🧩 Frameworks

Operations framework

Fixing a process: capacity, speed, quality, cost.

Operations cases ask why a process is slow, expensive or unreliable. Look at inputs, the process itself (capacity and bottlenecks) and outputs (quality, delivery).

The bottleneck — the slowest step — sets the speed of the whole system.

How to break it down

Process

Inputs

Capacity & bottleneck

Quality

Cost per unit

🧮 Example

A hospital's discharge takes 6 hours; billing approval is the bottleneck at 3 hours → fix billing first.

🎯 Interview tip

Find the bottleneck before suggesting more staff or machines everywhere.

Used in

Operations cases

Learn next

Value chain

Every step from raw material to happy customer.

Economies of scale

Getting cheaper per unit as you get bigger.

The 80/20 rule (Pareto)

A small share of causes drives most of the result.

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