Essays on Bottleneck

Executive Summary

Eldredge, Inc. is a major provider of by-product management services with the specific goal of performing these services in a responsible and environmentally conscious manner. With Eldredge’s multi-disciplined professional staff, field technicians and logistics specialists, Eldredge offers a complete spectrum of environmental services. Eldredge Inc. is headquartered in West Chester, PA and it provides services in the industrial, refinery, commercial, government, and utility markets. Eldredge, Inc. operates four main business units including: 1) Waste Transportation 2) Industrial Field Services 3) By-Product & Waste sourcing 4) Oil Reclamation & Water Treatment Eldredge’s facility is permitted to handle an array of ...

The case is focused on Pre-Admission Testing Area (PATA) of Massachusetts General Hospital to investigate the actual capacity of PATA and provides some recommendations to improve its ability. It will identify the PATA operations and challenges in the hospital that need attention. PATA is an outpatient clinic in the hospital that conducts pre-operative assessments of surgical patients before their procedures. Massachusetts General Hospital is one of oldest and largest hospital in the U.S that is located in Boston. The hospital is providing healthcare services in the country and serving the nation. It has 23,000 employees who have delivered ...

The Theory of Constraints is a management theory that states that any management system is limited in achieving its goals, and the limitation is due to the presence of certain constraints. There is always at least one constraint present in any management system. Constraints are what keeps the company from achieving its goals. The creator of the theory of constraints, Eliyahu Goldratt, described management systems as being like chains or groups and networks of chains. Each event is dependent on the event that precedes it (SPC for Excel: Theory of Constraints). All processes in the organization have some form ...

Functions of SCM

Buy: As illustrated in the twenty-eighth chapter, the manufacturing plant was forced to bargain with suppliers to increase the scale of orders. This move would benefit both the organization and the suppliers. Alex hoped that this move would bear fruit (pp. 234-236). Make: Al had trouble with making plans about production activities. In chapter twenty-one, the manufacturer found a solution to the problem that would prioritize production tasks. (Goldratt, 2004, p.184) Move: Chapter 2 features Al’s shipping issues that had economic implications on the plant. For the plant to improve its efficiency, shipping schedules had to be aligned ...

The Goal is generally about emerging principles in the manufacturing industry. Here, the book discusses the efforts of a manager of a plant in increasing the productivity of his factory. One of the valuable lessons that the manager learns is that like any other firm, his organization has to have a single primary objective that determines the operations within the business. All the departments within the organization are therefore run in a manner that aims at achieving the highest goal that was initially set. Also, the manager finally understands that the efficiency of the processes in his factory are ...

Background and Rationale for Choosing Kraljic Model

Supplier relationship management is necessary for long term success and sustainability of an organization. Apple Company has over the years been able to boost its supplier relationship by engaging competent suppliers who identify the need for technological advancements and sustained profitability. Among the factors considered by Apple is the need to reduce costs of sourcing for raw materials and reducing the risks associated with supply chain inefficiencies. The Kraljic supply chain model is a key tool that is applicable in Apple’s operations considering that there are two aspects Apple looks for when engaging its suppliers. The two elements ...

Book review

Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement. Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox

Great Barrington: North River Press, 2004, 3-rd edition, 389 pages.

The literature of modernity presents new way of thinking and genres. The importance of specific knowledge within the fundamental sphere of business management is crucial. That is why a kind of prose such as production novel occurs. The production novel is a literary work where all the action is described on the background of some of the production process; all the characters in one way or another are involved in it. The solution of production problems creates some moral conflicts that characters should solve. Thus the reader ...

Quality, Process and Location Analysis

Theory of constrains states that at every one point in a complex system, there is only one, or at most very few factors that inhibit the efficiency of the system. These bottlenecks should be identified and dealt with accordingly, to ensure a significant improvement in a system efficiency Stevenson, (2009). Before engaging the five steps of theory, the most important thing is to identify the goal of the system. In identifying the goals, one has to establish the end users of the system products. By so doing, we will be able to establish the matrix used to evaluate the ...

Business process re-engineering

Business process re-engineering

Summary of the case study

The article “Business process re-engineering in healthcare management: a case study” by Massimo Bertolini, M. Bevilacqua, F.E. Ciarapica and G. Giacchetta is driven by the purpose of carrying out a business process re-engineering (BPR) in a given surgical ward to improve the efficiency of operations in the unit. The authors argue that health care, just like any other industry has become very complex regarding operations. This has therefore made the management in many institutions to come up with clear strategies for managing this form of complexity. Despite the efforts made, there is the difficulty of fusing ...

Attention is a concept commonly studied by scholars in the field of cognitive psychology as they primarily interest in how humans process information within a particular environment(Goldstein, 2014). This relates to our attentional system because this is our ability to be able to focus in on something despite the stimuli that may be around us(Beard, Sawyer, & Hofmann, 2012; Cohen, 2014). Attention is an aspect of humans that is present from birth, and it is considered to a reflex that provides us the ability to know what should or shouldn't be of importance (in terms of alterntess) and ...

Business

Introduction The situation in the warehouse store can be described as a case of inefficient store design. The fact that the attendant in the electronics section will need to attend to the customer and call the manager for check approval at the same time is an issue with workflow efficiency. In addition, the time needed for the manager to come to the electronics section creates a delay because of the bottleneck effect, which hampers the smooth transition of business from one customer to another. The discussion will propose a more efficient workflow process for the store in order to ...

Reducing Bottlenecks, a case study of Starbucks

A supply chain is determined by bottlenecks. It is only after recognizing this fact that cash flow can be increased. In a supply chain, a bottle neck implies to resources that require the longest operations time of the supply for particular demand. Insufficiency and inventory increase are some of the associated with bottleneck. Insufficient materials and excess inventory do not occur always because of inconsistent fluctuations ( Bhalla, 2011). Bottlenecks determine the supply chain’s throughput. An improvement in the capacity of a supply chain’s bottleneck will increase in throughput. Non bottlenecks have an operating rate is one hundred ...

Introduction

Supply chain management (SCM) pertains to the process of managing the general flow of goods and services. In a real life setting, SCM is more focused on the management of the flow of raw materials, especially in industries where the output (i.e. final) products tend to be more complex and sophisticated and where a wide range of supplier or provider firms’ (i.e. business partners) are necessary. A good example would be the case of automobile manufacturing. Automobile manufacturers, in order to come up with their final products which obviously would be the automobiles, have to work with other firms, ...

Analysis of ‘The Goal’

There is a couple of concrete words that Mr. Goldratt uses in the explanation and illustration of the Theory of Constraints in the book “The Goal”. The primary terms applied a lot in the book are Throughput, Inventory and Operational Expenses. With respect to the fact that the Theory of Constraints is about money and constraints, he also mentions Return on Investment and Bottlenecks a lot. Understand the meaning of the above definitions and comparing them to the meaning he gives them is essential for the optimal analysis of “The Goal”.

Throughput

In the contemporary business world, throughput refers to ...

1. Project management is often defined as a process of applying managerial tools, knowledge and skills in order to achieve the project goal and to fulfil the requirements set by the customer within a predefined schedule and at a preset cost. The main benefit of the project management is customer satisfaction. It is achieved through the completion of a project in full, on time, in a quality manner and within a predefined budget (Gido, & Clements, 2009). In my career I have often relied on project management in order to define project objectives and to design a plan for project implementation. As pharmaceutical industry is time ...

Computer Architecture:

The Von Neumann Computer architecture and its importance: The Von Neumann computer architecture model was first described in a paper by Burks, John Von Neumann and Goldstein in 1946. The computer comprised a CPU, memory and I/O devices with a single set of buses connecting the CPU to memory. In this architecture, the program is stored in memory, and the processor fetches an instruction at a time from the memory and executes it. When the processor is reading data values from memory, it is unable to fetch the next execution instruction till data reading is complete. This situation where data and program ...

Introduction

Every department of an organization strives hard for the sharing of their contribution in the economic prosperity of the company and the presence of every department is essential for an entity. Among numerous departments, usually found in an organization, the name of Operational Department is one of them. Operational Department is one of the most important departments from the viewpoint of an organization and no organization could be in the sake of economic prosperity without having an effective Operational Department in particular . Operational Department is a department which usually looks over the transparent move in the actions and behaviors ...

(Instructor Name)

1. Scheduling - The drum and the rope (pp. 214-217). Describe this process. The Drum and rope system are used to ensure that scheduling of jobs happens at the same pace that the bottleneck or dominant machine in the setup can handle them. The Drum ensures that a standard pace is set for all the machines, so that the throughput of all machines is synchronized to the pace of the bottleneck. When a piece of work is completed by the bottleneck, it sends a message indicating when the work was completed, thus informing the others in the assembly line ...

Introduction

Since the inception of McDonalds to its market dominance, the McDonald brand has grown formidably and sustained a reputable name across the globe. The company has invested highly towards the generation of a formidable band to date. McDonalds is acclaimed for its unrivaled quality products. As a dominative figure in the burger industry, the company has been steadfast in its expansionary mandate with over 1650 stores globally. Hence, through its strong brand name, the company has taped into its core competency in sustaining its marketing initiatives. However, customer service has become an aspect of concern for the organization. Incorporation of a formidable and fast ...

Capacity planning is a very common activity done by several IT organizations. It is done to manage the performance of the systems is by ensuring that the system offers the best services to the users. System administrators normally restore the system functionality whenever there is a problem. It is good for the system administrator to plan in advance for such issues to avoid performance bottlenecks. Capacity building tools can be used to forecast in advance to plan how severs will be organized to handle the workload. The main aim of capacity panning is to ensure that quality services are offered to ...

Code of the Course:

Capacity & Forecasting Review of the Current Situation Currently, the capacity utilization at Excellent Manufacturing Company is 92%. This is a good figure since it is way above the average level of 80% which is common in many manufacturing companies. However, this means that there is a problem in the company gong by the growing demand which is set to rise by 80% in 5years, which is a result of a 12.5% annual compound growth in demand. This means that the company will not have the capacity to support the demand in 5 years. In addition to this, the short term forecast ...

Application of Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints to Identify and Overcome Process Bottlenecks

Application of Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints Queuing at the grocery is a mainstay concern to shoppers and often problematic to store management. The time taken to pay for items at a grocery constrains the efficiency of a store. This paper uses the theory of constraints to identify and overcome the main bottleneck in the process of shopping at a grocery store (Leseure, 2010, p. 270). For the one-week data collected, it was identified that the main bottleneck in the process was the time spent in queues while attempting to pay for goods. Reasonable time is spent in locating items thanks to a ...

Introduction

In the operation of a system, organization or machine, the extent of success lies in its ability to produce the highest possible results within a specified period of time (Boyer & Verman, 2009). This effectiveness focuses on the capacity which is the quality of work done in a defined period of time. This paper explores the differences between peak capacity and effective capacity in relation to production levels. It weighs the various strengths and weaknesses presented by each capacity. A case study of capacity cushions for airlines explores both concepts according to Sasaki (2008). It also expresses how the two capacities can complement ...

Research Paper

This research paper describes “bottlenecks” and processes used to identify, isolate and deal with them. Goldratt’s Theory of Constrains has also been discussed and how it is used to identify and overcome process bottlenecks. The data collected in week one was based on a business inventory. It shows an elaborate flow of inventory in a store. The first step involves collection of data that comes in when the store is open. This data is saved into the stock tables. If the store is closed, the process is pushed forward to the next shift of workers. The system is regularly ...

The paper contains two parts: the first part is devoted to the book review of Eliyahu Goldratt The Goal that relates the issues of contemporary business management. The improvement of productivity is important to any organization. Also, it is important to effectively compete in the market using available resources for production pursuing the main objective of any business – to make money.

The second part of the paper is devoted the analysis of a real situation in the company which was improved using principles and approaches described in the book.

Book Review

The Goal. Eliyahu M. Goldratt. (3nd. ed.). New York: North River ...

You know the day will not be a smooth one when you see your boss’ car parked in your spot, when you, as usually, arrive earlier at work. The book “The Goal” gravitates around the life and work of Alex Rogo, a Plant Manager within Uniware, part of UniCo company. Alex is a career oriented person, who tries to find a balance between his challenging work and his family life. As he follows two goals at the same time, he fails in both. In the beginning of the book, readers find out that Alex’s plant is facing some troubles. Although he ...

Population Growth: A Response Essay

According to E.O. Wilson and Lester Brown (Sloan, 2002), the world has reached a population of six billion in 1999, which continued to increase at a rate of 1.4% every year. This meant the addition of about 200,000 people everyday, which is a far cry from the population growth between the years 1800 and 1900 when the population grew only from 1 billion to 1.6 billion.

In response to Moore’s (1999) claims that population growth is not a problem, Wilson and Brown argue that this observation is based on ignorance as Moore was basing his claims only on food supply and ...

The E-library system has become a common phenomenon as it provides a relatively convenient means of data and information access (Rowley, 1998). Digital libraries utilize the internet as a means of exchange and connectivity among the numerous clients all over the world who utilize the library resources (Cline, 1992). Digital libraries have enabled sharing of a variety of digital collections over a platform that can be accessed on a platform that is international. This paper discusses the Electronic library systems and the impact that they have on the organizations that implement them. The electronic library systems, creation implementation as well as the challenges of such ...

This paper is devoted to determining the optimal plan of product of two shelves types, S and LX. It highlights which combination of shelves will allocate optimally the capacity available to help the organization maximize its total profits. Besides, it undertakes to carry out sensitivity analysis to help in understanding how total profits changes as selected inputs are changed, that is, the selling price and the material cost.

Executive summary

The problem of Shelby Shelving revolves around to determining the optimal plan of product of two shelves types, S and LX. It highlights which combination of shelves will allocate optimally the ...

Introduction

Management accounting can assist managers in an organization make timely and purposeful management decisions about the organization. Different organizations have different managerial accounting needs depending on their most essential area of business. Generally, management accounting deals with providing accounts and management reports to managers within the organization (Khan & Jain 2007). The information provided is crucial in assisting managers make informed decisions for control and management purposes. In contrast to financial accounting, which provides annual reports to external parties such as investors, creditors, shareholders and others, management accounting provides periodical reports (Coombs, Hobbs, and Jenkins 2005). These reports are important ...

Bottlenecks in a Process

According to the Goldratt’s theory of constraints the system would fail in its weakest link. In his theory Goldratt compares networks to a chain or a system of chains (Dettmer, 1997). Once a certain force is applied, the chain is going to break in its weakest link. Hence, the weakest link is the constraint for achieving better performance ("Theory of constraints,” 2011). The number of constraints at any given time can be only one, as the weakest link is unique at a certain moment. However, in the long run any other non-constraint can become a constraint under different conditions. The continuous improvement of ...