Process Analysis

Production & Operations Management 1

PROCESS ANALYSIS

Prof. Ajith Kumar, XLRI Jamshedpur

XLRI, Jamshedpur Prof. Ajith Kumar

 Process Analysis 2

Process view of the organization

Production & Operations Management

 All work happens through processes.

 A process is a series of actions or steps taken in order to

achieve a particular end.

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

Buffer 1 Buffer 2 Buffer 3

STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3

Finished
Raw Resources: labour, capital, equipment, space Goods
Material Flow units: material, customers, animals Inventory
Inventory
(FGI)
(RGI)

XLRI, Jamshedpur Prof. Ajith Kumar

 Process Analysis 3

Inspect
Prepare Pre-treat Paint Dry and
pack
Production & Operations Management

RMI 2 min 3 min 5 min 3 min 1 min FGI

Finishing Operations for a Toy

Prepare (2 min): Clean dirt and other impurities on the surface.
Pre-treat (3 min): Coat the toy with a protective chemical.
Paint (5 min): Spray paint the toy inside a given chamber.
Dry (3 min): Dry the toy in an open area with roof-covering.
Inspect & Pack (1 min): In the finishing area.

It is aimed to produce a batch of 80 units of the toy in an 8

hour shift. At the start of the shift, 80 raw units are available
in the RMI. There is no other job to process.
XLRI, Jamshedpur Prof. Ajith Kumar
 Process Analysis 4

Inspect
Prepare Pre-treat Paint Dry and
pack
Production & Operations Management

RMI 2 min 3 min 5 min 3 min 1 min FGI

AN EXERCISE
For the given problem, let us determine the following:

1. Flow Unit 7. Flow Time (Lead Time)

2. Lot size (batch size) 8. Flow Rate
3. Labour content 9. Capacity
4. Makespan 10. Bottleneck
5. Cycle Time 11. Utilization
6. Takt time

XLRI, Jamshedpur Prof. Ajith Kumar

 Process Analysis 5

Inspect
Prepare Pre-treat Paint Dry and
pack
Production & Operations Management

RMI 2 min 3 min 5 min 3 min 1 min FGI

Flow Unit
One unit of the ‘item’ or the ‘thing’ undergoing the process. Can
be a living being.
 In this example, flow unit = “toy”

Lot Size (batch size)

The number of flow units in a given lot (batch).
 In this example, lot size ( ) = 80

XLRI, Jamshedpur Prof. Ajith Kumar

 Process Analysis 6

Inspect
Prepare Pre-treat Paint Dry and
pack
Production & Operations Management

RMI 2 min 3 min 5 min 3 min 1 min FGI

Labour Content
LABOUR CONTENT (STEP): also known as Processing time.
The average time taken at a step to process the unit. Can vary
from unit to unit, also depends upon type of the item
processed. E.g. for Prepare: 2 min, Pre-treat: 3 min, and so on.

LABOUR CONTENT (PROCESS): the total of the labour

contents of the individual steps used to process the flow unit.

Here,

XLRI, Jamshedpur Prof. Ajith Kumar

 Process Analysis 7

Inspect
Prepare Pre-treat Paint Dry and
pack
Production & Operations Management

RMI 2 min 3 min 5 min 3 min 1 min FGI

A simulation of the process

Start the clock at time t = 0
Start Wait time Wait time Wait time Wait time Total Wait Finish
time after step 1 after step 2 after step 3 after step 4 time time
point point
Prepare Pre-treat Paint Dry I&P
0
Unit 1 0 2 (0) 2 5 (0) 5 10 (0) 10 13 (0) 13 14 (0) 14
2
Unit 2 2 4 (1) 5 8 (2) 10 15 (0) 15 18 (0) 18 19 (3) 19
4
Unit 3 4 6 (2) 8 11 (4) 15 20 (0) 20 23 (0) 23 24 (6) 24
6
Unit 4 6 8 (3) 11 14 (6) 20 25 (0) 25 28 (0) 28 29 (9) 29
8
Unit 5 8 10 (4) 14 17 (8) 25 30 (0) 30 33 (0) 33 34 (12) 34
10
Unit 6 10 12 (5) 17 20 (10) 30 35 (0) 35 38 (0) 38 39 (15) 39
12
Unit 7 12 14 (6) 20 23 (12) 35 40 (0) 40 43 (0) 43 44 (18) 44
XLRI, Jamshedpur Prof. Ajith Kumar
 Process Analysis 8

Inspect
Prepare Pre-treat Paint Dry and
pack
Production & Operations Management

RMI 2 min 3 min 5 min 3 min 1 min FGI

Makespan
The duration of time required to complete the processing of all
the units in a given lot from start to end.

 The process starts at t = 0 and the first unit is ready at t = 14 min.

 Each subsequent unit is completed after an interval of 5 min.

 The last (80th) unit is completed at t = 14 + 5*79 = 409 min. Hence,

XLRI, Jamshedpur Prof. Ajith Kumar

 Process Analysis 9

Inspect
Prepare Pre-treat Paint Dry and
pack
Production & Operations Management

RMI 2 min 3 min 5 min 3 min 1 min FGI

Cycle Time
(of a process) the average time between two consecutive units
completing the process.

 = 5 min, (i.e. 5 min). Why? The actual obtained depends

upon how the process is conducted.

 As the process runs steadily for longer periods of time, → 5 min.

 The lower the cycle time, the more efficient the process.
XLRI, Jamshedpur Prof. Ajith Kumar
 Process Analysis 10

Inspect
Prepare Pre-treat Paint Dry and
pack
Production & Operations Management

RMI 2 min 3 min 5 min 3 min 1 min FGI

Takt time
the maximum permissible cycle time if the demand placed on
the process has to be met.

 To meet demand, ψ min. The average time between two

consecutive units exiting the process must be 6 min at most. Why?

XLRI, Jamshedpur Prof. Ajith Kumar

 Process Analysis 11

Inspect
Prepare Pre-treat Paint Dry and
pack
Production & Operations Management

RMI 2 min 3 min 5 min 3 min 1 min FGI

Flow Time
(of a flow unit), also known as Lead Time. The time it takes
for a given flow unit to move from the start to the end of the
process. Includes all its waiting at each step of the process.

𝒊
𝒊 𝒊

 We see, = 14 min, = 17 min, = 20 min, = 23 min and so on.

The flow time of each successive unit is greater by 3 min. Why?
 Hence, = 14 + 3*79 = 251 min.
 In some cases, the time spent by the flow unit in the RMI and the FGI may
be added.
XLRI, Jamshedpur Prof. Ajith Kumar
 Process Analysis 12

Inspect
Prepare Pre-treat Paint Dry and
pack
Production & Operations Management

RMI 2 min 3 min 5 min 3 min 1 min FGI

Flow Time
 The total waiting time of each successive unit increases by 3 minutes
over that of the previous unit. Why? Where does waiting happen?
 A consequence of the above: the inventory steadily increases in the first
two buffers, but remains 0 in the other two.

WIP (work-in-process / progress) inventory

 The total number of units present in the process at any given time, either
undergoing processing at a resource or waiting for the next resource.
 Includes all flow units for whom the process has begun but is yet to
complete.
 In this example, the WIP is continuously changing from start to end.
XLRI, Jamshedpur Prof. Ajith Kumar
 Process Analysis 13

Inspect
Prepare Pre-treat Paint Dry and
pack
Production & Operations Management

RMI 2 min 3 min 5 min 3 min 1 min FGI

Flow Rate
the average number of units that complete the process per unit
time. Also known as Throughput Rate.

 The flow rate is the inverse of the cycle time.

λ λ

XLRI, Jamshedpur Prof. Ajith Kumar

 Process Analysis 14

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Prepare Pre-treat Paint Dry and
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Production & Operations Management

RMI 2 min 3 min 5 min 3 min 1 min FGI

30 / hr 20 / hr 12 / hr 20 / hr 60 / hr

Capacity
CAPACITY (PROCESS): the maximum number of units that can
complete the process per unit time, or the maximum flowrate
possible in the process.
 Capacity takes the scheduled breaks into account.

CAPACITY (RESOURCE): the maximum number of units that a

resource can process per unit time, or the maximum flowrate
possible at the resource.
 Prepare: 30 / hr; Pre-treat: 20/hr; Paint: 12/hr and so on.
 In a line flow process, the long term process capacity will be the
minimum of its respective resource capacities.
XLRI, Jamshedpur Prof. Ajith Kumar
 Process Analysis 15

Inspect
Prepare Pre-treat Paint Dry and
pack
Production & Operations Management

RMI 2 min 3 min 5 min 3 min 1 min FGI

30 / hr 20 / hr 12 / hr 20 / hr 60 / hr

Bottleneck
a resource on which the demand placed exceeds the capacity.
 A bottleneck limits the ability of the process to meet its demand.
 In this example, the demand placed on each resource is 80 units in 8
hours, or 10 / hr.
 However, the capacities of all the resources exceed 10 / hr.
 Hence, there is no bottleneck in this example.

 What if the demand on this process is 100 units in 8 hours? What if it is

180 units?

XLRI, Jamshedpur Prof. Ajith Kumar

 Process Analysis 16

Inspect
Prepare Pre-treat Paint Dry and
pack
Production & Operations Management

RMI 2 min 3 min 5 min 3 min 1 min FGI

Utilization
the proportion (or, %) of time that a resource is busy, of the
total time scheduled.
 The first step (Prepare) starts at t = 0 and completes its 80 units at t =
160 min (2 hr, 40 min).
 Of this, time spent doing work = 80*2 = 160 min (2 hr, 40 min).
 Idle time = 480 – 160 = 320 min (5 hr, 20 min).

XLRI, Jamshedpur Prof. Ajith Kumar

 Process Analysis 17

Inspect
Prepare Pre-treat Paint Dry and
pack
Production & Operations Management

RMI 2 min 3 min 5 min 3 min 1 min FGI

Utilization
 The last step (I & P) starts at t = 13 min and completes at 14 + 5*79 = 409
min (6 hr, 49 min).
 Of this, time spent doing work = 1*80 = 80 min (1 hr, 20 min) only.

 Idle time = 480 – 80 = 400 min (6 hr, 40 min). Of this, the first 13 min
went in waiting for the first unit. Then, 4 minutes went in waiting for
each of the remaining 79 units.

XLRI, Jamshedpur Prof. Ajith Kumar

 Process Analysis 18

Inspect
Prepare Pre-treat Paint Dry and
pack
Production & Operations Management

RMI 2 min 3 min 5 min 3 min 1 min FGI

Process efficiency
also known as line efficiency. The ratio of the total of the
times spent working by the resources and the total of the times
available to the resources for doing work, over a given period.

 Times spent working by resources = 160, 180, 400, 180 and 80 min.

 Times available to the five resources = 480, 480, 480, 480 and 480 min.

XLRI, Jamshedpur Prof. Ajith Kumar

 Process Analysis 19

REAL-LIFE EXAMPLES
Production & Operations Management

Large Regional
Car A country’s
Shopping Passport
Assembly population
Mall Office
Passport
FLOW UNIT A person Car Person
application

2.5 hours =
FLOW TIME 16 days 76 hours 62 years
150 minutes

448
WIP 560 persons 380 cars 300 million
applications

FLOW RATE 3.733 5 cars per 24000 / day

28 appl/day
(THROUGHPUT) persons/min hour (born, die)
0.268 0.0357 days 0.2 hours = 3.6 seconds
CYCLE TIME
min/person / appl 12 min/car /person

More examples?
XLRI, Jamshedpur Prof. Ajith Kumar
 Process Analysis 20

Continuous flow, ice cream manufacturing

Production & Operations Management

1 2 3 4 5 6
Blending Pasteurizing Homogenizing Cooling /resting Flavoring Freezing

RMI
FG 9 8 7
Finished
Milk & other Ice-cream FGI Hardening Packaging/ Adding
ingredients bundling ingredients

Flow unit: 1 liter of the ice-cream (mixture)

WIP: Total quantity (in liters) currently between steps 1 – 9.
Flow time: Total time it takes for 1 liter to move from RMI to FGI.
Flow rate: Liters of ice-cream that are produced every minute.
Cycle Time: No. of minutes, for one liter of output to manifest.
XLRI, Jamshedpur Prof. Ajith Kumar
 Process Analysis 21

LITTLE’S LAW
Production & Operations Management

Under steady-state conditions, the average

WIP = Flow rate * Flow Time

Flow rate (In) Flow rate (out)

WIP
Flow Time
system

XLRI, Jamshedpur Prof. Ajith Kumar

 Process Analysis 22

Little’s Law
Production & Operations Management

Under steady-state conditions (inflow rate = outflow rate)

WIP = Flow rate * Flow Time

L=λ*W W=L/λ λ=L/W
where,
λ = avg. rate of inflow to, and outflow from, the system (Flow rate).
L = avg. # units in the system at any point of time (WIP).
W = avg. time spent in the system by a unit (Flow time).

 Since λ =
WIP = Flow Time / Cycle Time

Over the long-run, several real-life systems exhibit steady-

state like behaviour.
XLRI, Jamshedpur Prof. Ajith Kumar
 Process Analysis
Production & Operations Management

XLRI, Jamshedpur Prof. Ajith Kumar

 Process Analysis
Production & Operations Management 24

A bread-manufacturing line typically produces 150 loaves of

bread during an 8-hour shift. On average, there are 30 loaves
(equivalent) under processing in the line at any given time.
What is the average time it takes to produce a loaf of bread
from the raw ingredients?
W= L/
W = 30 / (150/8) hours
W = 1.6 hours

On average, it takes about 1.6 hours to produce a loaf of bread,

beginning with the raw material.

XLRI, Jamshedpur Prof. Ajith Kumar