ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how to analyze and design business processes. The design methodology is based on queueing theory. We emphasize analysis and improvement of core business processes because they deal with the external customers of the enterprise and they often have the most room for improvement. The goals of core business processes are a combination of satisfying customer needs for timeliness, cost, and quality. This chapter focuses on minimizing process cycle-time as a means to delivering timeliness. To keep the process costs low, the process needs to be efficient by having a high throughput-rate. The chapter shows how to quickly determine bounds on both these performance measures: a lower bound on cycle time and an upper bound on throughput rate. Quality refers to both the process and the product or service the process outputs. Quality has many meanings and interpretations, of primary importance to process design is customer-perceived quality and manufacturing quality. The chapter defines these terms and describes how to establish a quality control process to maintain and improve process quality. After completing this chapter, you should be able to:
• Describe the process analysis method.
