Operations Management Papaer:getting Ready for Work

Any process can be represented in a form of a flow chart that provides a depiction of steps needed to produce an outcome. Many organizations focus on process and flow of work to improve their performance and efficiency. Flowcharts are tools that provide a sequence of activities that happen from start to end of a defined course of action and are often starting point in identifying process improvements. In this paper the subject to discuss is creating a process flow from a selected daily activity and addressing some of the factors affecting the process. In addition, selecting appropriate metrics and conducting data collection will assist in providing insight into causes of delays. The process selected is getting to work on time with a goal of meeting 8:00 a.m. exit from home, 95% of the time. In addition, analysis of the daily activities, which include metrics selection and data collection, will highlight to some of the inefficiencies in the daily routine.

The first approach in determining the process steps is gathering relevant information by documenting daily activities. View of daily activities will provide information on any process delays and bottlenecks that has a potential in limiting the entire capacity of the process (Chase, Jacob & Aquilano, 2005, p. 166). The picture below illustrates the process flow for a daily routine of "Getting Ready for Work" steps.

Metric selection to measure the process

Sustainable continuous improvements in organizations promote measurements rather than opinions (Quality Progress, 2006). For that reason, key process steps should be measured using productivity metrics, such as elapsed time. The focus should be on what is measured, rather than how process steps are measured. Metrics point toward problems and trends, which can be helpful in suggesting barriers that need to be overcome. The most useful performance metric for assessing the process of getting ready to work is time. Raw data in Table 1 was collected for week time fame for each individual task for the purpose of analyzing areas with possible process design improvements.

Table 1

Process Steps Time (min)

Mon. Time (min)

Tue. Time (min)

Wed. Time (min)

Thur. Time (min)

Fri.

1) Get out of bed 8 5 7 5 2

2) Prepare and turn on coffee maker 5 5 5 5 5

3) Take a shower 15 10 15 10 10

4) Brush teeth 2 2 2 2 2

5) Get dressed 10 16 10 8 10

6) Put on make-up 7 7