Exercise – It is always worth illustrating the ideas in operations and process management with reference to not-for-profit organizations. Charities, local government organizations and particularly health care services (although some of these are private) provide a wealth of examples. For example, try asking the students to contrast an accident and emergency (A&E) department of a hospital with a unit that specializes in cosmetic surgery. The former has to cope with very high variety, high variation and high visibility. Demand is relatively unpredictable and it must provide fast and responsive service (relatively at least, it would be measured in minutes and hours rather than weeks and months). The cosmetic surgery unit, by contrast, may still have high variety but, because patients are more able to wait, it is unlikely to have very high variation.

Because of this, the process can be planned and scheduled in advance, so there will be far higher utilization of the process’s resources.