OPER1021 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Information Structure, Operations Management, Job Shop
20 Feb 2017
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Document Summary
Operations management: how a firm executes on what it is in business to do. Theme of the course is process improvement. 5 process elements: inputs and outputs, network of activities and buffers, flow unit, resources, information structure. Process typically fits within one of the five categories: project, job shop, batch, assembly line, continuous. Layouts refer to the physical structure of a process within a facility: product, process (functional), cellular, fixed position etc. The flow chart is often the first step in process analysis. Key process measures: inventory, flow rate, flow time. Little"s law: i = r x t. Even stable systems display variability in process measures some time: inventory accumulation (buildup) rate is the instantaneous differences between inflow rate and outflow rate. Simulation refers to applications that mimic real systems. Advantages of simulation: broadly applicable, flexible, low risk. Flow time can be estimated by direct observation or by using little"s law.
