At the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) the process of getting license plates for your car begins when you enter the facility and take a number. You walk 50 feet to the waiting area. During your wait, you count about 30 customers waiting for service. You notice that many customers become discouraged and leave. When a number is called, if a customer stands, the ticket is checked by a uniformed person, and the customer is directed to the available clerk. If no one stands, several minutes are lost while the same number is called repeatedly. Eventually, the next number is called, and more often than not, that customer has left too. The DMV clerk has now been idle for several minutes but does not seem to mind.
After 4 hours, your number is called and checked by the uniformed person. You walk 60 feet to the clerk, and the process of paying city sales taxes is completed in 4 minutes. The clerk then directs you to the waiting area for paying state personal property tax, 80 feet away. You take a different number and sit down with some different customers who are just renewing licenses. A 1–hour, 40-minute wait this time, and after a walk of 25 feet you pay property taxes in a process that takes 2 minutes. Now that you have paid taxes you are eligible to pay registration and license fees. That department is 50 feet away, beyond the employees’ cafeteria.
The registration and license customers are called in the same order in which personal property taxes were paid. There is only a 10 minute wait and a 3 minute to abuse you receive your license plates, take a minute to abuse the license clerk, and leave exactly 6 hours after arriving.
Make a process chart to depict this process, and suggest improvements.
SOLUTION
DMV
The process chart is as follows.
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The tax assessment clerks’ time is being wasted by an inefficient waiting line process. Whenever the customer arrival rate approaches the service rate, a waiting line will form. While the clerk is...