Question

What do you understand by the following terms and give one extensive example of each or
where the term is applicable;
I. Process flow analysis.
II. Value-adding and cost-adding processes.
III. Strategic Plan.
IV. Process improvement (Kaizen)

Answer 1

The answer of all terms is explained below:

I. Process flow analysis – it is analysis done by the companies to understand the current state of process, how it works currently, what are steps a person need to take from start to end to complete a activity. Such analysis is done generally by companies to understand all elements involved in particular manufacturing process, or any process for that matter.

For example in a company there is a team who process the invoices for all vendors, but company receive various complaints that there is always delay in getting the payment, therefore company will do a process analysis to understand the step invoicing team take to process any vendor payments and which step is the reason which is causing the delay in the payment

II. Value-adding and cost-adding processes.

There are some process or element in the process which add value to overall process or a product line chain, however there are some elements of a process which add extra cost to entire product chain. The example of value adding process could be suppose if we have a wine factory, as we know the older the wine is better the taste is, so company add another line to process which is storage facility, so company will now store his wine, so that they can offer best tasting wines to the customers. The example of cost adding process could be advertising, though advertising is important for products, but it is the extra layer of the cost which influence the overall cost of the product

III. Strategic Plan – In this type of plan company set its long term strategy where they define their objectives, long term focus areas, resources planning, and how they will achieve all these goals. For the company Strategic plans are most important plans as basis these plans their overall vision is set and this plan provide direction to other operational and functional plans at core level which ensure execution of the strategic plans.

IV. Process improvement (Kaizen) – Process improvement is a process where in companies slowly slowly identifies the wastes in the process with the view to improve the process overall. Kaizen principle advocate the need of continuous process improvements for the companies if they want to survive in the this competitive environment