Page 252 - Operations Strategy

EvAluATing PRoCEss TECHnology 227

Figure 6.13 Performance of laboratory analysis and data-based systems

New lab
system
performance
with new
Target technology Current
performance performance
Excellent Poor
Quality Notes
Confidence in analysis Data allows statistical
Number of tests possible tracking of cases over time.
Improvement potential Tool for internal process
improvement and enhanced
crime solving
Speed
Analysis time Reduced time to analyse case
Report lead-time material and produce reports
Increased per cent on-time
Dependability delivery of crime reports. Often a
Proportion on-time reports critical-path element in
a criminal investigation
Flexibility The new (more scalable)
Volume fluctuation system allows increased case
Range of tests volume (5 per cent growth
predicted) to be accommodated
Cost The elimination of paperwork is
Productivity of direct work intended to increase productivity
Productivity of indirect work by freeing sta from non-core
activities
Excellent Poor

and open databases) and encourage regular sharing of experiences (i.e. seminars, staff
exchanges and apprenticeships).

evaluating vulnerability

There have been some spectacular and very public failures associated with the introduc-
tion of new process technology. Yet presumably all of these process technology ‘failures’
were at one time determined to be both feasible and acceptable to the operation. Their
subsequent failure highlights one further important issue to explore – vulnerability.
That is, what exposure is the firm accepting if something goes wrong with the technol-
ogy once the decision to invest is made?
Evaluating the risks associated with new process technology can be based on a very
similar type of analysis that we used for assessing acceptability; namely, by assessing
risk in terms of market, resource and financial perspectives.

example rampaging robots 9

It is not a big problem (at least not at the moment), but it could become one as robot technologies
start to mix directly with customers. Robots can be dangerous, and not just in a highly automated
factory environment. (Although factory robots can be dangerous: in 2015 a factory worker at a
Volkswagen factory was picked up and killed by a robot. He was installing it when he was lifted

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