Process Redesign

APPLIED TO URBAN TRANSIT BUS OPERATIONS

Naeem Farooqi & Saravanan Kumar

Agenda
1. Introduction to Process Redesign
2. Introduction to Transit Operations
3. Problem Statement & Approach
4. Next Steps
Where redesign fits in Business Process
Management
Information Technology & Business Value
What is
Process
Redesign ?

Re-thinking and re-

organizing business
processes with the
specific purpose of
making them perform
better
Elements of the Business Process
Redesign Framework
1. Customers
2. Business Process Operation
3. Business Process Behaviour View
4. Organization
5. Information
6. Technology
7. External Environment
The Devil’s
Quadrangle
The Devil is in the detail
1. The Devil’s quadrangle helps answer the objective a process redesign aims to achieve
2. Highlights the trade-off between Cost, Time, Quality and Flexibility
3. Example: In a service process industry, introducing a new process might improve the quality
of the service, but increase the cost and time of delivering the services
4. The devil is understanding the trade-offs between the four and making difficult decisions
The 3 levels of abstractions in Process
Re-design
1. Methodologies: Collection of problem-solving methods governed by a set of principles and a
common philosophy for solving targeted problems
2. Technique: Set of precisely described procedures for achieving a standard task Ex., Fish bone
diagram (RCA), Pareto Analysis, Delphi method etc.,
3. Tools: Computer software package to support one or more techniques
Approaches to Process Redesign
Suitable methods can be utilized to yield more better redesign options

1. Heuristics Process Redesign: Incremental Approach

 Doesn’t put into question the current process structure
 Seeks to identify problems and resolve them incrementally, one step at a time

2. Product-based Design: Transformational Approach

 Puts into question the fundamental assumptions and principles of the existing process structure
 Aims to achieve breakthrough innovation
Heuristic Process Redesign

Initiate Design Evaluate

 Redesign Heuristics
• Task elimination
Task Level • Task composition/decomposition Business Process Operation Heuristics
• Triage

• Re-sequencing
Flow Level Business Process Behaviour Heuristics
• Parallelism Enhancement

• Specialization & standardization

Process • Resource optimization
Organization
Process-levelHeuristics
Level • Communication optimization
• Automation
Triage
 Specialize a task: divide a general task into two or more alternative tasks
 Generalize tasks: integrate two or more alternative tasks into one general task
Re-sequencing
Re-order tasks according to their cost/effect ratio to minimize over-processing
 Postpone expensive tasks that may end up not being necessary until the end
 Put knock-out checks first in order to identify problems early
Parallelism Enhancement
Parallelize tasks where possible in order to reduce cycle time
Resource Optimization
Use resources of a given type as if they were in one room
• Avoid one group of people overloaded and another (similar) group idle

Let people do work that they are good at

• However, avoid inflexibility as a result of specialization

When allocating work to resources, consider the flexibility in the near future
• Allocate work to specialized resources first

Avoid setups as much as possible

• Chain multiple instances of the same task [sequential]
• Batch multiple instances of the same task [parallel]
Introductio
n to Transit
Operations
 Object Oriented Approach for modelling the Life of a Transit Bus

Transit in
Canada
Canada has over 100 transit systems in
operation today using 16,231 buses

Maintenance represents 18.2% of the

operating cost, in which labour
represents the most significant
portion of that cost build up.

On average labour is 2:1 for every

dollar of material cost.
Project Concept
Aims to reduce the time spent in maintenance for a bus. Moreover, exploring concepts of process
discovery & redesign.
Project Objectives
Map the current bus lifecycle using BPMN to help process
identification and discovery
Map the current business process for Maintenance activity,
identify areas for improvement
Perform process re-design incorporating improvement areas
Simulate the re-designed business process using Arena and
validate the re-design
Propose recommendations for improvement based on
findings from the study
Redesign Heuristics for
Maintenance Activity
Triage: Triaging Corrective Maintenance (CM) & Preventative Maintenance (PM)
Resequencing: Re-sequence check for inventory of parts before starting repair
Parallelism Enhancement: Parts keeper picks parts as Work Order (WO) is generated
Data
 230,000 Work Order data line items over 4 years to establish probability of CM vs PM
 30,000 on road failures records to establish probability of vehicles going to CM
Field Capture: April 8th – 14th
1 week on site presence at facility to monitor activities and collect missing data
 Parts not available, Pre-trip inspection, Service Line Time, Maintenance Activity
Next Steps
Re-design Evaluation
Final Report
References:
- “Fundamentals of Business Process Management” by Marlon Dumas, Marcello La Rossa & Jan
Mendling, Hajo A. Reijers
- “Business Process Management, Lecture 8 - Process Redesign II” by Marlon Dumas at
University of Tartu