Chapter 06 – Process-Flow Analysis
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28. Flow rate is
29. Which of the following statements is/are correct?
(1) It is important for flowchart analysis to have a specific improvement goal in mind
(e.g., reduce throughput time).
(2) It is important for flowchart analysis to only use the common flowchart symbols
when creating the flowchart to avoid any confusion.
30. Consider the following two statements concerning business process reengineering (BPR):
(1) BPR results are greatest when each function redesigns its own core processes.
(2) BPR efforts should be focused on the critical processes required to meet
customers’ needs.
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31. A machine center can produce 175 units per day at 100% utilization. Demand is 75 units
per day, and suppliers are capable of delivering raw materials to support production of 125
units per day. If demand doubles, the flow rate will be
32. Which of the following statements is NOT correct?
33. The operations manager for Dogs R Us is trying to understand the bottleneck in the dog
grooming process. Times below are given in minutes per dog, and when there are two or more
employees they can process two or more dogs simultaneously.
Process step Time Who
Verify customer information 5 min./dog Front desk (staffed by 2 employees)
Crate the dog 2 Front desk
Wash and dry the dog 20 Washers (3 employees)
Nails and teeth 13 Nail/teeth specialists (2 employees)
Grooming 25 Groomers (4 employees)
Call customer for pick–up 5 Front desk
Assuming that demand and supply exceed capacity, what is the maximum flow rate (in dogs
per hour) for this process?
Chapter 06 – Process-Flow Analysis
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Bloom’s: Apply
Feedback: The following capacities can be calculated (see the pizza example in Section 6.6): Front desk = 10 dogs per hour; washers = 9;
nail/teeth = 9.2; and groomer = 9.6. The bottleneck is the washer operation at 9 dogs per hour.
34. Which of the following statements regarding business process reengineering is NOT
correct?
35. Which of the following is NOT a recommended process flow question category?
36. Fit the following question to the correct category: Are all operational steps or activities
necessary?
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45. A flowchart for high-contact services such as estate planning often reflects the customer’s
perspective of the process.
46. Handoff points in cross-functional flowcharts are of particular importance to process
analysis.
47. Changing the information gathered and used for managerial control of a process is a
common result of process flowcharting.
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Essay Questions
48. A store open 24 hours per day is interested in determining store traffic. It found that
customers arrive uniformly at the rate of 10 customers per hour. The store has a single worker
to process customers. The worker takes an average of 5 minutes to process a customer. If we
assume that every customer must be processed, what is the average number of customers in
the store?
LO: 6.5
Topic: Measuring Process Flows
Difficulty: 2 Moderate
AACSB: Application of knowledge
Bloom’s: Apply
Feedback: See below.
49. Provide two examples for each of the following categories of good questions to ask when
conducting process flow analysis:
a. Flow
b. Time
c. Quantity
d. Quality
e. Cost
LO: 6.4
Topic: Process Flow Analysis as Asking Questions
Difficulty: 2 Moderate
AACSB: Reflective thinking, written communication
Bloom’s: Understand
Feedback: See below.
Chapter 06 – Process-Flow Analysis
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Difficulty: Moderate
50. It takes 1 minute to remove a burger from the cooler. The burger is cooked for 2 minutes
and requires constant monitoring (the worker cannot do something else during cooking).
Cooked burgers are assembled into sandwiches with buns, lettuce, and tomato slices. This
step takes 45 seconds per sandwich. Finally, packaging the sandwich takes about 10 seconds.
What is the bottleneck in the process? Why?
LO: 6.5
Topic: Measuring Process Flows
Difficulty: 2 Moderate
AACSB: Application of knowledge
Bloom’s: Apply
Feedback: See below.