ABSTRACT
Process analysis is an analysis of the process by which raw materials are transformed into finished products, and an operations analysis is an analysis of the work which human beings or machines perform on items. The author of this chapter explains that production activities formed a network of processes and operations, and that the two phenomena should not be distinguished by the size of units of analysis. Thus, when production is being carried out through lot operations, a process delay occurs when items sent to a process wait until processing of the previous lot is completed. Similarly, a lot delay occurs when, while one item in a lot is being processed, the remaining items wait — either as unfinished goods or as finished goods. The author recognizes that process delays begin to disappear only when processes are synchronized and lot delays cannot be resolved unless processing, inspection, and transport lot sizes equal one.
