Mary Clark Essay

1. What should Mary Clark’s (more specific) objectives be as she looks to improve the registration process?

Primary objective of the registration process is to be more time efficient .Mary Clark should streamline the process by reducing the time of bottle neck , reduce the lead time and work towards making all process take nearly same time. She can also try to reduce the labor cost and increase the utilization rates without compromising on time. Mary should be able to have realistic solutions for increasing the efficiency of the whole process ,and if required make the process duplicable incase the numbers are more than expected.
Steps
Minutes
Bottleneck or Idle-time
Total build-up rate
1
2

2
3
Bottleneck 1/ 2 - 1/3 = 1/6= 0.1667 min
3
2
Idle time
(3-2)/3= 1/3= 0.333 min
4
1
Idle time
(2-1)/2= ½= 0.5 min
5
1.5
Bottleneck
1-1/1.5= 0.13 min
6
5(2.5+2.5)
Bottleneck
1/1.5 -1/2.5 = 0.8666-0.4= 0.466 min
7
1
Idle time
(5-1)/5 =4/5= 0.8 min

Steps
Total build-up rate
1

2 1/ 2 - 1/3 = 1/6= 0.1667 min
3
(3-2)/3= 1/3= 0.333 min
4
(2-1)/2= ½= 0.5 min
5
1-1/1.5= 0.13 min
6
1/1.5 -1/2.5 = 0.8666-0.4= 0.466 min
7
(5-1)/5 =4/5= 0.8 min

Draw a process flow diagram for student registration as it has been carried out. What are the output rates and utilization rates (proportion of time available that staff would be busy) for each step? What is the overall capacity for the process? Note: Assume that the two staff producing and coding cards work in parallel, each taking 5 minutes to do all of the work for one card.

OUTPUT RATES FOR EACH STEP

** Assuming in Step 5 that two people are working in parallel and the cards being produced and coding cards are in parallel.
UTILIZATION RATE :
Steps
Min
Utilization Time = (Total time worked /Total time available )*100
1
2
(2*1100/2400) *100 = 91.66%
2
3
(3 * 250 / 2400)* 100 = 31.25%
3
2
(2*1000/2400) *100 =83.3 %
4
1
(1*1000/2400) *100 = 41.66%
5
1.5
(1.5*1000/2400) *100 = 62.5%
6
2.5 + 2.5
(2.5*1000/2400) *100 = 104.166 %
7
1
(1*1000/2400) *100 = 41.66%

Assumption : Total time available is : 8*5*60=2400
Overall capacity of the process (No of students being catered in one week ) :

{1 / (2.5) * 8* 5* 60} = 960 students are being catered in one weeks time.
Max no of students being catered in one day = 960/5 =192 students.

2. What aspects of the process are subject to variability? What are the likely impacts of these forms of variability? Processes which are subject to variability can be divided into 2 forms. Random Variability And Predictable variability.

3. What changes would you recommend for the process and what results would you expect from your recommended changes?

Recommendation 1 : If step 5(taking photos) and step 6(producing and coding cards) can be combined and made one step ,then the bottleneck time comes down to (6.5/3)= 2.17 approx.This step is very realistic and can be done .This in-turn increases the overall capacity of student being catered in one week from 960 students to
(1/2.17) *8*5*60= 1105 students per
week

Recommendation 2 : Keep the registration process of the out of station people on either the first two or the last two days. As the employees on step 2 have a utilization rate of 25%.That employee can be trained to handle other steps on the other three days(mostly on step 6 where the utilization rate of the employees is 104% ).Assigning employees from step 2 to step 6 would increasing the efficiency of the whole process without increasing the cost.

Recommendation 3 : She should implement the concept that once a registration process starts, it should be mandatory to be completed that day itself. This will expedite the process as students living in the college residencies will finish the process on that day itself.