[Ask] Cashier's Cash, Money Order and Bank Draft?

第一個在中文稱為支票

後兩者皆翻為匯票

三者差別?

[Ask][Eng] 句子

However, banks are permitted to take back money from a "cleared" check one or two weeks later if subsequent processing finds it to be fraudulent. Because customers believe the checks have been found valid and have been converted to cash in hand, customers are readily defrauded by schemes which ask them to part with goods or a portion of the money if it is cleared in a timely manner.

Process Analysis

Process Analysis

An operation is composed of processes designed to add value by transforming inputs into useful outputs. Inputs may be materials, labor, energy, and capital equipment. Outputs may be a physical product (possibly used as an input to another process) or a service. Processes can have a significant impact on the performance of a business, and process improvement can improve a firm's competitiveness.

The first step to improving a process is to analyze it in order to understand the activities, their relationships, and the values of relevant metrics. Process analysis generally involves the following tasks:

• Define the process boundaries that mark the entry points of the process inputs and the exit points of the process outputs.

• Construct a process flow diagram that illustrates the various process activities and their interrelationships.

• Determine the capacity of each step in the process. Calculate other measures of interest.

• Identify the bottleneck, that is, the step having the lowest capacity.

• Evaluate further limitations in order to quantify the impact of the bottleneck.

• Use the analysis to make operating decisions and to improve the process.

Process Flow Diagram

The process boundaries are defined by the entry and exit points of inputs and outputs of the process.

Once the boundaries are defined, the process flow diagram (or process flowchart) is a valuable tool for understanding the process using graphic elements to represent tasks, flows, and storage. The following is a flow diagram for a simple process having three sequential activities:

Process Flow Diagram

The symbols in a process flow diagram are defined as follows:

• Rectangles: represent tasks

• Arrows: represent flows. Flows include the flow of material and the flow of information. The flow of information may include production orders and instructions. The information flow may take the form of a slip of paper that follows the material, or it may be routed separately, possibly ahead of the material in order to ready the equipment. Material flow usually is represented by a solid line and information flow by a dashed line.

• Inverted triangles: represent storage (inventory). Storage bins commonly are used to represent raw material inventory, work in process inventory, and finished goods inventory.

• Circles: represent storage of information (not shown in the above diagram).

In a process flow diagram, tasks drawn one after the other in series are performed sequentially. Tasks drawn in parallel are performed simultaneously.

In the above diagram, raw material is held in a storage bin at the beginning of the process. After the last task, the output also is stored in a storage bin.

When constructing a flow diagram, care should be taken to avoid pitfalls that might cause the flow diagram not to represent reality. For example, if the diagram is constructed using information obtained from employees, the employees may be reluctant to disclose rework loops and other potentially embarrassing aspects of the process. Similarly, if there are illogical aspects of the process flow, employees may tend to portray it as it should be and not as it is. Even if they portray the process as they perceive it, their perception may differ from the actual process. For example, they may leave out important activities that they deem to be insignificant.

Process Performance Measures

Operations managers are interested in process aspects such as cost, quality, flexibility, and speed. Some of the process performance measures that communicate these aspects include:

• Process capacity - The capacity of the process is its maximum output rate, measured in units produced per unit of time. The capacity of a series of tasks is determined by the lowest capacity task in the string. The capacity of parallel strings of tasks is the sum of the capacities of the two strings, except for cases in which the two strings have different outputs that are combined. In such cases, the capacity of the two parallel strings of tasks is that of the lowest capacity parallel string.

• Capacity utilization - the percentage of the process capacity that actually is being used.

• Throughput rate (also known as flow rate ) - the average rate at which units flow past a specific point in the process. The maximum throughput rate is the process capacity.

• Flow time (also known as throughput time or lead time) - the average time that a unit requires to flow through the process from the entry point to the exit point. The flow time is the length of the longest path through the process. Flow time includes both processing time and any time the unit spends between steps.

• Cycle time - the time between successive units as they are output from the process. Cycle time for the process is equal to the inverse of the throughput rate. Cycle time can be thought of as the time required for a task to repeat itself. Each series task in a process must have a cycle time less than or equal to the cycle time for the process. Put another way, the cycle time of the process is equal to the longest task cycle time. The process is said to be in balance if the cycle times are equal for each activity in the process. Such balance rarely is achieved.

• Process time - the average time that a unit is worked on. Process time is flow time less idle time.

• Idle time - time when no activity is being performed, for example, when an activity is waiting for work to arrive from the previous activity. The term can be used to describe both machine idle time and worker idle time.

• Work In process - the amount of inventory in the process.

• Set-up time - the time required to prepare the equipment to perform an activity on a batch of units. Set-up time usually does not depend strongly on the batch size and therefore can be reduced on a per unit basis by increasing the batch size.

• Direct labor content - the amount of labor (in units of time) actually contained in the product. Excludes idle time when workers are not working directly on the product. Also excludes time spent maintaining machines, transporting materials, etc.

• Direct labor utilization - the fraction of labor capacity that actually is utilized as direct labor.

Little's Law

The inventory in the process is related to the throughput rate and throughput time by the following equation:

W.I.P. Inventory = Throughput Rate x Flow Time

This relation is known as Little's Law, named after John D.C. Little who proved it mathematically in 1961. Since the throughput rate is equal to 1 / cycle time, Little's Law can be written as:

Flow Time = W.I.P. Inventory x Cycle Time

The Process Bottleneck

The process capacity is determined by the slowest series task in the process; that is, having the slowest throughput rate or longest cycle time. This slowest task is known as the bottleneck. Identification of the bottleneck is a critical aspect of process analysis since it not only determines the process capacity, but also provides the opportunity to increase that capacity.

Saving time in the bottleneck activity saves time for the entire process. Saving time in a non-bottleneck activity does not help the process since the throughput rate is limited by the bottleneck. It is only when the bottleneck is eliminated that another activity will become the new bottleneck and present a new opportunity to improve the process.

If the next slowest task is much faster than the bottleneck, then the bottleneck is having a major impact on the process capacity. If the next slowest task is only slightly faster than the bottleneck, then increasing the throughput of the bottleneck will have a limited impact on the process capacity.

Starvation and Blocking

Starvation occurs when a downstream activity is idle with no inputs to process because of upstream delays. Blocking occurs when an activity becomes idle because the next downstream activity is not ready to take it. Both starvation and blocking can be reduced by adding buffers that hold inventory between activities.

Process Improvement

Improvements in cost, quality, flexibility, and speed are commonly sought. The following lists some of the ways that processes can be improved.

• Reduce work-in-process inventory - reduces lead time.

• Add additional resources to increase capacity of the bottleneck. For example, an additional machine can be added in parallel to increase the capacity.

• Improve the efficiency of the bottleneck activity - increases process capacity.

• Move work away from bottleneck resources where possible - increases process capacity.

• Increase availability of bottleneck resources, for example, by adding an additional shift - increases process capacity.

• Minimize non-value adding activities - decreases cost, reduces lead time. Non-value adding activities include transport, rework, waiting, testing and inspecting, and support activities.

• Redesign the product for better manufacturability - can improve several or all process performance measures.

• Flexibility can be improved by outsourcing certain activities. Flexibility also can be enhanced by postponement, which shifts customizing activities to the end of the process.

In some cases, dramatic improvements can be made at minimal cost when the bottleneck activity is severely limiting the process capacity. On the other hand, in well-optimized processes, significant investment may be required to achieve a marginal operational improvement. Because of the large investment, the operational gain may not generate a sufficient rate of return. A cost-benefit analysis should be performed to determine if a process change is worth the investment. Ultimately, net present value will determine whether a process "improvement" really is an improvement.

Tax Credit

稅收抵免

Cycle time, Flow time

1. Cycle time vs. Flow time

flow time: 在建造大型客機之類的大型工程中﹐有所謂 flow time﹐指的是工件(如飛機)在某工作站的停留時間﹐或者說是工件的流動時間﹐例如飛機的機翼組裝工作站﹐可能需要六天才能完成﹐那此工件就是6天流動一次﹐此工作站的flow time 就是 6 天。

cycle time:指的是整個組裝生產線的速度﹐例如每三天一台飛機﹐那麼他的cycle time 就是 3 天。

那麼 flow time 與 cycle time有何關係呢？如果排程需要的 cycle time 是 3 天﹐工作站的 flow time又是六天﹐問題如何解決？此時必須排兩組人馬﹐分別組裝兩架飛機﹐這樣就可以每三天送出一台飛機﹐達成cycle time 三天之目標﹐那麼為何不是增加人手使 flow time降到3天呢？flow time之降低有其限制條件﹐譬如飛機組裝有空間的限制﹐我們無法在狹小的空間中擠進很多的工作人員﹐也就是說flow time 無法任意降低。

2.

Cycle time 週期時間

在一個生產流程的各個工作站中,作業時間最長的工作站所需的時間,謂之該流程的週期時間. 例如, 某一流程有10個工作站, 其中第8站作業時間最久,需時35秒,其它各站皆小於等於35秒,則該流程的週期時間為35秒, 週期時間主要的功能在計算該流程在一定時段內產能.

計算法如下 :
　　　　　　　 某一時段產能 = 所要計算產能的時段 / 週期時間

產能 (Capacity)

周期時間 (Cycle time)

同上例, 週期時間為35秒, 如果想知道 8小時產能 則為 8/ 小時(35秒/3600) = 822(pcs).

又由上式可知, 想提高產能,可由減少流程週期時間著手. 即進行工作改善.

Salvage Value

What Does Salvage Value Mean?
The estimated value that an asset will realize upon its sale at the end of its useful life. The value is used in accounting to determine depreciation amounts and in the tax system to determine deductions. The value can be a best guess of the end value or can be determined by a regulatory body such as the IRS.

Investopedia explains Salvage Value
The salvage value is used in conjunction with the purchase price and accounting method to determine the amount by which an asset depreciates each period. For example, with a straight-line basis, an asset that cost $5,000 and has a salvage value of $1,000 and a useful life of five years would be depreciated at $800 ($5,000-$1,000/5 years) each year.

Within the tax system, when a person donates a car he or she receives a tax deduction. The value of this deduction depends on the salvage value of the car. This salvage value is determined to be the current fair market value that could be obtained had the car been sold on that day rather than donated.

[Term] on credit & on account

On account

作為部分付款

She owed me $100 and sent $20 on account. 她欠我一百元, 先寄二十元還我。

On credit

以賒帳, 掛帳方式; 憑信用(卡)地