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Combine activities

Combine small activities into composite activities

A technique for combining smaller tasks into larger ones to reduce setup times and improve the quality of work.

Reijers, H., & Liman Mansar, S. (2005). Best practices in business process redesign: an overview and qualitative evaluation of successful redesign heuristics. Omega, 33(4)

Description

Task Combination is a process optimization technique that involves combining smaller tasks into larger ones. This technique reduces setup times, which are the time that resources need to become familiar with the specifics of a case, and can improve the quality of work. However, it is important to strike a balance between the size of the tasks and their workability. Tasks that are too large can result in smaller run-time flexibility and lower quality. Smaller tasks, on the other hand, can result in longer setup times. 

Task Combination

Performance considerations

By finding the optimal balance, organizations can achieve the best of both worlds: shorter setup times, higher quality, and greater flexibility.

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