PROCESS DESIGN

DR.WEERAWAT KHAWSUK
RANGSIT UNIVERSITY INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE
 What is process design?

What should be the objectives of

process design?
KEY
QUESTIONS How do volume and variety affect
process design?

How are processes designed in

detail?
WHAT IS PROCESS DESIGN?
Design is an activity that can be approached at different levels of
detail

It is important to understand the design objectives

The common way is by positioning according to its volume and variety

characteristics

It must be analyzed to fulfill its objectives effectively

PROCESS DESIGN AND PRODUCT/SERVICE
DESIGN
• Process design and product/service
design are interrelated
• Small changes in the
product/service design have
implications for product operations
• The design of the process cannot be
done independently of services and
products that are being created
OPERATIONS IN PRACTICE

• Read page 178 on “Changi airport”

 PROCESS NETWORKS
➢Hierarchy of operations is made up of networks (processes) and other
operations
➢It has many processes transforming items and transferring them to other
internal processes
➢Advantages of process network:
• Understanding how and where a process fits into the internal network
to establish appropriate objectives
• Having a clear ‘line of sight’ forward through to end customers
• Easier to understand the role and importance of suppliers from a
PROCESS NETWORK WITHIN AN OPERATION
WHAT SHOULD BE THE OBJECTIVES OF
PROCESS DESIGN?
• The performance of the process is appropriate to achieve
• The design of any process should be judged on 6 characteristics of
performance:
• Quality
• Speed
• Dependability
• Flexibility
• Cost
• Sustainability
MICRO PROCESS OBJECTIVES
Processes are managed at a very operational level

Process design needs to consider a micro and detailed set of

objectives
When resources enter a process, a series of transformed activities
occur

Between activities it may involve some time in inventories

Time in the process will be longer than the sum of all transforming
activities
Items moving through the process and resources performing may not
be fully utilized
MICRO PROCESS OBJECTIVES
• Throughput rate (flow rate) is the rate at which items emerge from
the process.
• Cycle time is the time between items emerging from the process. It
is the reciprocal of the throughput rate.
• Throughput time is the average elapsed time taken for inputs to
move through the process and become outputs
• Work-in-process (WIP) or process inventory is the number of items
in the process, as an average over time.
• Utilization of process resources is the proportion of available time
that the resources within the process are performing useful work
OPERATIONS IN PRACTICE
READ PAGE 183 ON “FAST (BUT NOT TOO FAST) FOOD
DRIVE-THROUGHS”
 Standardization means doing things in the same way
or adopting a common sequence of activities,
methods, and use of equipment

For large organizations, similar or identical tasks

emerge over time

STANDARDIZATION Allowing many ways of doing the same thing would

OF PROCESSES cause confusion, misunderstanding, and inefficiency

Standardizing processes can give some significant

advantages, but not every process can be
standardized

Practical dilemma is how to draw the line between

processes that are required to be standardized, and
those that are allowed to be different
 OPERATIONS IN PRACTICE
READ PAGE 184 ON “LEGAL & GENERAL’S
MODULAR HOUSING PROCESS”
ENVIRONMENTALLY SENSITIVE PROCESS DESIGN
The sources of inputs to Sources of energy: Amount and type of
a product or service: Plastic bottles use more waste material:
Damage rainforests, energy than glass ones, Recycling waste
Use up scarce minerals, Waste heat be efficiently, Burnt or
Exploit the poor or child recovered and used in Buried in landfill sites
labor fish farming

Product life: Long useful End-of-life product:

life, Consume fewer Difficult to dispose or
resources environmentally friendly
OPERATIONS IN
PRACTICE

READ PAGE 185 ON

“ECOVER’S ETHICAL
OPERATION DESIGN”
HOW DO VOLUME AND VARIETY AFFECT
PROCESS DESIGN?
Processes can range from producing a very low variety of products (i.e.
electrical utility) or services to a very high variety (i.e. architects’ practice)

Dimesions of volume and variety go in a reversed way

Low-volume processes produce a high variety of products/services

High-volume processes a narrow variety

A single operation could be processed with very different positions on this

volume-variety spectrum
PROCESS TYPES

The position of a process on the volume-variety continuum shapes

its overall design and process types

Project process, Jobbing

Process type depends on process, Batch process,
whether they are predominantly Mass process, and
manufacturing or service Continuous process
processes Professional service,
Service shop, Mass service
 PROJECT PROCESSES
It deals with discrete, highly customized products

Often with a relatively long timescale between completion

Low volume and high variety

Ill-defined and uncertain activities

Transforming resources may be organized especially for each item

Ex: Software design, movie production, construction work, turbo generator

manufacturing
 It deals with high variety and love volume

Each product has to share the operation’s

JOBBING resources with many others
PROCESSES
It processes a series of items, but requires similar
attention

It involves some skill and fewer unpredictable

circumstances

Ex: Made-to-measure tailors, precision engineers,

specialist toolmakers, furniture restorers
BATCH PROCESSES
• It looks like jobbing processes but has
less variety
• It produces more than one item at a time
• For a large batch, its process can be
repetitive
• It can be a wide range of volume and
variety levels
• Ex: Machine tool manufacturing, special
gourmet frozen foods, manufacture of
the component parts
MASS PROCESSES
• It produces items in high
volume and relatively narrow
variety
• The activities are repetitive
and predictable
• Ex: frozen food productions,
automatic packing lines, vehicle
production plants, television
factories
CONTINUOUS PROCESSES
• It has a higher volume and lower variety
than mass processes
• It operates for longer periods
• Products are inseparable, produced in
continuous flow
• It is relatively flexible with a highly
predictable flow
• Ex: Water processing, petrochemical
refineries, electric utilities, steel making,
paper making
 PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

They are high-contact They tend to be

processes where They provide high people-based rather
customers spend time levels of customization than equipment-
in the service process based

Ex: Management
Staff are given consultants, lawyers,
discretion in servicing architects, surgeons,
customers auditors, health and
safety inspectors
SERVICE SHOPS
It has levels of volume and variety

Service is provided via mixes of

front- and back-office activities

Ex: Banks, high-street shops,

holiday tour operators, car rental
companies, schools, restaurants,
hotels, travel agents
MASS SERVICES
• It has many customer transactions,
involving limited contact time and little
customization
• Staff have defined division of labor and
follow set procedures
• Ex: Supermarket, rail network, airport,
telecommunication service, call center
 • It can be used for any type of product or
service processes
• Elements of process design are related to the
volume-variety position

PRODUCT-PROCESS • Volume-variety position influences:

MATRIX • Undertaking task
• Flow of items
• Layout of its resources
• Technology
• Design of jobs
PRODUCT-PROCESS
MATRIX
• Diagonal line represents the most
appropriate process design for
any volume-variety position
• On the right of the line:More
flexibility than needed, to adopt
standards
• On the left of the line: lack of
flexibility, over-standardized
 OPERATIONS
IN PRACTICE
READ PAGE 191 ON
“DISHANG AND SANDS
FILM STUDIOS – AT
OPPOSITE ENDS OF THE
VOLUME-VARIETY
SPECTRUM”
WORKED EXAMPLE
HOW ARE PROCESSES DESIGNED IN
DETAIL?
- Identifying all the individual activities
to meet objectives
The design of a process involves
- Deciding on the sequence in which
activities to be performed

Some activities may be carried out before others

Some people or equipment can only do some activities

Process design is done using some simple visual approach such as

process mapping
PROCESS MAPPING
It involves describing processes in terms of how the activities
relate to each other

It identifies the different types of activity and shows the flow

of materials, people, or information through the process

It uses process mapping symbols to classify different types of

activity

These symbols can be arranged in order, in series or

parallel, to describe any process
PROCESS IN THEATER LIGHTING OPERATION
SUPPLY AND INSTALL OPERATIONS
MAPPING VISIBILITY
• When customers see part of the process, it is useful to map them in
a way that makes the degree of visibility of each part of the
process obvious
DESIGNING
CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE
LITTLE’S LAW

Throughput time = Work-in-progress x Cycle time

The average number of things in the system is the

product of the average rate at which things leave the
system and the average time each one spends in the
system

The average number of objects in a queue is the product

of the entry rate and the average holding time
 EXAMPLE: IN A NEW SANDWICH ASSEMBLY AND SALES PROCESS

The average number of customers = 10

The maximum time a customer in the process = 4 minutes
The time to assemble and sell a sandwich = 1.2 minutes
How many staff should be serving?
Throughput time = WIP x Cycle time
Cycle time = Throughput time / WIP
= 4 / 10 = 0.4 minutes / customer
Number of servers = 1.2 / 0.4 = 3 persons
EXAMPLE:
• Mike and Dina are at the coffee shop at
10.45 AM
• The time to serve coffee and biscuit is 48
seconds
• There are 20 customers (including them)
waiting for
• It takes 4 minutes to drink a coffee
• They want to get back to the meeting at
11.00 AM
• Will they be back in time?
EXAMPLE
• Need to mark 500
exams in 5 days
(working 7 hours a
day). Takes 1 hour to
mark a script. How
many markers are
needed?
EXAMPLE: WORKSTATION RENOVATION
• Last year the company’s 500 workstations had all been renovated
within 1 working week (40 hours).
• Each renovation took on average 2 hours and there were 25
technicians.
• This year there are 530 workstations to renovate
• A faster renovation takes on average 1.5 hours (instead of 2
hours).
• How many technicians will be needed this year?
EXAMPLE
A regional government office that deals with passport applications is
designing a process that will check applications and issue the
documents. The number of applications to be processed is 1,600 per
week and the time available to process the applications is 40 hours
per week. What is the required cycle time for the process? The total
work content of all the activities that make up the total task of
checking, processing, and issuing a passport is, on average, 30
minutes. How many people will be needed to meet demand?
THROUGHPUT EFFICIENCY

Work content
% Throughput efficiency = X 100%
Throughput time

• Ex (Coffee): customer throughput time is 4 minutes, but the work

content of serving customer is only 1.2 minutes
• So, throughput efficiency = (1.2/4)x100 = 30%
EXAMPLE: VEHICLE LICENSING CENTER

• A vehicle licensing center is processing an average of 5,000

licenses every 8-hour day.
• There are 15,000 applications in progress
• The sum of all activities to process is 25 minutes
• What is the throughput efficiency of this process?
VALUE-ADDED THROUGHPUT EFFICIENCY
• It restricts the concept of work content to only tasks that add value
to whatever is being processed
• This eliminates activities such as movement, delays, and some
inspections
• Ex: (Vehicle Licensing Center) Of the 25 minutes of work content,
only 20 minutes was adding value, then

Value-added throughput efficiency = 20/1440 = 1.39%

 WORKFLOW
• It is the automation of procedures where documents, information, or tasks
are passed between participants
• Workflow is concerned with:
• Analysis, modeling, definition, and subsequent operational
implementation of business processes
• Technology that supports the processes
• Procedural rules that move information/documents through processes
• Defining the process in terms of the sequence of work activities, the
human skills needed to perform each activity, and the IT resources
PROCESS BOTTLENECKS

It is the activity or stage where congestion occurs because the

workload placed is greater than the capacity to cope with it

It is the most overloaded part of a process

It will dictate the rate at which the whole process can operate
 OPERATIONS IN PRACTICE
READ PAGE 202 ON “LONDON’S UNDERGROUND TACKLES A BOTTLENECK”
 Allocating work to process stages must
respect the precedence of the
individual tasks
BALANCING
The most common way of showing task
WORK TIME precedence is by using a precedence
ALLOCATION diagram
This is a representation of the ordering
of the elements
WORKED EXAMPLE: KARLSTAD KAKES
ARRANGING THE STAGES
• All the stages necessary to fulfill requirements may not be
arranged in a sequential single-line
• The process can be organized as a single long-thin (sequential), or
short-fat (parallel), or in-between
• Advantages of the long-thin arrangement include:
• Controlled flow of items
• Simple handling
• Lower capital requirements
• More efficient operation
ARRANGING THE STAGES

• Advantages of the short-fat arrangement include:

• Higher mix flexibility
• Higher volume flexibility
• Higher robustness
• Less monotonous work