CASE STUDY: $$NETWORK DESIGN AND PROCESS MAPPING AT A DISTRIBUTION CENTER.

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A National distribution center $($DC$)$ has responsibility for supplying products to dealers located within a $30-$mile radius of its location. Lately, the DC has been receiving a lot of complaints from dealers regarding lost orders and the time required to process orders for items that are already in stock at the DC$.$ A process improvement team has decided to study the process in more detail by tracing the flow of a dealer order through the DC$,$ starting from when the dealer faxes in the order and ending with the order's delivery to the dealer.

The team has collected the following information:

$1.$ The dealer faxes an order to the DC$.$ Sometimes the paper gets jammed in the fax machine or an order gets thrown away accidentally. Employees estimate that about I in $25$ orders is "lost" in this manner.

$2.$ The fax sits in an inbox anywhere from zero to four hours, with an average of two hours, before the fax is picked up by the DC$\text{'}$s internal mail service.

$3.$ It takes the internal mail service one hour, on average, to deliver the order to the picking area $($where the desired items are picked off the shelves$).$ The range is $0$ to $1\mathrm{.}5$ hours. In addition, $1$ out of $100$ orders is accidentally delivered to the wrong area of the DC$,$ resulting in additional "lost" orders.$$

$4.$Once an order is delivered to the picking area, it sits in the clerk's inbox until the clerk has time to process it$.$ The order might wait in the inbox anywhere from zero to two hours, with an average time of one hour.

$5.$Once the clerk starts processing the order, it takes her about five minutes to determine whether the item is in stock. If the requested product is in stock, a worker picks the order and puts it into a box.

$6.$ Average picking time is $20$ minutes, with a range of $10$ minutes to $45$ minutes.

$7.$ Next, an inspector takes about two minutes to check the order for correctness. Even with this inspection, $1$ out of $200$ orders shipped has the wrong items or quantities $.$

$8.$ A local transportation firm then takes the completed order and delivers it to the dealer $($average delivery time is two hours, but can be anywhere from one to three hours$).$

The transportation firm has an exemplary performance record:

Over the past five years, the firm has never lost or damaged a shipment or delivered to the wrong dealer. If the item being ordered is out of stock, the clerk notifies the dealer and passes the order, on to the plant, which will arrange a special shipment directly to the dealer, usually within a week. Question?

$1.$ Using the symbols from chapter $3$ or any other one you are comfortable with using word document, construct or draws the process map for the order$-$filling process of in$-$stock items. $2.$ What is the average time $($in minutes or hours$)$ it will take between ordering and delivery for an in$-$stock item?

$3.$ Believing that if an item is not in stock it will take longer time for it to be delivered. If this should be the case, what will be the total time it will take for the Distribution Center to deliver to the dealers.

$4.$ Explain your findings and make precise recommendation based on your findings.