than
batch
• Lower effective variety
due to no effect on basic
process of production
• Standard, repeat
products (“runners”),
largely predictable
processes.
• Low and/or narrow skills
• No set-ups, or almost
instantaneous ones
• Straightforward process e.g. automotive plant, television factory, many food
mapping processes
 Continuous Process
• Extremely high volumes and
low variety: often single
product

• Standard, repeat products

(“runners”)”

• Highly capital-intensive and

automated

• Few changeovers required

• Difficult and expensive to start

and stop the process,
(associated with relatively
inflexible and capital-intensive
i.e. petrochemical refineries, electrical utilities,
technologies with highly
steel making and some paper making
predictable flow)
Continuous Process
 Questions
• If you were making a sandwich for a
friend what type of process would it be?

High
Project

• What type of process would it be if you Job

were making sandwiches for a whole

group of friends who were due to arrive Batch

Variety
in an hour’s time? Line

Continu

• Now, if you were making 5,000

Low
ous

Low Volume High

sandwiches a day for a supermarket,
what is the process type?
 Service Process Types

High
Diverse/
Complex Intermittent Professional
service

Service shop
Variety
Process Process
tasks Flow

Mass service
Low

Repeated / Continuous
Divided
Low Volume High
 Professional Service
• High levels of customer (client)
contact
• Clients spend a considerable time
in the service process
• High levels of customization with
service processes being highly
adaptable
• Contact staff are given high levels
of discretion in servicing e.g. consultants, lawyers,
customers. architects, doctors, accountants
• People-based rather than etc.
equipment-based
 Service Shop
• Medium levels of volumes
of customers
• Medium, or mixed, levels
of customer contact
• Medium, or mixed, levels
of customization
• Medium, or mixed, levels
of staff discretion

e.g. commercial banks, shops, holiday tour

operators, car rental companies,
restaurants, hotel, travel agents etc.
 Mass Service
• High levels of volumes of
customers

• Low to medium levels of customer

contact

• Low, or mixed, levels of

customization

• Low, or mixed, levels of staff e.g. supermarkets, national rail

discretion networks, airport, telecommunication
service & call centres
 The Natural Diagonal
Represents the most appropriate design for any volume-variety position

Manufacturing operations Service operations

process types process types

Project Professional
More process service
Volume Increase

flexibility than

Variety Increase
Jobbing is needed so
high cost
Service
Batch Shop
Less process
Mass flexibility than
is needed so Mass
high cost service
Continuous

The ‘natural’ line of fit of process to volume/variety characteristics.

Deviating from the ‘natural’ diagonal on the product-process matrix has
consequences for cost and flexibility.
Question
 Answer (1 of 3)
Not all banks offer the full range of services, but try thinking about the services described in the
example in Chapter 1. These are as follows:

• Personal banker/advisor – The person you see when you want a complex, unusual or highvalue
service.
• Teller services – The people in synthetic fibre uniforms behind the counters.
• Call centre – The people that you (eventually) speak to after pressing 1, 2, 3, etc.
• Internet banking – What most of us do now.
• Automated teller machines (ATMs) – Cash machines that say ʻSorry this machine is out
of service’ when you really want some cash.

Roughly the volume – variety positions of these services are as in the diagram below.
 Answer (2 of 3)
A more detailed look at the characteristics of these services and the processes that create them is
shown in the table below.
 Answer (3 of 3)
A more detailed look at the characteristics of these services and the processes that create them is
shown in the table below.
Is the importance of detailed
process design understood?
 Process chain
No chain is stronger than its weakest link

It involves calculating the details of the process, in particular its objectives,

sequence of activities, allocation of tasks and capacity, and its ability to
incorporate the effects of variability. It defines the way units flow.
Are process performance
objectives clear?
 Process Analysis Questions

◼ Is the process designed to achieve a

competitive advantage?
◼ Does the process eliminate steps that do not
add value?
◼ Does the process maximize customer value?
◼ Will the process win orders?
Process Analysis objectives
 4 Micro process performance objectives
and 4 process design factors

the time for a unit to move through the

The rate at which units emerge from the process, i.e., the
process, and become output
number of units passing through the process per unit of time
(=1/CycleTime)
Work in process
(work in progress)
= the number of
units in the process
as an average over
a period of time

The proportion of available

time that the resources
within the process are
performing useful work.

The design factors that will

influence the flow objectives
 Example
Passport office, handles 5000 applications every working day (7hours)

Three stages to process a passport

1. Receive and key-in details (takes 3 minutes on average)
2. Check, code and characterise (takes 2.5 minutes on average)
3. Verify, and finish (takes 3.5 minutes on average)

Work piles up before and between each stage

12500 files in total, at the last count

Receive and Check, code and Verify, and

finish
key-in details characterise
 Cycle time, throughput time
and work-in-process
Calculating the required Cycle Time

Forecast Demands During the Period (A) 5000

420 mins
Availability of Productive Time (B)
0.084 mins
Cycle Time (C=B/A)

Deciding How Many Staff Are Needed

Work Content of the Task (D) 9 mins

Cycle Time Required (C) 0.084 mins
Number of Staff (D/C) 107.14 (108)

Throughput (TH) time = Work in process (WIP) × Cycle time (CT)

= 12,500 x 0.084 = 1,050 min = 17.5 hrs
 John Little
(1928 - USA)
Little’s law
Throughput (TH) = Work in process (WIP) × Cycle time (CT)

500 exam scripts need to be marked in 5 days (working 7 hours a day).

It takes 1 hour to mark a script. How many markers are needed?

First work out throughput time (TH): 5 days × 7 hours = 35 hours (max
amount of time available for the task)

Second, put into little’s equation:

35 hours (TH)= 500 scripts (WIP) × Cycle time (CT)
Third, Cycle time (CT) = 35 hours = 0.07 hour = 4.2 min
500 scripts

Number of markers = Work content = 1 hour = 14.29

Cycle time 0.07hour
How are process currently
designed? ‘as is’ vs ‘to be’
Why map processes in detail
 Draw a process map for
Customised Sandwich Making
 Draw a process map for
Standard Sandwich Making
 Process Mapping
Standard sandwich process
Raw Stored Move to Stored Take Payment
Assembly Sell
Materials Sandwiches Outlets Sandwiches

Customer Request

Customized sandwich process Operation (an activity

that directly adds value)
Raw Assembly Take Payment Inspection (a check of
Materials some sort)
Transport (a movement
of something)
Delay (a wait, e.g. for materials)
Customer
Request Storage (deliberate storage,
as opposed to a delay)
Process mapping symbols
Process mapping symbols Process mapping symbols
derived from “Scientific derived from Systems Analysis
Management”
Operation (an activity
that directly adds Beginning or end of
value) process

Inspection (a check of
Activity
some sort)

Transport (a movement
of some thing) Input or Output from the
process

Delay (a wait, e.g. For materials)

Direction of flow

Storage ( deliberate
storage, as opposed to a Decision (exercising discretion)
delay)

Process mapping is an important descriptive tool for looking at

process design, but we also need an analytical perspective.
Process Mapping Example
 Process Flowchart Example: hiring process

A simple flowchart
detailing a process’s
steps, inputs, and
outputs.

Try open source: www.draw.io

https://quixy.com/blog/business-process-mapping/
 Value Chain Map Example

A map that shows the core tasks in processes without going into too much
detail regarding roles or rework loops

Source: BPMInstitute.org
 Detailed Process Map Example

Source: SlideServe

A map containing all of the

details of sub-processes
and decision points within
a process.
 Deployment Flowchart Example

A map showing the relationship between the tasks in each step and the
units responsible for them. They are also known as swim-lane charts

Source: Creately
 Value Stream Map
A map showing the materials and data needed to deliver the final
output to end consumers. These maps use a specific, defined set of
symbols to show a process.

Source: Creately
Process Design– Slide 63
 Best Practices for Business Process
Mapping

• Clear Objectives: Start with a defined purpose.

• Involve Stakeholders: Include relevant participants.
• Standard Symbols: Use recognized notation.
• Keep It Simple: Aim for clarity.
• Begin High-Level: Start with an overview.
• Inputs and Outputs: Identify what goes in and out.
• Consistent Terminology: Maintain uniform language.
• Highlight Decisions: Clearly mark decision points.
• Roles and Responsibilities: Assign tasks and roles.
• Include Metrics: Add relevant KPIs for measurement.
• Review and Validate: Verify accuracy with stakeholders.
• Consider Variations: Document significant variations.
• Version Control: Maintain document versions.
• Supporting Documentation: Supplement as needed.
• Regular Updates: Keep maps current and evolving.
 Are process tasks and capacity
configured appropriately?

▪ task precedence;

▪ series and parallel configurations;

▪ cycle time and process capacity – bottlenecks;

▪ process balancing;

▪ throughput, cycle time and work-in-process.

 Task precedence
Process task details for the ‘computer test and repair’ task

It indicates how activities must be

sequenced in the eventual process design.

For example, the process cannot perform activity ‘b’

before activity ‘a’ is completed. It does not determine
how a process can be designed

Precedence diagram showing the relationship between activities

for the computer test and repair task
 ‘Long & thin’ vs. ‘short & fat’
The number of stages vs the amount of work allocated to each stage

A 60-minute task with a required cycle time of 15 minutes.....

Long thin process

15 15 15 15
1 every 15
minutes

60

30 30
1 every 15 60
1 every 15
minutes minutes
30 30 60

60
Short fat process
Process Configurations
Process Configurations
Process Configurations
 ‘Long & thin’ vs. ‘short & fat’
➢ Long and short describes the number of stages

➢ Fat and thin describes the amount of work at each stage

Advantages of long-thin processes Advantages of short-fat processes

controlled flow higher mix flexibility
simple materials handling higher volume flexibility
lower capital requirement (no greater robustness
duplication)
less monotonous
greater efficiency
higher ownership
higher space utilization
 Balancing
An ideal ‘balance’ where work is allocated equally between the stages...
3
Cycle time = 2.5 mins
2.5
Work allocated to stage
2
Balancing loss is
Load

1.5 that proportion of

the time invested in
1 processing the
product or service
0.5
which is not used
productively
0
1 2 3 4
Stage
 Balancing Loss
But if work is not equally allocated, the cycle time will increase and ‘balancing
losses’ will occur..... Balancing loss is that proportion of the time invested in
processing the product or service which is not used productively
3.5
Cycle time = 3.0 mins
3 Work allocated to stage
Idle time
2.5

2 Calculating balancing loss:

Load

1.5 Idle time = (3.0 – 2.3) + (3.0 –

2.5) + (3.0 – 2.2)
1 every cycle = 2.0 mins
Balancing 2.0
0.5 =
loss 4 x 3.0
= 0.1667
0 = 16.67%
1 2 3 4
Stage
Balancing -Example
Balancing -Example
 Balancing -Example

11

11
Balancing -Example

11

11
How to analyse or improve
the process?
 Optimised Production
Technology (OPT)
◼ Based upon the ideas of Eli Goldratt ‘The
Goal" (Goldratt and Cox, 1984).
◼ OPT concerns the "management of
bottlenecks" for maximising overall system
efficiency.
◼ Bottleneck:
◼ a point in the manufacturing or project management process where
the capacity is limited, causing a slowdown in overall production or
project advancement. It acts as a constraint, impeding the smooth
flow of operations and creating a backlog

◼ Basic premise:
◼ Overall output rate is determined by the rate of
production at the one or two bottlenecks in the system.
 Spotting Bottlenecks using
Process Mapping

Process flows
30 Bottleneck!
10 10
min min min

Process Process Process Process

A B C D

Service/
product
 Time Saving
What are the consequencesof saving time at each process?

Bottleneck Non-bottleneck

• Rule: Bottlenecks govern both turnover and

inventory in the system.
• Rule: An hour lost at a bottleneck is an hour lost
for the entire system.
• Rule: An hour saved at a non-bottleneck is a
mirage.
 Looking for Constraints

◼ Map whole system

processes, think of
like traffic system
with cars (patients)
flowing through
◼ look for bottlenecks/
constraints in the
system

We can only go as fast as the slowest step

 Theory of Constraints (TOC)

◼ address the
constraints
◼ look for the new
constraints, i.e.
bottlenecks
◼ and so on ……..

An on-going process……
 Optimised Production
Technology (OPT)

◼ Scheduling activity should concentrate

upon 100% loading at these critical
bottlenecks, then trying to increase output
at them through continual improvement.

◼ The "non-critical activities" need only be

loaded to support the rate of production at
these bottlenecks.
 Summary
◼ Process types presents a logical distribution along the
volume-variety spectrum. They are named differently for
product-oriented (project, jobbing, bath, mass/line,
continuous flow) or service-oriented (professional, shop,
mass) operations.

◼ Processes can be analysed by using mapping techniques

and a set of matrices, e.g. cycle time, throughput time, work in
progress, and throughput efficiency.

◼ The productivity of a system can be improved through

identifying and removing process constraints/bottlenecks, i.e.
the optimised production technology.
 To do Tasks
◼ Complete the review questions Q2.4 – Q2.6 based on your
learning

◼ Read textbook – Chapter 5 (Sections 5.1, 5.2), 6

◼ Complete the Africa Action Response Case (page 222 of the

textbook), using the template on Canvas to be discussed
during the Seminar of Week 3.
 Review Questions
Q2.4 Name process types of product &
service operations and explain their fit in the
volume-variety spectrum.

Q2.5 What are the basic concepts of process

analysis?

Q2.6 How can managers use the optimised

production technology to improve the
productivity of an operations system?