...Bottlenecks in a Process University of Phoenix OPS/571 Operations Management November 12, 2012 Bottlenecks in a Process High process performance is often the main focus for any organization. Therefore, individuals continually search for ways to improve their processes and increase their efficiency. Those wishing to improve the efficiencies of these processes must identify and eliminate the activities that prevent the process from moving at a steady pace. The purpose of this paper is to briefly discuss the process of maintaining a timely bedtime. This paper will identify and discuss the main bottlenecks within the process. This paper will also apply Goldratt’s theory of constraints to help identify and overcome the process’ bottlenecks. The Process As identified in week one, the author wanted to find a way to achieve and maintain a timely bedtime on weekdays. The author created a flowchart to identify the activities within the process and collected data indicating the time spent performing those activities. Traveling home from work, preparing dinner, helping her daughter with homework, and cleaning the kitchen are among those activities. Other activities were participating in social networking and preparing for the next work day. Several factors affected these activities such as the travel method, the time spent on social network, and the need to defrost meat products for dinner. These factors...
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...Bottlenecks in a Process Angela Mackey OPS 571 January 7, 2013 Dr. Harry Caldwell Bottlenecks in a Process Many components exist, which are key factors to the success or failure of a process. Many factors also exist, which affect the outcome of any process. One factor is bottleneck, which is any resource whose capacity is less than the demand placed upon it (Chase, Jacobs, & Aquilano, 2006, p. 725). A bottleneck is a constraint within the system that limits throughput. The subject in this paper is the process of driving the children to school. In this paper the subject will write the paper based on data collected on the process. The subject will also identify and discuss the main bottleneck in this process while applying Goldratt’s theory of constraints to identify and overcome process bottlenecks. The Process The process of driving the children to school is very tedious. Many factors make the process very hard to complete daily. Some factors are the traffic, weather, accidents, and timing. Many of these factors can cause a hindrance to the process. The weather is a factor could be rainy or snow, which would cause the worst problem. The weather can lead to many things such as accidents, timing, driving speed, and traffic. In this case the weather and speed is the most important factors that would affect the others such as accidents, traffic, and timing. Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints One of the main process bottlenecks in driving the children to school...
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...Bottlenecks in a Process Paper OPS/571 Bottlenecks in a process When defining what a process is in an organization, one might state that it is the process of transforming a set of inputs into a group of outputs that in turn are more value adding than the inputs alone (Chase, Jacobs, Aquilano). During the process of moving inputs to outputs many organizations benefit from identifying the potential bottlenecks in the process which may slow down the process. A similar process was conducted when creating a flow chart which described the decision making process of going fishing or staying home and going to a movie instead. One bottleneck that was quickly identified was with the inconsistencies of the weather forecasts. The measurement used was time leading up to the leave time for the trip and the inconsistent forecasts that were being made. The decision to be made relied solely on the consistent forecasts being provided by the three main weather channels for the area. To define a bottleneck, one would say that it is a process that unintentionally slows down or limits the maximum capacity of the said process (Chase, Jacobs, Aquilano). The bottleneck in this process actually hinders the decision of whether or not to go fishing or go to a movie and until an accurate and consistent forecast can be received, the decision cannot be made. Generally, fishing trips are planned and taken on the weekends so that one’s work is not affected; therefore there is time for the...
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...Bottlenecks in a Process Week one observation of getting my children ready and taking them to school identified many steps that add to the time spend on doing this process every morning. The observing and recording of the flow each morning over the last three weeks has created opportunity for the process to be streamlined. A bottleneck is any step that would slow down the speed of any process. In my daily routine bottlenecks could be potentially caused by two main sources: children’ mood and traffic. The progress of work flow depends on how these two criteria work together on every day. Childrens’ mood; their acceptance to get ready and what they want for breakfast and lunch are the main cause contributing to creating bottleneck in the morning that delay the whole process. When children are still sleepy and cranky, dressing them up and preparing their breakfast and lunch boxes would take longer time. Once realizing the concept of bottleneck the opportunity was clear that this stage could be speed up by asking the children what they want for breakfast and lunch at night and preparing what is possible the night before. Another way of speeding up the process is preparing lunch boxes while the children are having their breakfast. As well, putting the children to sleep exactly at 7:30 pm allows them to get enough sleep; by doing these steps ahead of time enhanced the flow of daily routine. Another bottleneck in my process is traffic, in order not to get stuck in the traffic jam...
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...Bottleneck in a Process OPS/571 September 5, 2012 Processing Army Equipment for Deployment When a unit is scheduled to move equipment it must follow a number of steps before it is ready for shipment. From updating the deploying unit Organizational Equipment List (OEL) to delivering it to the Port of Embarkation (POE) a series of events must take place sequentially for the process to occur without complications. The 11-step process flow submitted on week one identified a bottleneck in the system at step 10. It is during step 10, (Processing equipment for shipment at the MDF) that a major bottleneck was discovered. It takes an average of 35 minutes for any particular piece of equipment to process all ---- stations at the MDF. However, vehicles towing an additional piece of equipment such as trailers, howitzers, mobile kitchen units, etc. take an average an additional 15 minutes at station --- (weight and dimensions station) because the equipment towed must be disconnected from its prime mover and process separately. This tends to back up the processing system creating a bottleneck. Applying Dr. Goldratt Theory of Constraint (TOC) to this process could help deal with and solve the bottleneck. Dr. Goldratt’s TOC is a philosophy normally applied to running and improving an organization (Goldratt Marketing Group. 2012). The TOC consists of a problem-solving management decision-making tool (TP) (Goldratt Marketing Group. 2012). The TOC addresses three essential questions...
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...Bottlenecks in a Process University of Phoenix Bottlenecks in a Process Making a decision on what to eat for breakfast is a constant battle for me every morning. Eating breakfast is very important to me personally because it affects my mood for the rest of the day. Deciding on what to each morning is a routine, from the time the alarm goes off to taking a shower, I have the same question is in my head: What do I eat for breakfast? Although eating breakfast is routine, I find that there is always a constraint or a bottleneck in the process. Behind every process there is always a limiting factor whether it’s trying to get to work on time or trying to complete a degree, there are always bottlenecks that set the speed of your progress. The Key to speeding up my breakfast process is to find the limiting factor and alleviate them as fast as possible. After paying a good amount of attention to my daily breakfast routine, I found that the main bottleneck in the process is my food options, what is available to eat in the house? I found that I spend majority of my time looking for what is available to eat. To alleviate this process, I used the Goldratt’s theory of constraints to overcome the process bottleneck. The First step is to: 1. Identify the system constraints: the constraint in my process is my food options and the availability of food in the house. 2. Decide how to exploit the system constraint: To develop the constraint of my breakfast process, I would...
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...Bottlenecks in a Process Scott Cleveland University of Phoenix OPS 571 March 19, 2012 Dr. Jim Hoelscher Abstract This assignment will examine and uncover bottlenecks that exist in a Process. The central purpose is to expand on the data collected in the Week one assignment and build on it to be able to correctly identify the Bottlenecks in that process. The process examined was that of Cooking so this assignment will consider the bottlenecks present in the process of Cooking. Efforts aimed at breaking down existing bottlenecks can lead to process improvement and enhanced efficiency. Also examined is Goldratt’s rule for Production scheduling and also how using a Just in Time, or JIT, process flow can be benefit the process. Bottlenecks in a Process Cooking A bottleneck is defined as any resource whose capacity is less than the demand placed upon it. A bottleneck is a constraint within the system that limits throughput. It is the limiting factor in any process or chain of processes. (Chase, 2006) The process selected was that of Cooking so the task will focus on the bottlenecks uncovered during the process of cooking. The goal is to be able to minimize the total time dedicated to cooking, reducing it to two hours from two hours and thirty minutes. The thirty minutes gained from cooking time can be utilized in some other way in a busy household. Factors affecting...
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...Bottleneck of the Administrative Request Process Lola Bryant March 11, 2013 Operations Management/ OPS 571 Dr. Gary Harris Bottleneck of the Administrative Request Process The Administrative Request Process continues with evaluation. After two weeks, there is an evident bottleneck occurring at the “Route for Concurrence” point. A total of 18 requests requiring concurrence processed during the two weeks completed the task as follows: six took less than four hours before reaching “Wait for Signature,” ten took 24 hours to reach “Wait for Signature,” and two took over 24 hours to reach “Wait for Signature.” It is necessary to evaluate the process and streamline it to meet timely requests. The constraint to the process is personnel availability to review and concur in a timely manner. A method to expedite the process is to invoke an electronic transmission and concurrence program. By having the electronic capability, the physical movement of the request goes to zero, recipient personnel see the request much faster and are more apt to respond quicker electronically. Another advantage of the electronic transmissions is a person who is unavailable has an automated response and directs you to another person. This alleviates the wait for the return of a person to review and concur. As seen in Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints (Chase, 2006, p. 721), the checklist provides a working process to make the bottleneck more flexible, and even increase the productivity of the...
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...Process Workflow-Bottlenecks April 23, 2013 Process Workflow-Bottlenecks The bottleneck that I have identified in this process workflow during site initiation process is the time period for when the study will be approved by Institutional Review Board (IRB). The IRB is the regulatory agency that reviews the conduct of the study to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the subject participants during the course of the study. If the approval from the IRB is not obtained, the study or clinical trial cannot begin. Although other activities can be performed in parallel while awaiting IRB approval, the most critical step in site activation such as when the clinical site can begin enrollment will be put on hold if the IRB has not approved the study. Time and money are at stake when there is a delay in site activation. The longer it takes for the site to begin enrollment, the longer it will take for the Sponsor to obtain data from the site. In addition, resources that are allocated for the study are being underutilized as the study awaits approval from the IRB. The down fall in longer approval time from the IRB is that some sites do lose interest or they would have a change in staff that would require the Sponsor to conduct additional training once the site receives IRB approval. Timing of when the other activities such as supply shipments and trainings are all dependent on when the IRB approves the study. Reference Chase, R. B., Jacobs, F. R., & Aquilano, N. J. (2006)...
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...Bottlenecks in my daily commute to work The purpose of this paper is to describe how to identify, describe, and discuss the bottlenecks in my daily driving to work routine. To identify the bottlenecks or constraints (potential delays or slowing down in the process), I used the Goldratt’s theory of constraints to help me identify and overcome the process bottlenecks. After applying the Goldratt’s theory of constraints to my driving routes, I could identify that there were two major constraints that slowed down the process of my driving to work in each route. The first constraint is the time I leave home and the second constraint is the time I spend sitting in traffic in each of these three different possible routes to work. I evaluated the three possible routes that I can take to my work and monitored the time I leave home each day. I identified that Route 1 offered the slowest process in my driving to work that caused me to be late at work assuming my standard time to leave home is around 8.45 a.m. Route 2 or Route 3 almost took the same time, except that route 2 had larger uncertainty as if Route 1 slowed down, it definitely had impact on Route 2 as both routes had traffic from 101 freeway merging in. Despite, Route 3 is limited to 35 miles per hour speed and traffic lights; it seems to be more reliable and can anticipate slowdown only in one junction. Any time I left earlier than 8.45 a.m., or around the same time, it did not take much fluctuation in the time...
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...Bottleneck Process Week Three Gamal Gilchrist University of Phoenix OPS/571 April 16, 2012 Improving and developing processes is to identify and address the bottlenecks that can happen inside that process. A bottleneck is any point in a process that the flow slows down and delays process completion. As technology vastly continues to improve bottlenecks will be addressed but there is always another bottleneck, just as Goldratt stipulates (Chase, Jacobs, & Aquilano, 2006). To simplify my driving to work process and improve apron it, it’s vital to identify and take care of the bottlenecks that can mess up the process of getting to work on time. The data collected from the process identified in week, One I recognized two bottlenecks in driving to work. The first bottleneck that usually affects my everyday driving to work are the traffic lights that I run into sometimes on my way to work. Sometimes I would catch back to back red lights and this would impede my process to work. To elude this bottleneck, I leave the house early enough to make sure I have ample time to get to work on time even if I get stuck at a light or two. Four days ago, another bottleneck I ran into which affected my drive to work was a car accident on the highway. The highway backed up bumper to bumper, which made driving very slow. I finally arrived at work 15 minutes later than my standard arrival time. This was a major and rare bottleneck I faced. Still, I got to work on time...
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...help of Ralph Nakamura, the data processing manager, to identify the plant's bottlenecks. A few days later, and probably several thousand pages of output analysis later, the search for Herbie, the bottleneck, is still on-going. Obviously they need a simpler approach. Alex remembers the analogy of the hike. The bottlenecks should be identified by the backlog of work-in-process sitting in front of them. The two obvious bottlenecks turn out to be the multi-process automation machine and a heat-treating furnace. But the robotic machine was supposed to have a major production efficiency increase over the original manual processes. Specifically , the old machines' process times were: Machine1 - 2 minutes, Machine2 - 8 minutes, and Machine 3 - 4 minutes, for a total cycle time of 16 minutes. These machines required one machinist per station for a total of 10 machinists. The new NCX-10 robot can process the same item in 10 minutes using 2 operators. Less time plus fewer operators should have lower costs and higher efficiency. But there is a six month lead time to train a NCX-10 operator because of the specialty position requirements. And trained operators are leaving the company faster than it can re-train replacements, so the machine isn't running at full capacity -- a non fully-utilized bottleneck. The furnace is being run at partial loads because of expediting -- another non-fully utilized bottleneck. Management will not accept a request for adding even more capacity for a plant...
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...to its goal. "Every action that brings a company closer to its goal is productive. Every action that does not bring a company closer to its goal is not productive." This demands the question: What is the goal? Alex wonders if the goal is cost-effective purchasing, employing good people, high technology, producing quality products, capturing market share, customer satisfaction, etc. He finally decides that making money is the appropriate goal and so, based on Jonah’s definition of productivity, an action that moves the plant toward making money is productive. And an action that takes away from making money is non-productive. With Jonah’s guidance, Alex and his staff discover the plant’s bottlenecks, figure out how to increase the bottlenecks’ capacity, and ultimately, how to use the bottlenecks’ production schedule to control the release of material into the plant. Thanks to Jonah’s guidance, the plant is such a roaring success, overall, that the plant is saved, and Alex is promoted to run the whole division. He also discovers family life again...
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...Bottlenecks in a Process Johnson OPS/571 March 17, 2013 Bottlenecks in a Process Information gathered during week one of class was helpful in identifying bottlenecks on the process. Recognizing the bottlenecks that will hinder an individual from achieving daily goals can be a tool to identify ways to manage time better. The Goldratt’s theory of constraint is a dependable theory to identify and successfully handle bottlenecks. Identify Bottlenecks in the Process According to "Theory of Constraints" (2013), “TOC is systemic and strives to identify constraints to system success and to effect the changes necessary to remove them” (Theory of Constraints). The purpose of the process is to manage time wiser so daily goals will be achieved. When time is not manageable an individual will believe there is not enough time within a day to accomplish tasks. The bottlenecks that will hinder accomplishing daily goals would be watching television too much, spending too much time on curricular activities, not creating a “To Do” list, lack of sleep, and exercise. The main bottleneck is not using time wisely to accomplish daily goals successfully. In the Goldratt’s theory of constraints, logical thinking process is one way to help individuals to deal with bottlenecks in a process. According to "Theory of Constraints" (2013), “the thinking process assists with working through the change process by identifying the following: what to change, what to change to, and how to effect...
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...does not follow the repetitive process, because his plant receives different kinds of orders to product different outputs. Furthermore, all orders do not follow the same sequence of tasks. For instance, there are only 80% of materials that come through the NCX-10 machine. In fact, they only use the repetitive process as the final process to assemble their finished products. In contrast, Alex Rogo ‘s plant is a mix of job shop and batch process. The orders of his plant are similar to job shops, in that have a high variety of inputs and tasks. Each job should be scheduled scientifically or the whole system will be inefficient. However, in my point of view, Alex Rojo still manages his plant more like a batch process, since his plant take moderate volume orders. Each batch moves from one work center to another work center. The employment and the equipment used are flexbile. In particularly, when Alex Rogo recognizes the bottleneck from the NCX-10 machine, he assigns more mechanics from other work centers to operate that NCX-10. He also takes advantage of old machines with the same function of NCX-10 in order increase the capacity at the bottleneck. In my opinion, Alex Rogo’s plant has two competitive advantages, which are quality and innovation. Alex Rogo’s plant focuses on the quality of the products they deliver. In particular, they operate the quality control in some of their work centers. When they figure out that the NCX- 10 is causing a bottleneck to the whole system, they realize...
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