Homework 5 (5 points)
- To be completed individually or in pairs
- Submit a slide deck in PDF, Powerpoint, or OpenOffice/LibreOffice Impress, using the homework submission button. The last slide of the slide deck should contain a link to a video hosted in a platform of your choice (see instructions below).
Background
You will analyze an event log of a price quotation process at a company that manufactures custom metallic structures. The event log is here: https://owncloud.ut.ee/owncloud/s/47dQs9yzGyxCZHY
This business process is triggered when a customer requests a price quotation. The request includes on a "requirements" document. This type of request is called a Request for Quote (RFQ). At a high level, the process looks as follows:
- An RFQ is created in the customer relationship management (CRM) system.
- Based on the requirements, the engineering team produces a product design, either from scratch or based on an existing product design.
- Next, a production plan is prepared, in consultation with the customer.
- Based on the production plan, the sales team prepares a quote.
- The quote is approved and submitted to the client.
Tasks / Questions
Task 1 (half point)
Normally, after a quote is prepared, the next step in the process is the approval of the quote. Does it happen sometimes that a quote is prepared, but the next step after that is not the approval of the quote? If so, in how many cases this happens? In these “anomalous” cases, what step is performed next, after the quote is prepared?
Task 2 [1.5 points]
Identify at least three rework loops in this process? Which of these rework loops would you consider as the main candidate for further analysis/improvement and why? To what extent does the presence of this rework loop contribute to the cycle time of the process? In other words, what is the difference in cycle time when the rework loop occurs in a case vs. when the rework loop does not occur in a case.
Task 3 [3 points]
The average case duration for RFQs where the "product_type" is "Aluminium" is lower than the average case duration for RFQs where the "product_type" is "Glass". Which key differences (in activity frequencies, bottlenecks/waiting times, rework, and resources) could explain that RFQs of type "Glass“ have a higher case duration than those of type “Aluminium”? To what extent each of these differences in the process contribute to the higher average case duration?
Deliverable
You should present your findings in a video of between 3 and 10 minutes. For each question, you should provide a brief explanation and one or more supporting screenshots (or give a short demo of Apromore to show how you arrived at your answer)
You may record your video using any screencast software. Your voice should be clearly audible. You do not need to turn on your video camera in the video, but the slides and/or the process mining tool should be visible.
You may host your video using any cloud storage solution (Dropbox, Google drive, or in the university's Owncloud platform), or in a video hosting platform (Vimeo, Youtube). The video should be openly accessible (but you can make it "unlisted" or not searchable). In case you do this homework in a team (of two people), the video presentation should be done by one of the team members (or both).
You may prepare your slides using any suitable software, be it PPT or using a specialized SaaS solution for preparing presentations such as Canva, Google Slides, or Prezi.
You should submit your slides in PDF or PPT format (Libreoffice format accepted). The last slide in the slide deck should contain the link to the video recording. The link should be public (i.e. if someone has the link and clicks on it, they should be able to watch your video presentation).
In addition to the correctness and completeness of your answers, the quality of your oral presentation will also be taken into account in the homework grade.