ABSTRACT
In a factory, a process is the entity that acts upon raw material or upon an unfinished part to transform it to the next stage, nearer to becoming a completed part or a completed product. As such, a process has inputs and outputs. A process is a systematic set of actions involving men, machines, materials, and methods operating in an environment. All these factors may be thought of as inputs to the process. The process takes one of its inputs, generally a material, and does something to it to generate an output that has some value added to that input. It is intended that this one value-added output be a high-quality, useful entity, and that other outputs like metal chips, used fluids, pollution, and noise be containable. Generically, a process is represented in Figure 3.1. While a process may exist outside a factory, such as the shoveling and bricklaying analyzed by Frederick Winslow Taylor and recapitulated in Chapter 2, we are concerned chiefly with the process of doing manufacturing in factories.
