AAOM Handbook

PS.05 Identify Critical Process Work Steps

Context

Within the Operating Model the term Production work is used to describe the activities directly involving transferring, transforming or storing materials, services or information within a process. For example: a) in a mining/mineral processing environment; blasting, hoisting, stockpiling, grinding, smelting. b) in a power generation environment; transferring fuel, transforming energy (e.g. oil to heat, rotation of alternator to electricity), transforming voltage & current levels and transmitting power over lines. c) in a procurement and supply environment, placing orders, receiving, warehousing and issuing goods. The transform, transfer and store elements of the various value streams within an Operation, comprising Processes and Productive Units, were defined in the Operating Model in the step of Defining the Business Structure in the process of Setting Performance Targets. Within a transform or transfer Process or Productive Unit is also likely that there may be multiple work steps that also involve the transforming, transferring or storing of material or information. These work steps were defined in TA PS.03, Specify Process work Steps. The transform, transfer and store work steps in a production process are determined by the design of the process. This is guided by the Purpose of the process, the inputs available to it and the underlying technical theory (which may include physics, chemistry and technology, etc.) applied to deliver the Purpose. The production process steps do not change unless the underlying technical Theory changes. However, if the process or its Theory is complex, the transform, transfer and store steps may perhaps be organised in a number of alternate ways (designs - series/parallel arrangement of the steps), with different impacts on the effectiveness or efficiency of the process. Once we have identified the objective of the Production Strategy review we need to look at the work steps within the Process or Productive unit (there will be at least one and maybe more) to identify which will have the greatest impact on delivering the objective that has been specified for the Production strategy. • the number of work steps - the more to choose from the complex the choice may become, • the relative contribution of each work step to the Process or Productive Unit performance - if there is only one or a few very dominant work steps then they will have the greatest impact and be easy to identify, • the number of series or parallel work steps – the more unbuffered series work steps the greater the possibility that interdependent variation between work steps drives performance rather than a single work step, and • the availability of data on the work step performance. The complexity of the work involved in doing this may vary, dependent on;

© McAlear Management Consultants 2006

Operational Planning: Set Production Strategy

Updated: August 2018

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