One of your first decisions for any new process project is whether to go batch or continuous. You may not realize it, but batch versus continuous is also a decision you make virtually every day in your personal and office life.

For example, do you check e-mails as they come in and deal with each right away? Or do you batch e-mails up and deal with a bunch of them at one time.

Do you rinse each dish and put it in the washer right after you use it? Or do you let lots of dishes pile up in the sink before you put them in the washer in a batch?

Do you try and run all of your errands on a designated day (batch)? Or do you like to run one or two errands a day instead (continuous)?

It’s fun to play the batch versus continuous game, although it may take a psychiatrist to figure out what your personal life choices mean and how they affect your process control decisions.