Operations and process improvement: the guide
Something runs slow or costly; walk the process, compare it with demand, find the real bottleneck, and put a value on fixing it.
Last reviewedWhat strong candidates can do
- Walk a process step by step and find the bottleneck
- Check demand before fixing capacity
- Put a money value on an improvement and use Little's Law for waiting times
Common questions
What is an operations or process improvement case?
Something runs slow or costly; walk the process, compare it with demand, find the real bottleneck, and put a value on fixing it.
How do you approach an operations or process improvement case?
Map the process step by step with the capacity of each step, find the bottleneck, fix it, then look for the next constraint.
What is the most common mistake in an operations or process improvement case?
Improving steps that are not the bottleneck, which adds cost without adding output.
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