Lesson-8

1.    One approach that can be effective in reducing the impact of production bottlenecks in a job shop or batch operations setting is to use smaller lot sizes. What is the impact of a production bottleneck? Explain how small lot sizes can reduce the impact of bottleneck operations. What are the key trade-offs in using small lot sizes for the purpose of reducing the bottleneck effect? In some cases, the location of a bottleneck will shift (i.e., sometimes it is at workstation 3, another time it is at workstation 12). Furthermore, there can be more than one bottleneck operation at the same time. How would these situations impact scheduling using small lot sizes?

The production bottleneck creates a boundary for the production of the entire system due to not having sufficient capacity or excessive demand or some combination of both at a given workstation. The entire production system will depend on the output of the bottleneck workstation.

It is obviously true that smaller the lot sizes, quicker the batches transfer from one workstation to another. It would be very helpful to produce the smaller batch at a bottleneck workstation and transfer it to the next workstation. Thus, next workstation could begin to work quickly so that there will be less idle time that ultimately lead to higher throughput of the entire manufacturing system.

When we use small lot sizes for the purpose of reducing the bottleneck effect, it can cost more due to more frequent setups since additional batches needed to be produced. On the other side, smaller lot sizes result in less work-in process inventory and smaller transfer batches, which is likely to increase the throughput of the system.

As the bottlenecks shift from one workstation to another, it becomes more difficult to identify and take appropriate action on bottleneck workstations. Thus, it could be advantageous to use smaller lot sizes in producing many different jobs at many different workstations because we generally do not know how long a bottleneck will remain a bottleneck. In addition to that, it can improve the efficiency of the production process.  However, sometimes it is not desirable to reduce the batch size because small batch sizes could increase the setup cost.

References

Russell & Taylor. (2011). Operations Management: Creating Value Along The Supply Chain. USA: JOHN WILEY & SONS.INC.

Stevenson, W. J. (2015). Operation s Management. Penn Plaza, New York: McGraw- Hill Education.

2.    Doctor' and dentists' offices frequently schedule patient visits at regularly spaced intervals. What problems can this create? Can you suggest an alternative approach to reduce this problem? Under what circumstances would regularly spaced appointments constitute a reasonable approach to patient scheduling?

The various problems that can be created when Doctor’ and dentists’ offices schedule visits at regularly spaced interval are as follows:

·         It would create a long waiting time for patients when a consultation takes long time than the scheduled time.

·         There can be a possibility of higher idle time for doctors when they treat their patients before the scheduled time.

·         There can be long patient queue when there will be long waiting time.

·          There can be a problem for doctors when a patient forget or cancel the appointment without a prior notice and it may lose a valuable appointment slot.

An alternative approach to reduce these problems would be to schedule spaced interval regularly for most frequently visiting patients. For this, a proper planning of maintaining hospital resources, number of doctor' or dentists' should be already determined so that maximum number of patients can be treated. In fact, the optimum utilization of resources like inventory and machineries, other staffs need to be utilized.

Moreover, the number of doctor' and dentists' to serve the patients need to be increased so that each patients can get treatment when they are suffering from diseases and even scheduled doctor' and dentists' patient visit will not be affected. For example, regular dental cleaning services, scheduling all emergency visits or not-scheduled visit on an appointment basis. The Scheduling for most frequently visiting patients should be approached on a regular spaced interval when more and more patients are likely to visit the hospital.

References

Russell & Taylor. (2011). Operations Management: Creating Value Along The Supply Chain. USA: JOHN WILEY & SONS.INC.

Stevenson, W. J. (2015). Operation s Management. Penn Plaza, New York: McGraw- Hill Education.

3.    Project management techniques have been used successfully for a wide variety of efforts, including the many NASA space missions, huge construction projects, implementation of major systems such as ERP, production of movies, development of new products and services, theatrical productions, and much more. Why not use them for managing the operations function of any business?

It is quite true that project management techniques have been used successfully for a wide variety of efforts, including the many NASA space missions, huge construction projects, implementation of major system such as ERP, production of movies, development of new products and services etc. However, it doesn’t mean that its techniques are not as much as useful in operation management.  It can be even more useful in operation management of any business such as designing new products or services, information systems, advertising, reengineering process, and so on.

The project management techniques enable an organization to focus attention and concentrate efforts on accomplishing a set of objectives within given time and budget frame.  These techniques will have strategic importance for organizations. For instance, good project management can be instrumental in successfully implementing an enterprise resource planning (EPR) system or converting a traditional operation to a lean operation (Stevenson, 2015).

The major uses of operation management techniques in any business are described below:

1.       Planning and Control: Project management techniques are widely used in planning and controlling the available resources in any businesses. The business performances need to be monitored and progress need to be measure and for this, project management techniques could be used.

2.      Time Management: Time management is the process of making sure the project schedule does not slip and it is on time. For managing time, project management techniques are used so that timely decisions can be made and demand can be fulfilled according to customer needs.

3.      Cost Management: In order to reduce the costs, project management techniques could be used so that no extra costs take place during the production or operation of business activities.

4.      Quality Management: Quality products or services need to be produced and delivered them to customers. However, it would not be possible without the use of project management techniques such as statistical analysis and statistical process control for quality measurement.

5.      Performance Management: Performance management is one of the key tasks for any business organization. With the help of project management techniques, performance and progress can be measured and instant actions will be taken if necessary.

References

Russell & Taylor. (2011). Operations Management: Creating Value Along The Supply Chain. USA: JOHN WILEY & SONS.INC.

Stevenson, W. J. (2015). Operation s Management. Penn Plaza, New York: McGraw- Hill Education.