Process Planning

Process

Process refers to sequence of activities that convert raw materials into finished products.
Planning Planning (also called forethought) is the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve a desired goal. Planning involves the creation and maintenance of a plan. As such, planning is a fundamental property of intelligent behavior. Process Planning Process Planning is defined as the systematic determination of methods by which a product is to be manufactured economically and competitively. It consists of selecting proper machines, determining sequence of operations etc.

Steps in Process Planning

1. Goal setting: Plans are the means to achieve certain ends or objectives. Therefore, establishment of organizational or overall objectives is the first step in planning. Setting objectives is the most crucial part of planning. The organizational objectives should be set in key areas of operations. They should be verifiable i.e., they should as far as possible be specified in clear and measurable terms. The objectives are set in the light of the opportunities perceived by managers. Establishment of goals is influenced by the values and beliefs of executives, mission of the organization, organizational resources, etc. Objectives provide the guidelines (what to do) for the preparation of strategic and procedural plans. One cannot make plans unless one knows what is to be accomplished. Objectives constitute the mission of an organization. They set the pattern of future course of action. The objectives must be clear, specific and informative. Major objectives should be broken into departmental, sectional and individual objectives. In order to set realistic objectives, planners must be fully aware of the opportunities and problems that the enterprise is likely to face.

2.

Developing the planning premises:

Before plans are prepared, the assumptions and conditions underlying them must be clearly defined these assumptions are called planning premises and they can be identified through accurate forecasting of likely future events. They are forecast data of a factual nature. Assessment of environment helps to reveal opportunities and constraints. Analysis of internal (controllable and external (uncontrollable) forces is essential for sound planning premises are the critical factors which lay down the bounder for planning. They are vital to the success of planning as they supply per tenant facts about future. They need revision with changes in the situation. Contingent plans may be prepared for alternate situations. 3. Reviewing Limitations: In practice, several constraints or limitations affect the ability of an organization to achieve its objectives. These limitations restrict the smooth operation of plans and they must be anticipated and provided for. The key areas of Imitations are finance," human resources, materials, power and machinery. The strong and weak points of the enterprise should be correctly assessed. 4. Deciding the planning period: Once the broad goals, planning premises and limitations are laid down, the next step is to decide the period of planning. The planning period should be long enough to permit the fulfillment of the commitments involved in a decision. This is known as the principle of commitment. The planning period depends on several factors e.g., future that can be reasonably anticipated, time required to receive capital investments, expected future availability of raw materials, lead time in development and commercialization of a new product, etc. 5. Formulation of policies and strategies: After the goals are defined and planning premises are identified, management can formulate policies and strategies for the accomplishment of desired results. The responsibility for laying down policies and strategies lies usually with management. But, the subordinates should be consulted as they are to implement the policies and strategies. Alternative plans of action should be developed and evaluated carefully so as to select the most appropriate policy for the organization. Imagination, foresight, experience and quantitative techniques are very useful in the development and evaluation of alternatives.

Available alternatives should be evaluated in the light of objectives and planning premises. If the evaluation shows that more than one alternative is equally good, the various alternatives may be combined in action. 6. Preparing operating plans: After the formulation of overall operating plans, the derivative or supporting plans are prepared. Several medium range and short-range plans are required to implement policies and strategies. These plans consist of procedures, programmers, schedules, budgets and rules. Such plans are required for the implementation of basic plans. Operational plans reflect commitments as to methods, time, money, etc. These plans are helpful in the implementation of long range plans. Along with the supporting, plans, the timing and sequence of activities is determined to ensure continuity in operations. 7. Integration of plans: Different plans must be properly balanced so that they support one another. Review and revision may be necessary before the plan is put into operation. Moreover, the various plans must be communicated and explained to those responsible for putting them into practice. The participation and cooperation of subordinates is necessary for successful implementation of plans. Established plans should be reviewed periodically so as to modify and change them whenever necessary. A system of continuous evaluation and appraisal of plans should be devised to identify any shortcomings or pitfalls of the plans under changing situations. Process Selection Process Selection decisions determine the type of process to be used at appropriate time span. Eg: In a factory, the process would be manual or chemical change of raw materials to finished products. In a hospital, it would be providing treatment to sick people and transforming them to healthy individuals. Criteria for process selection or for selecting a process: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Costs involved in a process Lowest cost and maximum returns are the priority ROI Return on Investments The priority is to gain maximum ROI Availability of skilled people Availability of Technical knowledge and machinery Availability of raw materials

Service Process Design Service design is the activity of planning and organizing people, infrastructure, communication and material components of a service in order to improve its quality and the interaction between service provider and customers. The purpose of service design methodologies is to design according to the needs of customers or participants, so that the service is user-friendly, competitive and relevant to the customers. The backbone of this process is to understand the behavior of the customers, their needs and motivations. Service designers draw on the methodologies of fields such as ethnography and journalism to gather customer insights through interviews and by shadowing service users. Many observations are synthesized to generate concepts and ideas that are typically portrayed visually, for example in sketches or service prototypes. Service design may inform changes to an existing service or creation of new services. Ideal Service design methodology Together with the most traditional methods used for product design, service design requires methods and tools to control new elements of the design process, such as the time and the interaction between actors. Three aspects of ideal service process design: Identification of the actors involved in the definition of the service, using appropriate analytical tools Definition of possible service scenarios, verifying use cases, sequences of actions and actors role, in order to define the requirements for the service and its logical and organizational structure Representation of the service, using techniques that illustrate all the components of the service, including physical elements, interactions, logical links and temporal sequences Characteristics of service process design Service design is the specification and construction of technologically networked social practices that deliver valuable capacities for action to a particular customer. Capacity for action in Information Services has the basic form of assertions. In Health Services, it has the basic form of diagnostic assessments and prescriptions (commands). In Educational Services, it has the form of a promise to produce a new capacity for the customer to make new promises. In a fundamental way, services are unambiguously tangible. Companies such as eBay, or collectives such as Wikipedia or Sourceforge are rich and sophisticated combinations of basic linguistic deliverables that expand customers' capacities to act and produce value for themselves and for others. In an abstract sense, services are networked intelligence. Service design can be both tangible and intangible. It can involve artifacts and other things including communication, environment and behaviors.

Process Control In any industrial plant the aim is to produce standard and high quality products and sell them at prices which make profit. These purposes can be achieved in successfully designed and controlled processes. Process control is extensively used in industry and enables mass production of continuous processes such as oil refining, paper manufacturing, chemicals, power plants and many other industries. Process control enables automation, with which a small staff of operating personnel can operate a complex process from a central control room. A commonly used control device called a programmable logic controller, or a PLC, is used to read a set of digital and analog inputs, apply a set of logic statements, and generate a set of analog and digital outputs. Using the example in the previous paragraph, the room temperature would be an input to the PLC. The logical statements would compare the set point to the input temperature and determine whether more or less heating was necessary to keep the temperature constant. A PLC output would then either open or close the hot water valve, an incremental amount, depending on whether more or less hot water was needed. Larger more complex systems can be controlled by a Distributed Control System (DCS) or SCADA system.

Process Improvement

Process improvement is a systematic approach to help an organization optimize its underlying processes to achieve more efficient results. Process improvement is an aspect of organizational development (OD) in which a series of actions are taken by a process owner to identify, analyze and improve existing business processes within an organization to meet new goals and objectives, such as increasing profits and performance, reducing costs and accelerating schedules. These actions often follow a specific methodology or strategy to encourage and ultimately create successful results. Process improvement may include the restructuring of company training programs to increase their effectiveness. Process improvement is also a method to introduce process changes to improve the quality of a product or service, to better match customer and consumer needs.

Steps Involved in Process Improvement 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Identify and Define the problem Study existing situation Collect necessary data Generate alternative solutions Evaluate and choose best solution Implement the solution selected Monitor and collect results