| Course | BUS 441 Small Business Operations (BUS/441) |
|---|---|
| Week | 2 |
| Paper type | Process mapping and capacity analysis |
| Length | about 1,022 words, 4 double-spaced pages plus title page and references |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | University of Phoenix |
| Program | BS in Business |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for BUS 441 Week 2
From Grain to Glass: Mapping the Brewing and Taproom Processes at Laurel Ridge Brewing
[Student Name]
University of Phoenix
BUS/441: Small Business Operations
Week 2 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Laurel Ridge Brewing and all capacity figures are composites written for a model paper.
Laurel Ridge Brewing, the composite brewery and taproom planned for Asheville, North Carolina, expects to brew about 1,500 barrels a year, selling 80 percent in its 120-seat taproom and the rest in kegs to restaurants. Its equipment will include a 15-barrel brewhouse, six 30-barrel fermentation tanks, four serving tanks and a keg washer. A small business cannot manage what it has not mapped, because the step that limits output is rarely the one owners worry about. This paper maps Laurel Ridge's processes and finds its bottleneck.
Two Linked Operations
Laurel Ridge runs two operations: production, which turns grain, hops, water and yeast into beer, and service, which turns beer and hospitality into customer experiences. Slack et al. (2022) describe operations as transformation processes managed for quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost, and both of Laurel Ridge's operations must be managed on those dimensions.
The Brewing Process: Brew Day
On brew day, malt is milled and mixed with hot water in the mash tun, where enzymes convert starches to sugars over about an hour. The sweet liquid, called wort, is drained and rinsed from the grain, then boiled for 60 to 90 minutes while hops are added. The wort is cooled and transferred to a fermentation tank with yeast. A 15-barrel brew day takes about eight hours including cleaning.
The Brewing Process: Fermentation and Conditioning
Ales ferment for about one to two weeks and condition for several days; lagers ferment and condition for four to six weeks at cold temperatures. Brewers check temperature and gravity daily. After conditioning, beer is filtered or left unfiltered and moved to serving tanks or kegs.
The Brewing Process: Packaging and Cleaning
Beer is kegged for restaurants or transferred to serving tanks connected to taproom lines. Every vessel must be cleaned and sanitized between batches, which takes several hours per tank.
Quality Checkpoints
Quality checks occur at milling, mash temperature, boil, cooling, fermentation, before transfer and before serving, including tasting and lab tests for gravity and alcohol. Records support both quality and tax reporting.
The Taproom Process
Customers are greeted, seated or directed to the bar, served samples or full pours and offered food from food trucks. Orders are entered on a point-of-sale system, and customers pay at the bar or by table. On busy Saturday evenings, the taproom may serve 250 customers in three hours.
Brewhouse Capacity
The brewhouse can produce one 15-barrel batch per eight-hour shift. Brewing two batches a day, four days a week, for 50 weeks would produce 6,000 barrels a year, four times planned output. The brewhouse is not the bottleneck.
Fermentation Capacity
Each 30-barrel tank holds two brew-day batches. An ale occupies a tank for about two weeks including cleaning, giving 26 turns a year, or 780 barrels per tank. A lager occupies a tank for about six weeks, giving about eight turns, or 240 barrels. With a planned mix of 70 percent ales and 30 percent lagers across six tanks, annual capacity is roughly 3,700 barrels on paper, but lagers tie up tanks for long periods and seasonal releases cluster, so peak months will feel tight.
Serving Capacity
Four serving tanks of 15 barrels each hold 60 barrels for the taproom, and the taproom will pour about 23 barrels a week at expected volumes. A popular new beer could empty a tank in under a week, requiring fermentation tanks to be ready on time.
Theoretical Versus Practical Capacity
The 3,700-barrel figure assumes every tank is always full and every cleaning goes perfectly. In practice, tanks sit empty while brewers wait for a slot on the brewhouse schedule, batches are dumped when they fail quality checks and demand peaks in summer and around holidays. Small breweries commonly achieve 60 to 70 percent of theoretical tank capacity, which would put Laurel Ridge's practical capacity near 2,300 barrels, still comfortably above the 1,500-barrel plan but closer than it first appears.
Where Production Meets Service
The two operations meet at the serving tanks. When a popular beer runs out, the taproom loses sales and customers are disappointed, but the fix lies weeks earlier in the fermentation schedule. A shared weekly meeting between the head brewer and taproom manager will compare sales trends with tank plans, so production anticipates demand rather than reacting to empty lines.
Process Standards
Each step will have a written standard operating procedure covering temperatures, times, sanitation and records, with checklists brewers sign. Standards make quality consistent when different brewers work different shifts and simplify training as the brewery grows.
Identifying the Bottleneck
Hopp and Spearman (2011) explained that a process's throughput is limited by its bottleneck and that variability and waiting around the bottleneck determine performance. At Laurel Ridge, fermentation tank time, especially for lagers and seasonal beers, is the constraint. Adding brewhouse capacity would do nothing; better tank scheduling would increase effective output.
Waste in the Process
Liker (2004) described lean thinking's focus on eliminating waste such as waiting, extra processing, defects and excess inventory. Waste at Laurel Ridge includes tanks sitting empty while waiting for cleaning, beer lost during transfers and customers waiting at the bar during peaks.
Improvements in Production
A tank schedule planned eight weeks ahead will stagger lagers and seasonal beers, a cleaning standard will reduce turnaround time between batches and transfer procedures will reduce losses. If demand grows, the first equipment investment should be an additional fermentation tank, not a larger brewhouse.
Improvements in Service
At peaks, a dedicated pourer at a second station, preloaded flight trays and tableside ordering by phone will reduce waits. A standard pour procedure ensures consistent quality and portion control.
Measures
Measures include tank utilization, average days per batch by style, transfer losses, pour time at peak and customer wait time. The founders will review them weekly during the first year.
Conclusion
Laurel Ridge's brewhouse has ample capacity, but fermentation tank time limits output, especially for lagers and seasonal beers. Mapping both brewing and taproom processes reveals the bottleneck and waste. Tank scheduling, cleaning standards and service changes improve output and experience before any equipment purchase.
References
Hopp, W. J., & Spearman, M. L. (2011). Factory physics (3rd ed.). Waveland Press.
Liker, J. K. (2004). The Toyota way: 14 management principles from the world's greatest manufacturer. McGraw-Hill.
Slack, N., Brandon-Jones, A., & Burgess, N. (2022). Operations management (10th ed.). Pearson.
What the BUS 441 Week 2 instructions ask
The second BUS 441 paper typically asks students to map a small business's operations and processes. Common requirements include identifying the core processes, describing each step with inputs, outputs and time, creating a process map or flowchart, calculating capacity, identifying bottlenecks and waste, setting quality checkpoints and recommending improvements. Some prompts ask for both production and customer service processes. Use the business's actual steps, show capacity calculations, explain how the bottleneck limits output and cite operations sources in APA format. Include both the production side and the customer-facing side if the business has both, since problems often appear where they meet.
How this BUS 441 Week 2 example is built
A brewery is really two operations, a small factory and a bar, and the paper maps both. The brewing process runs from milling grain through mashing, boiling, fermenting, conditioning and kegging, taking two to six weeks depending on the beer. The taproom process runs from greeting customers to pouring, food truck coordination and payment. Capacity calculations show that the brewhouse can produce far more than planned, but six fermentation tanks limit output, especially for slow-fermenting lagers. Lean thinking identifies waste in cleaning time and taproom waits. The paper recommends tank scheduling, standard operating procedures and measures such as tank utilization and pour times, and explains why the first equipment purchase should be another fermentation tank.
BUS 441 Week 2 grading rubric: where the points go
Strong process papers map real steps in sequence, quantify time and capacity and locate the bottleneck with calculations. Instructors credit clear process maps for both production and service, correct capacity arithmetic, an explanation of how the bottleneck constrains the whole operation and practical improvements tied to specific steps. Quality checkpoints and measures show operational thinking. Recognizing that adding capacity at a non-bottleneck step does not increase output demonstrates understanding of process flow. Organized sections and accurate APA references finish the paper. Instructors also notice when a writer distinguishes theoretical capacity from practical capacity, allowing for cleaning, maintenance and uneven demand, since plans built on theoretical numbers tend to disappoint in the first busy season.
BUS 441 Week 2 help: mistakes to avoid
Students often describe processes in general terms without times or capacities. Measure each step. Another frequent gap is assuming the most expensive equipment is the bottleneck. Calculate capacity at every step. Students also map production but ignore customer service. Include it if the business serves customers directly. Avoid recommending equipment purchases before improving scheduling and procedures. Add quality checkpoints at the steps where defects start, not only at the end. Explain how the bottleneck affects sales. Finally, set measures that will show whether improvements work. Separate theoretical capacity from what the business can realistically achieve once cleaning, maintenance and uneven demand are counted. Explain where the production and service processes meet, since handoffs there often cause delays.
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BUS 441 Week 2 questions, answered
What does BUS 441 Week 2 usually cover?
It usually covers mapping a small business's operations and processes: steps, inputs, outputs, time, capacity, bottlenecks, waste, quality checkpoints and improvements.
Where can I find a free BUS 441 Week 2 sample paper?
The complete process map and capacity analysis for a brewery and taproom, with notes, appears on this page. Students mapping their own business can request a complimentary draft.
What is a bottleneck in operations?
The step with the least capacity relative to demand, which limits the output of the whole process; improving other steps does not raise output until the bottleneck is addressed.
How do you calculate process capacity?
Determine how much each step can produce in a period, considering batch size, time per batch and available hours; the step with the lowest capacity sets the process capacity.
What is a process map?
A diagram showing the steps of a process in order, with inputs, outputs, decision points and sometimes times, used to understand and improve how work flows.
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