4 Process Level Capacity Analysis
Process Capacity Analysis
1. Overview
Focus on analyzing process capacity in various contexts, specifically in relation to admissions processes.
2. Agenda
Measures of Capacity: Understand different metrics to quantify and measure capacity.
Processing Rate: Learn the rate at which output is processed.
Fixed Time Window vs Long Run Averages: Differentiation between immediate capacity and potential capacity.
Cycle Time: Distinguish between cycle time and processing time.
Performance Metrics: Use flow rate and utilization metrics to evaluate process effectiveness.
Flow Rate = MIN[Demand, Capacity].
Implied Utilization = Demand / Capacity; Effective Utilization = Flow Rate / Capacity.
Process Lead Time: Assess the total time to complete a process including various components.
Example: Admissions process analysis using performance metrics.
3. Measures of Capacity
Output Measure: Can be expressed as gross output (number of items produced) or rate (items produced per time frame).
Fixed vs. Long Run Averages: When measuring capacity, fixed time windows provide immediate capacity, while long-run averages show potential efficiency.
Example: Restaurant capacity under both measures.
Definitions of Capacity:
Processing Rate: Capacity = 1 / Processing Time.
Batch Processing: Capacity = Batch Size / Processing Time.
Independent Resources: Capacity = (No. of Resources x Batch Size) / Processing Time.
4. Cycle Time Analysis
Cycle Time Formula: Average Process Cycle Time = 1 / Flow Rate (where Flow Rate = MIN[Demand, Capacity]).
Cycle time helps determine intervals between process repetitions and assesses design efficiency against target capacity.
Impact of Capacity on Cycle Time: Generally, higher capacity leads to shorter cycle times, critical in manufacturing considerations like car production targets.
5. Processing in a Batch
Batch Processing Evaluation:
Total processing time = Fixed Time + Batch Size x Variable Time Per Unit.
Defines efficiency in batch contexts, calculating average cycle and processing times.
6. Impact of Batch Size on Performance Metrics
Graphs depict the relationship between restaurant capacity and batch size, and cycle time versus batch size.
Economies of Scale vs. Diminishing Returns: Increased batch sizes can lead to diminishing returns; optimizing batch sizes is essential.
7. Product or Customer Mix
When processing multiple product types, both fixed and variable times must be taken into consideration to ascertain total processing time accurately.
Calculate capacity derived from mixed product flows.
8. Application: Admissions Department Analysis
Results from Data Entry Steps:
Different steps exhibit varying capacities based on personnel and process design considerations.
Calculated processing times and throughput for the admissions department, including metrics for utilization at each step.
9. Process Performance Measures
Performance Metrics: Focus on flow rate and utilization connections.
Implied vs. Effective Utilization Comparison: Effective utilization relates to how many applications can realistically be processed, influenced by bottlenecks.
10. Process Lead Time
Defined as the time taken to process a completely through job, order, or customer, excluding waiting times, essential for assessing responsiveness.
Breakdown of processing times for both domestic and international applications.
11. Work-in-Process and Little's Law
Work-in-Process (WIP): Current number of jobs or orders within a system.
Little's Law: Used to estimate one of the three main measures (Flow Rate, WIP, Lead Time) if the other two are known.
Formulation: Avg. WIP = Avg. Flow Rate x Avg. Lead Time.
Specific application to the admissions department with given metrics, showing calculated averages.