Foundations of Operations Management - WK3 - Process Selection and Influences

Explain the strategic importance of process selection and how it influences the organization and
life cycle assessment.
What is Process Selection?

Process selection is the method of choosing goods and services in an organizations. This
method possesses a number of considerations like technology, process design, facility layout,
capacity planning, etc. It is used for making important business decisions like if new line of
products should be introduced, if products should be sold or manufactured, etc. Process selection
is affected by particulars like quality, price and capacity. There are five process types; job shop,
batch, repetitive process, continuous process and project and a selection is to be made among the
types. This decision will be made based on two most important factors; variety and volume of
products and services that the process will need to handle (Stevenson, 2018).
Strategic Importance of Process Selection and its Influence on Organization and Life Cycle
Assessment
Process is core mechanism in operational management. It is the way in which inputs are
converted to outputs. Because of this, the selection of processes possess great strategic
importance. Some of the reasons behind this statement are:
1. Process selection affects the choices for facility and equipment which in turn may affect
other factors like cost incurred in production, time taken for production, and quality of
product manufactured or service rendered.
2. Process selection will help understand the technology most necessary for a product or
service. Thus, the need for advanced technologies must be found
3. Process selection also affects the supply chain of an organization for that particular
product or service. This is because the volume and variety of products will change per the
process which will in turn affect the consumer base and the way and quantities in which
products are ordered and delivered.
4. Every organization will set a production goal for its goods and services. There might also
be specific focus for the time being. The process selected should comply with the current
focus of the organization like if the main aim is reducing costs or minimizing errors or
increasing efficiency or making the best quality products.
5. Process selection also affects the capacity planning concerned with a product which is the
matching of production capacity with demand of sales. This is because process selection
helps develop different approaches to meet demand patterns in cases they are irregular
(Swift & Booker, 2003).
Process selection influences an organization in terms of its ability to reach its vision and
mission. This is because process selection affects an operation in following particulars;
a) Cost of the Operation: Process selection will affect cost of the operation as some are
likely to be more cost-effective than others. Like in some cases, more technological
batch-making may help reduce prices. This is what keeps prices low at McDonalds per
se.
b) Quality of the Operation/ Final Product: Quality of the operation and product will be
affected by process selected. For example, garments made in a job shop might be more
qualitative than one made in repetitive process.
c) Delivery of Operation: Process selected to make a product available can be responsible in
changing the delivery of operations in an organization. For example, a farm may decide it
wants to grow avocados in Nepal itself rather than importing from somewhere like China.
This will change the role of airways and international trade systems in the supply chain.
d) Flexibility of Operation: Different processes have different flexibilities when it comes to
operations. This means that when a sudden change is introduced into manufacturing per
se some process will be better equipped to handle those sudden changes (Schroeder,
2000).
Because of the effect process selection has on different parts of an operation, it affects an
organization which is composed of different such operations.
Life Cycle Assessment is the systematic assessment of the environmental impacts that
can be caused during the different five stages of the life cycle of a product or service;
development, introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. LCA is composed of four different
components; goal definition, inventory analysis, effect analysis, and interpretation. Goal
definition is identifying the environmental impacts that will have to be reviewed. Inventory
analysis is analyzing material usage and environmental impacts. Effect analysis is assessing
potential human and environmental effects of the product cycle. Interpretation includes
evaluation and analysis of the results to find gain insights into possibilities of reducing
environmental impacts associated with the product (Harding, 2004).
Process selection is very likely to influence life cycle assessment of a product or service.
This is because it affects the way product is organized in different stages of life cycle. This can
mean changing the way raw materials are brought in and used, type of energy used, etc. during
manufacturing and determining the supply chain system during growth stage (Seo & Kulay,
2006). For example; the process selection for life cycle of bakery goods can either be a job shop
or a batch process. Now, this is likely to affect life cycle assessment. First off, the time taken for
life cycle assessment is higher for batch process than for a job shop. Secondly, more materials
will have to be bought for a batch process. But, batch process might also be more energy-
convenient process than job shop when it comes down to energy used in production/product (a
muffin for example) (National Academy of Engineering, 1999). The decision making guided by
LCA can also be used as information for process selection
References
Harding, T. S. (2004). Life Cycle Assessment as a Tool for Green Manufacturing
Education. Materials Engineering, 62. http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1061&context=mate_fac
National Academy of Engineering. (1999). Measures of environmental performance and
ecosystem condition. National Academies Press.
Schroeder, R. G. (2000). Operations management: contemporary concepts. Irwin/McGraw-Hill.
Seo, E. S. M., & Kulay, L. A. (2006). Life cycle assessment: management tool for decision-
making. Interfacehs, 1(1). http://www3.sp.senac.br/hotsites/blogs/InterfacEHS/wp-
content/uploads/2013/07/2006-v1-art4-ingles.pdf
Stevenson, W. (2018). Operations management (13th ed.). McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Swift, K. G., & Booker, J. D. (2003). Process selection: from design to manufacture. Elsevier.

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Explain the strategic importance of process selection and how it influences the organization and

life cycle assessment.

What is Process Selection?

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