Mktb 372 - Operation

Question 1

A normal flowchart uses of a diagram to represent the major elements of a process. The basic elements can include tasks or operations, inputs and outputs of materials or services, decision points, people who become involved, time involved at each step and process measurement. The function of the flowchart includes planning a new project, documenting or auditing a process, managing workflow, data management, to study a process for improvement etc. The process can be a manufacturing process, a service process etc. There are many different type of flowchart, all charts are designed to capture particular aspects of work.

A service blueprint is a kind of special flowchart. It is a service planning help tool that focuses on the customer and the service provider’s interaction with the customer. It can ensure the quality of service process and improve and simplify the existing service. It can also use for training new staff and for showing customer the service cycle overview. A service blueprint consists of a graphically-presented overview of the whole service process and all activities which involved, each process step and contact point between customer and firm become visible. The blueprinting exercise is possible to identify the failure points, so allow firm to design Poka-Yoke, procedures that avoid the occurrence of problem. Therefore, ensuring the delivery of high quality service to customers.

Question 2

Question 3

1. Landmark Auto Parts decide to consider U-bolt as the primary product and produce U-bolt in high volume. To produce the U-bolt, materials move linearly from one operation to the next according to a fixed sequence, there is little or even no inventory held between operations. Each operation performs the same process over and over and each operation time is fixed. Therefore, Landmark Auto Parts is using the Assembly line process structure.

Manufacturers using with assembly line processes usually follow a make-to-stock strategy, Landmark Auto Part mainly produce U-bolt and held in inventory, so they are ready when a customer places an order. Here is the characteristic of assembly line processing:

• Low unit cost
• High volume
• Standardized products
• Slight flexibility of equipment
• Skill of workers is usually low

1. Set-up time is the time that required to prepare the equipment to perform an activity on a batch of units. It does not depend strongly on the batch size and therefore it can be reduced on a per unit basis by increasing the batch size.

Set-up times of each process have a significant effect on the performance of a process and can determine a process bottleneck. To calculate the capacity of a process for producing a batch, the formula is: capacity = (batch size) / (set-up time + batch size * time per unit). Bottleneck is the process with the smallest capacity rate and the longest cycle time. According to the above formula, if the setup time of each process longer, the processing rate will smaller and the cycle time also become longer. Long setup times reduce active processing time and significantly reduce the capacity because no parts are produced during the setup.

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