Welcome to a new blog post.
In many situations, process knowledge is essential to establish a baseline for issue resolution. Some questions follow to do a check on your process knowledge. See how many you can answer and let me know if you get stuck (info@www.glsconsulting.ca):
• What types of variability exist?
• What happens to throughput rate when the service rate is variable?
• We often work with ‘averages’ in processes: how does variability affect a process performance when the average is stable?
• What is buffer size? As buffer size grows, what happens to a process? Why?
• What role does ‘excess’ capacity play in a buffered process?
• ‘For variable systems, we must have utilization less than one’. Why is this so?
• But, every operations manager wants to run equipment at very high utilization to achieve maximum production! How is this statement actually counter-intuitive?
• In a manual-process driven warehouse, slot lock will occur when storage slots are filled over about 80-85%. Can you explain?
• Relate the following process terms when variability occurs: cycle time, WIP, utilization, wait time
• How can you identify a bottleneck in a process?
• What costs can buffers incur?
• Can you identify ways to manage buffers?
Thanks to UBC and past students!