Kristen's Cookie Company
Kristen's Cookie Company is a good example where the success or failure of the company depends directly on the process planning adopted by the company, i.e., the company can maximize its productivity by utilizing its resources effectively. One major aspect of process analysis is to identify the major bottlenecks in the process and trying to mitigate their effects with least possible level of costs and resources. The following flowchart shows the overall process adopted by the company: (Exhibit 1)

Filling a rush order:
Process Resource(s) Process Time Cumulative Time Consumed
Taking Order E-mail 0 minutes 0 minutes
Washing and Mixing Self 6 minutes 6 minutes
Filling Tray Self 2 minutes 8 minutes
Preparing Oven Roommate 1 minute 9 minutes
Baking Oven 9 minutes 18 minutes
Removing the tray Roommate 0 minutes 18 minutes
Cooling None 5 minutes 23 minutes
Packaging & Collecting Money Roommate 3 minutes 26 minutes
Thus, it requires minimum 26 minutes to fill a rush order.

Production Capacity (4 hours):
Since the resources required for the different processes are not common everywhere, there can be two orders (of one dozen each, for simplicity) being processed simultaneously. Thus, it would not require twice as much time for the second order (of one dozen) to be completed as it requires for the first one (of one dozen). This can be attributed to the fact that one can get the tray ready for the second order while the first one is in the oven for baking. The only bottleneck which creates a time lag is the combined process of getting the oven ready (1 minute) for baking and the process of baking itself (9 minutes). So, we can get two orders of one dozen each ready in 36 minutes. In fact, for X orders of 1 dozen each, the time required is given by:
(16 + 10X) minutes.
Thus, in 4 hours (or 240 minutes), Kristen's Cookie Company can fulfill 22 orders of one dozen each given the fact that it gets the orders independently