Learning Team Paper - Essay Example

Learning team paper Performance is an essential aspect of every enterprise and organizations try to align their performances with their goals in order to meet their desired output levels and at the same time operate economically towards competitive advantage. Process selection and design that includes process analysis, manufacturing process selection and design, and service selection and design offers a basis for designing flow charts and developing metrics for determining process performance and improving such performances.

The scope of process selection and design also identifies factors that affect process developments. I, in this paper, review application of week one’s objectives of understanding flowcharts and metrics, and factors that affect process development. One of the week’s objectives is understanding the designing of flow charts and measures for determining and improving processes. The objective involves an understanding of elements of flowcharts and approaches to modeling elements to achieve a desired performance level, and process analysis plays an important role.

Application of the knowledge of process analysis by a manager or designer in a manufacturing process is an example. This would include determination of the process’s objectives and aims of the specific analysis and determination, through exploring questions, of factors around a process. Such questions may relate to current output capacity of the process, expectations, possible modifications, and involved costs. The manager would then consider available materials and equipments, and process cycles to develop a flow chart, a process that would allow for easy understanding of the process towards improvements.

Once a process is understood from its analysis, its performance can be measured from productivity, efficiency, time, and rate, and decisions made to improve the performance (Chase and Jacobs, 2006). Identification of factors that affect process development, and a further understanding of how the factors influence the development are another set of objectives and are applicable in improving processes towards optimum levels of efficiency. Understanding factors such as expected output, customers’ waiting time, and alternative approaches to process generates ideas for establishing a process, refining a draft process, or improving an existing process (Chase and Jacobs, 2006; Inan, Buyukkupcu and Akinci, 2010).

The week’s objective of developing flow charts and metrics for determining and improving process performance together with identifying and understanding factors that affect process development corresponds to the roles of a manufacturer engineer that ensures achievement of viable manufacturing process. The engineer’s role that involves making decisions on the type of process to be used in manufacturing a product, and the process cycle also corresponds to process analysis into flow charts. Similarly, concepts of process analysis that consider involved materials, costs and expected output corresponds to the engineer’s planning stage in a manufacturing process.

Analysis of flow charts and consideration of factors to product development are also integral roles of a manufacture engineer of remedying emergent problems in processes, improving processes, and ensuring viable processes (Chase and Jacobs, 2006). Designing flow charts, metrics, and identification of factors to process development share a common objective of facilitating higher performance and competitive advantage. The two approaches however differ in their applications. Identification of the factors applies to product development and improvement while flowcharting and development of metrics applies to process improvements (Groover, 2010).

Process selection and design is essential to process development and improvement. Its scope is for example applicable in the manufacturing environment in which an engineer plans for processes, resolves emergent challenges, and strategize for improvements and design processes. The major concepts of the week, flowcharting, and development of metrics and identification of factors to process development contribute applies to such manufacturing environments to attain desired process productivity levels, though from different perspectives.

ReferencesChase, R. and Jacobs, R. (2006). Operations management for competitive advantage. Ventura, CA: Cram101 Incorporated.Groover, M. (2010). Fundamentals of modern manufacturing: Materials, processes, and systems. New Jersey, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Inan, E., Buyukkupcu, A. and Akinci, S. (2010). A content analysis of factors affecting new product development process. Business & Economics Research Journals (1.3) 87-100.