Deck 6: Process-Flow Analysis

Question 1

Which of the following statements about Little's Law is NOT correct?

A) Little's Law cannot be applied to service operations.
B) Little's Law relates the average number of units in the system to average throughput time and average flow rate.
C) Little's Law includes processing and waiting time.
D) Little's Law assumes that the system is in steady state.

Answer 1

Little's Law cannot be applied to service operations.

Question 2

Analysis of the flow of information

A) is necessary only if management wants tight control of the system.
B) is more important than materials flow.
C) should always accompany an analysis of materials flow.
D) is of concern only to service industries.

Answer 2

should always accompany an analysis of materials flow.

Question 3

Symbols used within a typical flowchart include all of the following EXCEPT

A) a trapezoid, representing a work queue.
B) an oval, representing the start or end of a process.
C) an arrow, representing the flow of the work.
D) a rectangle, representing a work activity.

Answer 3

a trapezoid, representing a work queue.

Question 4

A diamond symbol in a flowchart indicates

A) evaluation with more than one possible outcome.
B) decision.
C) both (a) and (b).
D) neither (a) nor (b).

Question 5

Which of the following is NOT one of the four principles of process redesign?

A) Organize around outcomes, not tasks.
B) Have the people who do the work process their own information.
C) Eliminate unnecessary steps in the process.
D) Automate the remaining steps in the process.

Question 6

Little's Law,in a manufacturing process,relates to

A) average throughput time, average inventory, and efficiency of a process.
B) average inventory, average queue length, and average flow rate of a process.
C) average inventory, average throughput time, and average flow rate of a process.
D) average flow rate, average inventory, and average utilization of a process.

Question 7

If I denotes the average inventory in the system,T denotes the average throughput time,and R denotes the average flow rate of the system,then by Little's Law,

A) I = T/R.
B) T = I + R.
C) I = R/T.
D) R = I/T.

Question 8

In a process thinking philosophy,it is important to

A) view the functional disciplines in isolation of one another so that problems can be easily identified.
B) understand that the value of the individual parts is greater in sum than the value of the system itself.
C) view the functional disciplines as a collection of business processes emphasizing the cross-functional nature of decision making.
D) understand that optimization in decision making can only occur by disaggregating large-scale process problems into small problems more easily quantified and solved.

Question 9

Which of the following would NOT be changed due to process flow analysis?

A) Raw materials
B) Product or service design
C) Job design
D) Customers

Question 10

Which of the following statements regarding business process reengineering (BPR)is NOT true?

A) BPR is a term coined by Hammer and Champy in the book called "Reengineering the Corporation."
B) BPR refers to extensive process redesign.
C) BPR simplifies processes and eliminates the non-value added elements from the process.
D) BPR is synonymous to the total quality management approach of process improvement.

Question 11

A service blueprint

A) shows all points of interaction between the customer and the service providers.
B) contains a "line of visibility."
C) includes front-office and back-office process flows.
D) has all of the above features.

Question 12

Process elements that might be changed when improving a process include

A) job design.
B) product or service design.
C) equipment or tools.
D) all of the above.

Question 13

The capacity of a process is determined by

A) the bottleneck.
B) the maximum of the required capacity resources.
C) throughput time.
D) none of the above.

Question 14

Which of the following is NOT a prerequisite to process flowcharting?

A) Identifying system boundaries .
B) Identifying the relevant industry best practice
C) Identifying sequential flows
D) Identifying suppliers

Question 15

The first step in process flowcharting is to

A) draw the flowchart.
B) break the process down into blocks.
C) assemble an appropriate team to do the flowcharting.
D) select an appropriate transformation process for analysis.

Question 16

In the process view of business,which of the following should be identified when defining the system?

A) Interconnected processes across functional areas.
B) The process flow analysis approach to be used.
C) Only the operations function.
D) The vertical nature of the organizational design.

Question 17

Elements of a system include all of the following EXCEPT

A) outputs.
B) suppliers.
C) customers.
D) specifications.

Question 18

A service blueprint is used to analyze and manage the service process because it involves

A) the identification of flows, bottlenecks, and customer interaction points.
B) the design of the services advertising campaign.
C) the identification of the consumer benefit concept.
D) all of the above.

Question 19

Which of the following statements is NOT true about process flow analysis?

A) Process flow analysis is dependent on systems thinking.
B) Flowcharts are used to describe and improve the transformation process in a business.
C) Process flows must always be forward, and cannot "loop back" to previous operations.
D) Service blueprinting is another name for a flowchart.

Question 20

A bank has an average of 10 customers per hour arriving into the system,and it takes an average of 30 minutes for the clerk to complete a transaction with a customer.What is the average length of the queue in the bank?

A) 20 customers
B) 5 customers
C) 3 customers
D) None of the above

Question 21

A flowchart for high-contact services such as estate planning often reflects the customer's perspective of the process.

Question 22

A process view emphasizes that it is important for a business to function as independent silos.

Question 23

Fit the following question to the correct category: Are all operational steps or activities necessary?

A) Flow
B) Quantity
C) Quality
D) None of the above

Question 24

A process will generally have at least one bottleneck.

Question 25

Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

A) Little's Law is very powerful and widely used in business.
B) Little's Law applies to service processes and manufacturing processes.
C) Little's Law assumes that arrival rates and throughput times are constantly changing.
D) All of the above are incorrect statements.

Question 26

A machine center can produce 175 units per day at 100% utilization.Demand is 75 units per day,and suppliers are capable of delivering raw materials to support production of 125 units per day.If demand doubles,the flow rate will be

A) 100 units.
B) 125 units.
C) 150 units.
D) 175 units.

Question 27

Which of the following statements is NOT true of process flowcharting?

A) The visual nature of flowcharting is invaluable to understanding what happens in a process.
B) The systems flowchart is the most common form of flowchart.
C) All flowcharts must be cross-functional.
D) All of the above are true.

Question 28

Handoff points in cross-functional flowcharts are of particular importance to process analysis.

Question 29

Which of the following is NOT a recommended process flow question category?

A) Time
B) Quantity
C) Cost
D) Function

Question 30

Which of the following statements regarding business process reengineering is NOT correct?

A) Placing decision authority at the lowest level possible tends to reduce bureaucracy.
B) Ideally, only steps that add value to the customer are kept in the redesigned process.
C) Most reengineering is done without the need to invest in new technologies.
D) Reengineering is appropriate when processes simply cannot be improved in small steps.

Question 31

Capacity is

A) the average rate of output of a process.
B) the maximum rate of output of a process.
C) the difference between the maximum and minimum rates of output of a process.
D) the ratio between output and input.

Question 32

In process flowcharting it is most important to depict the process as it is supposed to work or as it was originally designed to work.

Question 33

A bottleneck is

A) a resource that has the smallest capacity.
B) a resource that can affect the flow rate of a production process.
C) a resource that can determine the capacity of the entire process.
D) all of the above.

Question 34

Flow rate is

A) the same as process capacity.
B) measured in units per day.
C) useful for manufacturing but not service delivery processes.
D) the least of either supply, demand, or capacity.

Question 35

Process redesign tends to be cross-functional in nature and requires a complete overhaul of work methods,flows,and information systems.

Question 36

If there are multiple resources that process each transaction,then the process capacity is the sum of all the individual capacities of the resources.

Question 37

Consider the following two statements concerning business process reengineering (BPR): (1)BPR results are greatest when each function redesigns its own core processes.
(2)BPR efforts should be focused on the critical processes required to meet
Customers' needs.

A) Only statement (1 ) is correct.
B) Only statement (2) is correct.
C) Both statements are correct.
D) Both statements are incorrect.

Question 38

Flowcharting requires Microsoft Visio or similar flowcharting software.

Question 39

Which of the following statements is/are correct?
(1)It is important for flowchart analysis to have a specific improvement goal in mind
(e)g.,reduce throughput time).
(2)It is important for flowchart analysis to only use the common flowchart symbols
When creating the flowchart to avoid any confusion.

A) Only statement (1) is correct.
B) Only statement (2) is correct.
C) Both statements are correct.
D) Both statements are incorrect.

Question 40

Throughput time is

A) the same as the bottleneck.
B) the maximum capacity minus the minimum capacity of a process.
C) the time from when processing begins until a product or service is complete.
D) applicable to customers served in a service process, but not product manufacturing.

Question 41

A store open 24 hours per day is interested in determining store traffic.It found that customers arrive uniformly at the rate of 10 customers per hour.The store has a single worker to process customers.The worker takes an average of 5 minutes to process a customer.If we assume that every customer must be processed,what is the average number of customers in the store?

Question 42

It takes 1 minute to remove a burger from the cooler.The burger is cooked for 2 minutes and requires constant monitoring (the worker cannot do something else during cooking).Cooked burgers are assembled into sandwiches with buns,lettuce,and tomato slices.This step takes 45 seconds per sandwich.Finally,packaging the sandwich takes about 10 seconds.What is the bottleneck in the process?
Why?

Question 43

Changing the information gathered and used for managerial control of a process is a common result of process flowcharting.

Question 44

Provide two examples for each of the following categories of good questions to ask when conducting process flow analysis:
a.Flow
b.Time
c.Quantity
d.Quality
e.Cost