PROCESS TECHNOLOGIES

by:Ms. Jerielyn V. Reyes

Operations management and Process Technology

• What does the technology do which is different from other similar technologies?

• How does it do it? That is, what particular characteristics of the technology are used to perform its function?

• What benefits does using the technology give to the operation?

• What constraints does using the technology place on the operation?

Learning Objectives

• Identify the process technology used in any operation

• Describe the significant materials-processing technologies.

• Describe the significant information-processing technologies.

• Describe the significant customer-process technologies.

• Understand how process technologies are chosen.

What is Process technology

• the machines, equipment and devices that help operations to create or deliver products and services.

• direct process technologies• indirect process technologies

Direct Process Technologies

Hospital body scanner

Disney World use flight-simulation technologies

Indirect Process Technologies – help to facilitate the direct creation of products and services.

Accounting System Stock Control

System

Integrating Technologies

• The distinction between material, information and customer processing technologies is for convenience only because many newer technologies with greater information-processing capability process combinations of materials, people and customer

Electronic point of sale (EPOS)• processes shoppers, products and information• provides information for operations control systems

and financial systems, such as information on slow-moving items, out-of-stock items, cashier speed and store turnover and profitability.

Types of Process Technologies

•Material • Information• Customer

Material Processing Technologies

• Technologies which have had a particular impact include numerically controlled machine tools, robots, automated guided vehicles, flexible manufacturing systems and computer-integrated manufacturing systems.

• Computer numerically controlled machine tools (CNC). Performs the same types of metal-cutting and forming operations which have always been done, but with control provided by a computer

• Robots are ‘automatic position-controlled reprogrammable multi-function manipulators having several degrees of freedom capable of handling materials, parts, tools or specialized devices through variable programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks’.

• Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) are small, independently powered vehicles which move materials to and from value-adding operations

• Flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs) are ‘computer-controlled configurations of semi independent workstations connected by automated material handling and machine loading’.

• Computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) is the integration of computer-based monitoring and control of all aspects of the manufacturing process, drawing on a common database and communicating via some form of computer network.

YO! Sushi• YO! Sushi are sushi

restaurants with an accent on style.

• They employ technology to create their unique atmosphere.

• Prepared dishes are circulated around the sitting area on a moving conveyor.

• Customers simply take what they want as they pass by.

Information-Processing Technology

• Information-processing technology, or just information technology (IT), includes any device which collects, manipulates, stores or distributes information.

IT Methods• A local area network- allows decentralized information

processors such as personal computers to communicate with each other and with shared devices over a limited distance

• The internet - allows access to the World Wide Web, the distributed hypermedia/hypertext system. (information overload )

• Extranets - allowing customers, suppliers and banks to exchange trading information

• E-business - the use of internet-based technology, either to support existing business processes or to create entirely new business opportunities

• M-business - the phrase now frequently used to cover applications that combine broadband internet and mobile telephony devices

• Decision support systems (DSSs) - Uses data storage, models and presentation formats to structure information and present consequences of decisions

• Automatic identification technologies

Customer-Processing Technology

• The way we classify technologies is through the nature of the interaction between customers, staff and the technology itself.

• Active interaction technology the customer takes control of the technologyExample: Mobile phone service, internet-based ordering, e-mail, cash machines

Classification of Customer-Processing Technology

• Passive Interactive Technology Customers are guided and thus interacting with the technology, but the technology ‘processes’ the customers and controls them by constraining their actions in some way.

Examples: being a ‘passenger’ in an aircraft, mass transport systems, moving walkways and lifts, cinemas and theme parks

• Hidden interaction with the technologyfor staff to track customers’ movements or transactions in an unobtrusive way Examples: security cameras, retail scanners, credit card tracking

• Interaction through an IntermediaryThe benefits to the customer are a more flexible serviceExample: Call centre technology, travel shop’s booking system

Characteristics of Process Technology

• The degree of automation of the technology - the ratio of technological to human effort it employs is sometimes called the capital intensity of the process technology

• The scale or scalability of the technology - the ability to shift to a different level of useful capacity quickly and cost effectively

• The degree of coupling or connectivity of the technology - linking together of separate activities within a single piece of process technology to form an interconnected processing system

Choice of Technology• Market requirements evaluation includes

assessing the impact that the process technology will have on the operation’s performance objectives:– Quality– Speed– Dependability– Flexibility– Cost

• Operations Resource Evaluation - an assessment of the potential that the organization is acquiring through its process technology

• Constraints - the things it will find difficult to do because of the acquisition of the technology.

• Capabilities - the things which the operation can now do because of the technology.

• Financial evaluation involves the use of some of the more common evaluation approaches, such as net present value.Morgan Company is considering a capital investment of $180,000 in additional productive facilities. The new machinery is expected to have a useful life of 6 years with no salvage value. Depreciation is by the straight line method. During the life of the investment, annual net income and net annual cash flows are expected to be $20,000 and $50,000 respectively. Morgan has a 15% cost of capital rate which is the required rate of return on the investment.Present Value at 15% Discount factor for 6 periods 3.78448 Present value of net cash flows: $50,000 x 3.78448 $189,224.00 Capital Investment 180,000.00 Net present Value $9,224.00

One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men.  No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man. 

Elbert Hubbard The Roycroft Dictionary

and Book of Epigrams, 1923

Thank you !!