How to define ProcessTime and Duration

The ProcessView default attributes Duration and ProcessTime are time-based properties used to describe the elapsed time and processing time at an activity or in process.

Duration is used to describe the total time taken to complete an activity from start to finish; this will include both processing time and any delay or wait time.  ProcessTime represents the actual processing or ‘touch’ time required to process BatchSize number of items at an activity.

As with all time-based and quantity-based properties in ProcessView, there are 3 formats that can be used to define the Duration and ProcessTime: Constant, Range, Estimate.

Constant:

When the ProcessTime or Duration is a fixed, constant value, simply enter the average.

Average Value

Examples:

·         5 minutes

·         10 min

·         1 hr

·         15

 

Range:

When the ProcessTime or Duration values vary between some minimum and maximum value, simply enter the minimum and maximum values separated by a comma and enclosed in parenthesis as shown.  ProcessView will assume that the time-based attribute is uniformly distributed and will calculate the average accordly.

(Minimum, Maximum)

Examples:

·         (5,10) min

·         (5,25)

·         (30,45) sec

Estimate:

A third option for defining time-based properties is called an ‘estimate’.  An estimate is composed of the mode (most likely) value and a range from minimum to maximum.  The mode is entered first, followed by a comma; then, the range is described as shown below.  When an estimate is entered for a time-based attribute, ProcessView uses a proprietary distribution to calculate an average value; this distribution behaves similar to a Normal when the distribution is symmetric.

Most Likely, (Minimum, Maximum)

Examples:

·         5,(5,10) min

·         10,(5,25) hr

·         32,(30,45)

 

Understanding the behavior of the Duration and ProcessTime attributes

Note that, when time units are omitted from the time-based property shape data value, ProcessView will use the default Time Units described in the Process Map/Page properties.

Also note that, when Duration and ProcessTime are equal, there is no need to define both fields.  If Duration is defined and ProcessTime is blank (undefined), ProcessView will assume that the Duration and ProcessTime are equal.

 

Examples

Note that videos to provide instructions for defining attribute values and to describe the difference between the Duration and ProcessTime attributes is available in the ProcessView video library.