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Cycle Time & process capacity

Cycle Time  influences other process design decisions
 usually one of the first things to be calculated
 sets the ‘heart beat’ pace of the operations
 consideres demand for products & available production time in a period

Exercise:

Government office that deals with passports

Receives 1600 applications / week
Time available in the week 40 hrs
1st question  what is the cycle time required to process 1600 applications within 40 hrs?
2nd question  what capacity N is required if the complete processing time (accepting application,
processing, decision and passport issuance) is ca. 30 minutes / 1 person
Time available
Cycle time = Number = 40 = 0,025 hrs = 1,5 min / 1 application
to process 1600

Cycle time = Work content N = 30 min = 30 min = 20 people

N Cycle time 1,5 min
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Process Balancing
Balancing  attempt to allocate activities to each stage as equally as possible
 100% balance unachieveable
 effectiveness of the activity measured with balancing loss
(proportion of time invested in processing but not used productively)

Example:
a) b) c)
Ideal balance where activities The best achieveable balance The best achieveable balance
are allocated equally between where activities are alllocated where activities are alllocated
stages between stages of a four-stage between stages of a two-stage
configuration configuration

Cycle time = 10,75 min Cycle time = 12 min Cycle time = 22 min
12 -- 22 --
10 -- 10 -- 20 --

Stage 1
Stage 1

Stage 1 10 --

Stage 2
Stage 2

Stage 2
5 -- 5 --
Stage 3

Stage 4

Stage 3

Stage 4
Idle time = 0 Idle time = (12-11)+ Idle time = (22-21) = 1 min
(12-10)+
(12-10) = 5 min
Balancing loss = 0 Balancing loss = 1 min/2x22 =
Balancing loss = 5 min/4x12 = = 0,023 = 2,3%
= 0,104 = 10,4%
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Work In Process - WIP

Work in process determins how many units are contained within the process waiting to be processed
 is in mathematical relation with throughput time and cycle time
 works for any stable process e.g. assembly lines
 helps determine stocks on hand vs being processed in materials availability confirmation

Calculation: the use of Little’s law

Throughput time Tt = Work in process WIP x Cycle time

Wrok in process WIP = Throughput time Tt x 1/Cycle time
Throughput rate = 1/Cycle time
WIP = Tt x Tr
Cycle time = 12 min
12 --
Example with 4 stage process
Cycle time = 12 min 10 --
Work in process = 4 units (at each stage of the process assuming

Stage 1

Stage 2
5 --

Stage 3

Stage 4
there is no stock held inbetween stages)
Throughput time = 4 x 12 = 48 min

Example with passport applications

Cycle time = 1,5 min
Work in process = 450 min / 1,5 min = 300 applications can be loaded into the process in the
morning and cleared by the end of the day
Throughput time = 7,5 hrs working day = 450 min
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Exercise - practical application of Little’s law

IT support unit

Every year it was the same. All the workstations

in the office had to be renovated, i.e. tested,
new software installed,etc and there was only one
week to do it. The one week fell in the mid August
vacation period when the renovation would not
disrupt normal operation.

Last year all 500 workstations were renovated within one week i.e. 40 working hours.
Each renovation took about 2 hours and a group of 25 technicians completed the job
within a week.

This year the number of workstations increased to 530 and the company’s IT support
unit designed a new routine which reduces the renovation time to 1,5 hrs instead of 2hrs.

How many technicians will be needed to complete the job within the week?