Answer the following:

$$ What is meant by a process? Define, then describe its important features.

$$ What is the objective of assembly$-$line balancing and how does it relate to the definition

of a process?

$$ How would you deal with the situation where one worker, although trying hard, is $20$

percent slower than the other $10$ people on a line

$$ Nonintuitively, having customers to provide their own service in the self$-$service

approach would seem antithetic to being consumer friendly. What are some of the characteristics of self$-$service operations that have led to their acceptance and significant popularity?