Managing Business Process Flows

PART I. PROCESS MANAGEMENT AND STRATEGY.

 1. Products, Processes, and Performance. The Process View of Organizations. Performance Measures. Products and Product Attributes.  Processes and Process Competencies. Process Design, Planning, and Control. The Plan of the Book. 
 2. Operations Strategy and Management.  Introduction. Strategic Positioning and Operational Effectiveness. The Strategy Hierarchy. Strategic Fit. Focused Operations. Matching Products and Processes. The Operations Frontier and Trade-offs. The Evolution of Strategy and Operations Management.PART II. PROCESS FLOW MEASUREMENT.

3. Process Flow Measures.

The Essence of Process Flow. Three Key Measures. Flow Time, Flow Rate, Inventory Daynamics. Throughput in a Stable Process. Little's Law: Relating Average Flow Time, Throughput, and Average Inventory. Analyzing Financial Flows through Financial Statements.  Inventory Turns (Turnover Rtio). Using Operational Measures to Improve Financial Measures: What Do We Mean by " An Improvement"? 

4. Flow-Time Analysis.

The Process Flow Chart. Flow Time MEasurement. Theoretical Flow Time. Levers for Managing Threoretical Flow Time.
5. Flow-Rate and Capacity Analysis.  Resources and Resource Pools. Flow Rate Measurement. Effect of Product Mix on Theoretical Capacity and Profitability of a Process. Other Factors Afecting Process Capacity. Levers for Managing Throughput.
  6. Inventory Analysis.  Inventory Classification.  Inventory Benefits. Inventory Costs. Inventory Dynamics of Batch Purchasing. Economies of Scale and Optimal Cycle Inventory. Effect of Lead Times on Ordering Decisions. Price Discounts: Forward Buying. Levers for Managing Inventories.
PART III. PROCESS FLOW VARIABILITY.

 7. Managing Flow Variability: Safety Inventory.  Demand Forecasts and Forecast Errors. Safety inventory and Service Level.Optimal Service Level: The Newsvendor Problem. Lead Time Demand Variability. Pooling Efficiency through Aggregation.  Shortening the Forecast Horizon through Postponement. Levers for Reducing Safety Inventory.
 8. Managing Flow Variability: Safety Capacity.  Service Process and Its Performance. Effect of Variability on Process Performance. Drivers of Process Performance. Performance Improvement Levers. Effect of Pooling Capacity. Effect of Buffer Capacity.  Capacity Investment Decisions.  Variability in Process Performance. Managing Customer Perceptions and Expectations.
 9. Managing Flow Variability: Process Control and Capability.  Performance Variability.  Analysis of Variability. Process Control. Process Capability. Process Capability Improvement. Product and Process Design.
PART IV. PROCESS INTEGRATION.

10. Lean operations: Process Synchronization and Improvement.  Processing Networks. The Process Ideal: Synchronization and Efficiency. Waste and its Sources. Improving Flows in a Plant: Basic Principles of Lean Operations. Improving Flows in a Supply Chain.  The Improvement Process.
APPENDICES.  1. MBPF Checklist.  Process-Flow Measures. Levers for Managing Theoretical Flow Time. Levers for Managing Throughput. Levers for Reducing Waiting Time. Levers for Controlling Process Variability. Levers for Managing Flows in Processing Networks.
 2. Background Material in Probability and Statistics. Random Variables, Mean, Variance, and Covariance. Some Probability Distributions.  3. IGrafx FlowCharter Quick Reference Guide. 4. IGrafx Process Simulation Quick Reference Guide.