Steve, an operations manager at Clan Corp. is promoted to manage the process defined by the four stages A to D below. This process could be human resource management, marketing, accounting, finance, or engineering process, and Steve is the manager. This is his chance to impress his boss and get promoted again. After three months on the job, Steve realizes something is not right with the process. His employees experience big pile up of work, things take too long to be processed, the opportunity for error is increasing, and the entire process is almost chaotic. Do a process and capacity analysis of this process. The numbers in parenthesis (#) are the time in minutes to complete one unit of work. Demand on the process averages 30 units per hour and each unit must be worked on by all four stages. Administrative clerk(s) do Stage A work. The assistant manager(s) are cross-trained to do both Stages C and D work. The coding specialist(s) do Stage B work.
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-The total process (throughput) capacity in units per hour for the four-stage process A to D assuming 3 administrative clerks, 3 coding specialist, and 3 assistant managers on duty is:
A) less than 10 units per hour.
B) more than 10 units but less than or equal to 20 units.
C) more than 20 units but less than or equal to 30 units.
D) more than 30 units but less than or equal to 40 units.

Question

Steve, an operations manager at Clan Corp. is promoted to manage the process defined by the four stages A to D below. This process could be human resource management, marketing, accounting, finance, or engineering process, and Steve is the manager. This is his chance to impress his boss and get promoted again. After three months on the job, Steve realizes something is not right with the process. His employees experience big pile up of work, things take too long to be processed, the opportunity for error is increasing, and the entire process is almost chaotic. Do a process and capacity analysis of this process. The numbers in parenthesis (#) are the time in minutes to complete one unit of work. Demand on the process averages 30 units per hour and each unit must be worked on by all four stages. Administrative clerk(s) do Stage A work. The assistant manager(s) are cross-trained to do both Stages C and D work. The coding specialist(s) do Stage B work.
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-The total process (throughput) capacity in units per hour for the four-stage process A to D assuming 3 administrative clerks, 3 coding specialist, and 3 assistant managers on duty is:
A) less than 10 units per hour. 
B) more than 10 units but less than or equal to 20 units. 
C) more than 20 units but less than or equal to 30 units. 
D) more than 30 units but less than or equal to 40 units.

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The throughput capacity is determined by the bottleneck stage, which is the stage with the lowest capacity. Assuming each stage has a similar capacity and given the number of staff, the capacity is likely to be more than 20 but less than or equal to 30 units per hour.

Steve, an Operations Manager at Clan Corp