OPS.11.1:1 - Problem frame

Use this when an operating change looks useful in one account of the work but its consequence cannot be recovered in another. A department appears to have spare capacity while the person doing its work is already occupied elsewhere. A laboratory reports completed samples while the customer needs a complete order. A team can describe individual tasks but cannot explain what controls delivery by the wider service.

Construct the operating arrangement needed for the decision, then connect its local and wider accounts. Here a model is a description used to obtain an answer about the operation. A drawing, a set of conditions, a calculation or a simulation can serve that use. The operation is the work being described.

First useful move. Choose one proposed change and one recipient’s result. Follow a case through the resources and completion conditions that the change can affect. Where two descriptions refer to the same worker, order or event, bring those references together before calculating.

Practical gain. The manager can compare feasible arrangements without mistaking local capacity for available shared capacity or local completion for delivery. The result may also identify the particular coupling that makes a proposed change fail.

The reader needs to understand the work well enough to identify its participants and events, or work with someone who does. The elementary cases below need arithmetic and time intervals. A more demanding calculation can be obtained from a modeling specialist.

Use an adequate existing operating model directly when its assumptions and retained detail answer the present question. A staffing total alone may settle a proposed start. This method is useful when choosing or reconciling the model changes the answer; it does not require a description of the whole enterprise.