Business Process Analysis

Sangeeta Shah Bharadwaj

Business Process
Management

Process
Process
Process
Process
Process
Process

Discovery
Mapping
Measurement and Analysis
Control
Benchmarking
Improvement

Process Measurement

Key metrics used in process

measurement
Utilization is the average amount of time that
all three workers are actually working
Cycle time, or time elapsed between
completion of successive units
Bottleneck or the constraining step in the sub
process.
The start to finish time is the time required to
complete a single unit
The productive capacity is the capacity of the
process to produce output (is dictated by the
bottleneck step and not by start to finish time)

Example
Consider a Service process with three subprocess staffed by three executives. All
the three staff are specialists, i.e. a single
person works exclusively on one sub
process. No work ( in manufacturing it is
called inventory and in services it is called
backlog) is allowed to build up between
steps
Sub process A takes 3 mins, B takes 5
mins and C takes 2 mins

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

Process Metric Values

3 Workers
Bottleneck

Step B

Cycle Time

5 min

Capacity

12/hour

Utilization

67%

Start-toFinish Time

10 mins

Could you redesign the

capacity?
two workers parallel processing of
steps A and B

Alternate Scenarios
3 Workers 3 Workers
parallel
processing (a
and B and
then C)
Bottleneck

Step B

Cycle Time

5 min

Capacity

12/hour

Utilization

67%

Start-toFinish Time

10 mins

Alternate Scenarios
3 Workers 3 Workers
parallel
processing (a
and B and
then C)
Bottleneck

Step B

Step B

Cycle Time

5 min

5 min

Capacity

12/hour

12/hour

Utilization

67%

67%

Start-toFinish Time

10 mins

7 mins

Could you redesign and improve

performance?
4 workers, two share step B and can
be completed in half time

Alternate Scenarios
3 Workers 3 Workers
parallel
processing (a
and B and
then C)
Bottleneck

Step B

Step B

Cycle Time

5 min

5 min

Capacity

12/hour

12/hour

Utilization

67%

67%

Start-toFinish Time

10 mins

7 mins

Alternate Scenarios
3 Workers 3
Workers
parallel
processi
ng (a
and B
and
then C)

4
workers,
2 sharing
step B

Bottleneck

Step B

Step B

Step A

Cycle Time

5 min

5 min

3 min

Capacity

12/hour

12/hour

20/hour

Utilization

67%

67%

75%

Start-toFinish Time

10 mins

7 mins

7.5 mins

Could you redesign and improve

performance?
4 workers alternate step B

Alternate Scenarios
3 Workers 3
Workers
parallel
processi
ng (a
and B
and
then C)

4
workers,
2 sharing
step B

4
workers
alternat
e step B

Bottleneck

Step B

Step B

Step A

Step A

Cycle Time

5 min

5 min

3 min

3 min

Capacity

12/hour

12/hour

20/hour

20/hour

Utilization

67%

67%

83%

83%

Start-toFinish Time

10 mins

7 mins

7.5 mins

10 mins

Could you redesign the

capacity?
4 workers with floaters

Alternate Scenarios
3
Workers

3
Workers
parallel
processi
ng (A
and B
and
then C)

Bottlenec
k

Step B

Step B Step A

Step A

Step A
and B

Cycle
Time

5 min

5 min

3 min

8/3=2.7
mins

Capacity

12/hour

12/hou 20/hour
r

20/hour

22.5/hou
r

67%

83%

94%

Utilization 67%
Start-toFinish
Time

4
workers,
2 sharing
step B

3 min

83%

10 mins 7 mins 7.5 mins

4
4 th
workers worker
alternat floater
e step B

10 mins 7.3
mins

Some Observations
Capacity of the process dictated by
bottleneck
Capacity improved by adding one
more resource
Need to do cost benefit analysis
Cross training helps

BARIA CASE
Assignment to be shown in next class