Operations Management For Dummies

Chapter 3

Designing Processes to Meet Goals

In This Chapter

Implementing process improvement step by step

Understanding serial and parallel processes

Designing processes to accomplish specific objectives

Spotting hidden bottlenecks and increasing process capacity

Before you can begin designing smart processes, you need to know what you want to accomplish. We’re talking about establishing goals. Defining meaningful goals for a process requires knowing what really matters to your customers and having a clear sense of the anticipated demand for the process outcome (see Chapter 6). With these prerequisites in the bag, you can design a process to meet your goals and expectations.

In this chapter we show you how to design a process that reduces flow time and maximizes capacity. We also point out how to use line balancing and flexible resources to improve process performance. The key to improving a process is to follow a structured process improvement plan instead of trying to wing it. Without this structured plan you’ll find yourself lost, wasting valuable time and resources. Keep your ...