Your Tasks
Read the “creative agency” mini case ( number 3) in the applying the principles section of chapter six (pp. 224-225) of Slack and Brandon-Jones (2021).
Respond to all the case questions, as summarised here:
a. What is the Required Cycle time for the process?
b. How many people will the process require to meet the anticipated demand of 20 estimates per week?
c1. Assuming that the process is to be designed on ‘long-thin’ basis what elements would each stage be responsible for completing.
c2. What would be the balancing loss for this process
d. Assuming that instead of the long-thin design, two parallel processes are to be designed, each with half the number of stations of the long-thin design, what would the balancing loss now be?
Preparing your submission
Before you read any further, please open the Process Analysis case template.pptx for this assignment submission
Draw your process map using PowerPoint (or Keynote on the mac) using the template provided. (Please don’t use complex process mapping software.)
Carry out your calculations in a spreadsheet and embed this spreadsheet into your PowerPoint. Ensure that you ‘top and tail’ the hard analysis with your answers to the qualitative questions. I think you can do this job using four slides. Please don’t write deathless prose; a bullet point style is just fine.
Please do not upload multiple documents: all in one please.
Final note: Don’t be afraid of the calculations. Use Cycle Time and Little’s Law and you will do just fine. Have fun!
Creative Budget Estimating Process
