School Commencement – Process Exercise

XYZ College, a private selective institution, holds a commencement every year. The commencement process begins with students being given their hoods, on the steps of the commencement stage. The students then wait on the steps until their names are called, when they walk across the stage to receive their diplomas. After receiving their diplomas, they walk a little way and exit the stage.

The school is planning for the next commencement and has the following estimates to work with.

There are 409 students on average every commencement. The school wishes to complete the commencement exercise within an hour. An average of 12 students are hooded per minute. Names are called @ one student every 7 seconds. The walk to go to the center of the stage, and physically receive the diploma, takes a student 8.2 seconds, on average. It takes an additional 2 seconds for a student to walk on and exit. There are 5 students on stage, on average - some being hooded, some waiting for their names to be called, some walking to receive their diplomas, and some exiting the stage.

With this background information, please answer the following questions:

1. What is the unit of analysis in the process (what is it that is flowing through the process)?

2. Draw a simple 4 step process map of the process

3. Compute and indicate the capacity of each step on the process map

4. Where (which step) is the bottleneck (actual/potential) located?

5. What is the capacity of the process?

6. What is the average flow time of a unit in seconds per student?

7. Can 409 students be processed within an hour, under this system?