Biosphere Products makes and sells environmental monitoring devices for use in industry. These devices monitor and record air quality levels and issue an alarm whenever conditions warrant. If a monitoring device should fail, Biosphere will repair the device as part of the customer’s service agreement. The repair process consists of the following steps:

1. Once the device arrives at Biosphere’s repair center, a work order is immediately entered into the computer system. This step takes five minutes.

2. A device will then wait, on average, 24 hours before a technician has a chance to run diagnostics and disassemble the device. The diagnostics procedure usually takes about 30 minutes, while disassembly takes around one hour.

3. Next the technician orders replacements for any broken/worn parts from the main plant. Though it takes only five minutes to order the parts, it usually takes 48 hours for them to arrive from the main plant.

4. After the parts come in, the device will usually wait another 24 hours until a technician has time to reassemble and test the device. The reassembly and testing process takes, on average, three hours.

5. If the device still fails to work, the technician will repeat the process, starting with diagnostics and disassembly. The first time through, 10% of the devices aren’t fixed; however, virtually all of them work by the time a second pass has been completed.

6. Once the device has been tested and passed, it is immediately boxed up (10 minutes) and a call is made to UPS, which picks up the package, usually within one hour.

Map the current process. How long will it take, on average, to move a device through the system, assuming everything “works” the first time? How long will it take if the device has to be repaired a second time? What is the percent value-added time under each scenario?

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Below figure shows the process map starting with the arrival of the device at the repair ... View the full answer