Matching Supply with Demand: An Introduction to Operations Management, 4e (Cachon) Chapter 2 The Process View of the Organization 1) Butternut is a ski resort in Massachusetts. One of their triple chair lifts unloads 1296 skiers per hour at the top of the slope. (A triple chair lift can carry three passengers per chair.) The ride from the bottom to the top takes 5 minutes. How many skiers are riding on the lift at any one time? (Round the answer to the nearest whole number.) Answer: 108 skiers Explanation: Use Little's Law. 1296 skiers/hour * 5/60 = 108 skiers Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: Littles Law AACSB: Analytical Thinking Blooms: Apply 2) Home Depot's annual turns are 4.7, its Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) is $44.7 billion, and its gross margin is 33%. Recall, gross margin = (Revenue – COGS) / Revenue. What is the average inventory it holds? (Round the answer to 2 decimal places.) Answer: $9.51 billion Explanation: $44.7 billion / 4.7 =$9.51 billion. Note that average inventory in dollars is measured by the cost of goods sold, thus the gross margin does not play a role in the calculation. Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: Littles Law AACSB: Analytical Thinking Blooms: Apply 3) A company's holding cost is 16% per year. Its annual inventory turns are 9.5. The company buys an item for $50. What is the average cost in dollars to hold this item in inventory? (Round the answer to 2 decimal places.) Answer: Average cost: $ 0.84 Explanation: The item will be turned 9.5 times a year. Thus, for each turn it stays in inventory, the holding cost is 16%/9.5 of the cost of the item. Thus, the average cost to hold this item in inventory is $50 * (16%/9.5) = $0.84 Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: Inventory Turns and Inventory Costs AACSB: Analytical Thinking Blooms: Apply
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4) Trader Bob, an organic food retail chain, operates 365 days a year. In 2007, the company turned its inventory approximately 25 times. The company's COGS were 60% of its Sales and its annual Sales were about $7,000M that year. What was Trader Bob's average inventory in 2007? (Round the answer to the nearest whole number.) Answer: $168 million Explanation: COGS = 0.6 × 7000M = 4200M. Inventory = COGS / Turns = 4200M / 25 = $168M Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: Littles Law AACSB: Analytical Thinking Blooms: Apply 5) Assuming Trader Bob's annual inventory holding costs are 20% (an item that cost $10 to purchase would cost $2 to hold in inventory for one year), what is the inventory cost of an item which sells for $20 and costs Trader Bob $12 to buy? Assume that this item has inventory turns of 25 per year. (Round the answer to 3 decimal places.) Answer: $0.096 Explanation: 20% per year with 25 turns is .20/25 = 0.008%. COGs is $12. So, inventory cost is 0.008% × $12 = $0.096 Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: Inventory Turns and Inventory Costs AACSB: Analytical Thinking Blooms: Apply [The following information applies to questions 6-7.] Joe's Beer, Bait, & Tackle Co. Joe's Beer, Bait, & Tackle Co. is a small chain of fishing tackle stores in northern Minnesota. In 2009, the company's revenue was $4,300,000 and its cost of sales was $3,200,000. Assume 52 weeks and 365 days per year. 6) Joe keeps only 5.5 days-of-supply of inventory on average because much of his inventory is live bait and micro-brew beer, both of which have a short shelf life. What is his annual inventory turns? (Round the answer to 2 decimal places.) Answer: 66.36 Explanation: 365/5.5 = 66.36 Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: Inventory Turns and Inventory Costs AACSB: Analytical Thinking Blooms: Apply
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11) What was the inventory turns for 2007? Circle the answer closest to the correct answer. A) 10 B) 11 C) 12 D) 13 E) 14 F) 15 G) Cannot be determined from the data given H) None of these Answer: F Explanation: 2007 COGS = $66,442,638 * (1-45%) = $36,543,451 2007 Inventory Turns = $36,543,451/2,418,257 = 15 Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: Inventory Turns and Inventory Costs AACSB: Analytical Thinking Blooms: Apply
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[The following information applies to questions 12-13.] Cheap Retailers The following table shows financial data (year 2006) for Dirt Cheap Wholesale and Kwiki-Mart, two U.S. retailers.
Inventories ($MM) Sales (net $MM) COGS ($MM)
DIRT CHEAP WHOLESALE 4754 59217 52762
KWIKI-MART STORES 40894 397206 326606
Assume that both companies have an average annual holding cost rate of 20% (i.e. it costs both retailers $2 to hold an item that they procured for $10 for one entire year). 12) How many days, on average, does a product stay in Dirt Cheap's inventory before it is sold? Assume that stores operate 365 days a year. (Round the answer to 2 decimal places.) Answer: 32.89 days Explanation: Dirt Cheap has a COGS=$52762M = flow rate R. Inventory I = $4754M. Therefore, flow time T = I/R = 4754/52762 = .09 years, or 32.89 days. Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: Inventory Turns and Inventory Costs AACSB: Analytical Thinking Blooms: Apply 13) How much lower (expressed in dollars) is, on average, the inventory cost for Dirt Cheap compared to Kwiki-Mart of a house hold cleaner valued at $5 COGS? Assume that the unit cost of the house hold cleaner is the same for both companies and that the price and the inventory turns of an item are independent. (Round the answer to 3 decimal places.) Answer: $0.035 Explanation: Inventory turns for Dirt Cheap = 1/.09 = 11.1 turns. Flow time for Kwiki-Mart = Inventory/COGS = 40894/326606 = 0.125. Therefore, inventory turns for Kwiki-Mart = 7.98. Holding costs per year = 20% or $1 per unit for one year. This means inventory costs per unit for Dirt Cheap = 1/11.1 = $0.09. For Kwiki-Mart, the inventory costs per unit = 1/7.98 = $0.125. So, Dirt Cheap's costs are 3.5 cents or $0.035 lower. Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: Inventory Turns and Inventory Costs AACSB: Analytical Thinking Blooms: Analyze
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Matching Supply with Demand: An Introduction to Operations Management, 4e (Cachon) Chapter 3 Understanding the Supply Process: Evaluating Process Capacity 1) The Philadelphia Airport has 5 de-icing stations. Each plane uses a single station and each station takes 11.5 minutes to de-ice a plane. How many planes per hour can be de-iced at the Philadelphia Airport? (Round the answer to 2 decimal places.) Answer: 26.09 planes Explanation: Each station de-ices 60 min/11.5 min planes per hour. Five stations can de-ice 60/11.5 * 5 = 26.09 planes. Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: Process Utilization and Capacity Utilization AACSB: Analytical Thinking Blooms: Apply 2) Consider a process that has 3 stations, ordered in sequence: 1, 2, and 3. At each station, two consecutive tasks are performed one after the other. The time (in seconds per unit) it takes for a single person to perform each task is given in the table below (e.g., task A2 takes 10 seconds per unit): Station 1 2 3
# of Task A1 Task A2 Task B1 Task B2 Task C1 Task C2 Workers 1 20 10 2 40 40 1 1
The table also gives the number of workers at each station. What is the capacity of this process (in units per minute)? (Round the answer to 1 decimal place.) Answer: 1.5 units/minute Explanation: The capacity of station 1 is 60/(20 + 10) = 2 units per minute. Station 2 is 60/(40 + 40) = 0.75 units per worker, or 2 × 0.75 = 1.5 units in total. Station 3 is 60/(15 + 5) = 3 units per minute. The capacity of the process is the capacity of the bottleneck, which is the slowest step. That is station 2, which produces 1.5 units/min. Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: Process Utilization and Capacity Utilization AACSB: Analytical Thinking Blooms: Apply
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3) Consider the following four step process:
The following data are available for the four steps: Activity time per unit (min) Capacity per worker (units/min) Number of workers
A 0.25 4 2
B 0.33 3 3
C 0.2 5 2
D 0.5 2 4
Suppose the steps in activity D are made easier, so the activity time per unit in step D is reduced by 50% (to 0.25 minutes per unit). If the assignment of workers to steps remains the same, by how much does the capacity of the entire process increase in units per minute? Answer: 0 units per minute Explanation: Before the change, the process capacity is min (4 × 2, 3 × 3, 5 × 2, 2 × 4) = 8 units per min. If the activity time is cut in half for stage D, then process capacity for step D is (1/0.25) × 4 = 16 units per min. Step A can only produce 8 units per minute, so the total capacity of the process doesn't increase. Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: How to Draw a Process Flow Diagram; Workload and Implied Utilization AACSB: Analytical Thinking; Knowledge Application Blooms: Analyze
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4) Panini, a popular sandwich shop, offers 3 types of sandwiches: grilled vegetables, grilled chicken, and pastrami. The table below provides demand data: Demand per hour
Grilled Vegetables 25
Grilled Chicken 15
Pastrami 10
There are up to five steps in the process of making sandwiches listed below with activity times. Only 50% of customers want their sandwich toasted, no matter which sandwich is ordered. Step Cut bread Grill Slice meat Toast Wrap
Grilled Vegetables .75 minutes 1.4 minutes 2 minutes .5 minutes
Grilled Chicken .75 minutes 1.4 minutes 2 minutes .5 minutes
Pastrami .75 minutes 3 minutes 2 minutes .5 minutes
Suppose Panini employs 1 worker at each step. What is the highest implied utilization of this process? (Round the answer to 3 decimal places.) Answer: 0.933 Explanation: Evaluate workload per hour on each step: Cut = 0.75 × 50 = 37.5; Grill = 1.4 × 40 = 56; Slice = 3 × 10 = 30; Toast = 2 × 0.5 × 50 = 50; Wrap = 0.5 × 50 = 25. Implied utilizations are then 37.5/60, 56/60, 30/60, 50/60 and 25/60. The largest one is 56/60. The highest implied utilization = 0.93. Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: Workload and Implied Utilization AACSB: Analytical Thinking Blooms: Apply
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[The following information applies to questions 5-6.] Department of Motor Vehicles The local Department of Motor Vehicles issues new licenses and renews licenses. (See the diagram below.) The office receives 110 customers per hour. All customers see a receptionist first. The receptionist directs them in one of three directions: 75% go directly to issue license (staffed by 9 workers) where a new photo and license are done, 15% are required to take an eye test (staffed by one worker), and 10% must first take a multiple-choice electronic written test (on one of three computers). Only 85% of people pass the eye test and the remaining 15% exit. The customers who pass the eye test proceed to the written test where 10% of the people fail it, while 90% pass the test and proceed to issue license.
Data on each station are provided in the following table: Reception Eye Test Written Test Issue License
Workers 1 1 3 9
Activity time per worker (min) 0.4 5 15 6
5) What is the implied utilization of the Receptionist? (Round the answer to 2 decimal places.) Answer: 73.33%.
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Explanation: Workers Reception 1 Eye Test 1 Written Test 3 Issue License 9
Processing Capacity per Implied time (min) Flow rate hour utilization 0.4 110 150 73% 5 110 * 0.15 = 16.5 12 138% 15 110 * 0.1 + 16.5 * 0.85 = 25.025 12 209% 6 110 * 0.75 + 25.025 * 0.9 = 105.0225 90 117%
Flow rate for receptionist = 110 customers per hour, because all customers first see the receptionist. Hourly Capacity for receptionist = 60 minutes/0.4 minutes per customer = 150 per customer. Implied utilization of the receptionist = 73.33%. Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: How to Draw a Process Flow Diagram; Workload and Implied Utilization AACSB: Analytical Thinking Blooms: Apply 6) What is the implied utilization of issue license? (Round the answer to 2 decimal places.) Answer: 116.69% Explanation: Implied Utilization = Demand/CapacityFlow rate for issuing a license 75% of the customers go directly to issuing a new license: 0.75 × 110 = 82.5 customers per hour 15% take the eye exam, 0.15 × 110 = 16.5, and 85% of them pass to go to the written test, 0.85 × 16.5 = 14.025 customers 10% go straight to the written test = 0.1 x 110 = 11 customers 90% of the customer pass the written test = 0.9 (11 + 14.025) = 22.5225 customers The overall flow rate for issuing a license is = 22.5225 + 82.5 = 105.0225 customers per hour. Hourly Capacity for receptionist = 6 minutes/9 workers = 2/3 minutes= 60 minutes / (2/3 minutes) = 90 Implied Utilization of issuing a license = 105.0225/90 = 116.69 The implied utilization of issue license is 116.69%. Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: How to Draw a Process Flow Diagram; Workload and Implied Utilization AACSB: Analytical Thinking Blooms: Apply
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[The following information applies to questions 7-8.] Happy Toy Company The Happy Toy Company's R&D department is always looking for great ideas for new toys. On average, the R&D department generates about 10 new toy ideas a week. To go from idea to approved product, the idea must go through 5 stages:
In initial screening, a staff member spends 2 hours considering the idea. In mock-up, the idea is sent to one of many suppliers to produce a physical mock-up of the toy. There is essentially unlimited capacity at this stage, but it takes 4 days to get the mock-up built, even though multiple mock-ups can be built simultaneously. In safety testing, each idea requires 2 days from a staff member to have the idea checked for safety. In focus groups, each idea requires 3 hours from a staff member to have the idea test marketed. Finally, the management team meets for 4 hours per idea to decide if the toy should be added to its line of products sold to customers. At the end of each stage, successful ideas enter the next stage. All other ideas are dropped. The following table summarizes the process:
Screening Mock-up Safety Focus group Final decision
Pr(Success) 60%
Pr(Fail) 40%
Staffing 2
50% 35% 20%
50% 65% 80%
7 1 1
Time per idea put into this stage 2 hours 4 days 2 days 3 hours 4 hours
For example, there are 7 staff members that work in the safety stage. In each stage, each idea is processed by only one staff member. For example, once one of the 7 staff members starts working on an idea in the safety stage, the idea completes that stage in 2 days and either exits or moves to the focus group stage. Everyone works 8 hours per day, 5 days a week. 7) On average, how many ideas are in the mock-up stage? (Round the answer to 1 decimal place.) Answer: 4.8 ideas
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Explanation: Demand for initial screening = 10 ideas per week. Output from initial screening = 10 * 60% = 6 ideas per week. 6 ideas pass the screening stage and then enter the mock-up stage per week. Each idea spends 4 days (5 days per week) or 0.8 weeks in the mock-up stage. Use Little's Law, 6 * 0.8 = 4.8 ideas in the mock-up stage. Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: Process Utilization and Capacity Utilization AACSB: Analytical Thinking; Knowledge Application Blooms: Apply 8) Among these stages, what is the highest implied utilization? (Round the answer to 2 decimal places.) Answer: 34.29% Explanation: The highest implied utilization is safety, 34.29%. time per available Pr idea Demand per hours per implied (success) Pr (Fail) Staffing (hours) week week utilization screening 60% 40% 2 2 10 80 0.2500 mock-up 100% 0 32 6 safety 50% 50% 7 16 6 280 0.3429 focus group 35% 65% 1 3 3 40 0.2250 final dicision 20% 80% 1 4 1.05 40 0.1050
Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: Workload and Implied Utilization AACSB: Analytical Thinking; Knowledge Application Blooms: Analyze
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[The following information applies to questions 9-10.] Comfy Shoes, Inc. — Implied Utilization Comfy Shoes, Inc. builds shoes tailored to meet each individual customer's needs. Customers who visit the downtown offices of Comfy Shoes in Philadelphia can choose one or more of the following four custom-tailoring services. Customers receive their shoes in the mail within a week of their initial visit. Service A. Walking Basics B. Walking Plus C. Running Basics D. Running Adv
Description Time Take measurements for basic walking shoes. 12 min. Choose a specific design (e.g. material, color selection). 12 min. Take measurements for tailor-made running shoes. 10 min. Consult physical therapist and obtain precise needs for running shoes and choose a specific design. 40 min.
Resource used 1 attendant 1 attendant 1 attendant 1 attendant
The company offers the following packages to their customers: Package 1: Includes only Walking Basics (Service A) Package 2: Includes Walking Basics and Walking Plus (Services A and B) Package 3: Walking Basics, Walking Plus, and Running Basics (Services A, B, and C) Package 4: All four services (A, B, C, and D) Customers of Comfy Shoes visit the store at a constant rate (you can ignore any effects of variability) of 20 customers per day. Of these customers, 45% buy Package 1, 10% buy Package 2, 20% buy Package 3 and 25% buy Package 4. The mix does not change over the course of the day. The store operates 12 hours a day. 9) What is the implied utilization of the attendant in service D? Answer: Service D has an implied utilization of 28%. Explanation: The calculations are summarized below:
Task A. Walking Basics B. Walking Plus C. Running Basics D. Running Adv
Time # Avail. (min) workers Cap. 12 1 60 12 1 60 10 1 60 40 1 60
Package 1 2 3 0.45 0.10 0.20 9 2 4 2 4 3.33
4 Total Utilization 0.25 5 20 0.33 5 11 0.183 4.166 7.5 0.125 16.66 16.66 0.278
Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: Workload and Implied Utilization AACSB: Analytical Thinking Blooms: Analyze 8 Copyright 2019 © McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
10) Which resource has the highest implied utilization? A) Service A (Walking Basics) B) Service B (Walking Plus) C) Service C (Running Basics) D) Service D (Running Adv) Answer: A Explanation: Service A (Walking Basics) has the highest implied utilization. Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: Workload and Implied Utilization AACSB: Analytical Thinking Blooms: Analyze [The following information applies to questions 11-12.] Comfy Shoes, Inc. — Bottleneck At the end of the spring season, Comfy Shoes anticipates an increase in the demand to 50 customers per day. A change in the mix of packages demanded is also expected: 30% of the customers ask for Package 1, 10% for Package 2, 10% for Package 3 and 50% for Package 4. The company will hire an additional attendant to help with Service A (Walking Basics). 11) What will be the bottleneck in the process given this new demand pattern? A) Service A (Walking Basics) B) Service B (Walking Plus) C) Service C (Running Basics) D) Service D (Running Adv) Answer: D Explanation: Calculations are as follows: Package Time # Avail. 1 2 Task (min) workers Cap. 0.3 0.10 A. Walking Basics 12 2 120 15 5 B. Walking Plus 12 1 60 5 C. Running Basics 10 1 60 D. Running Adv 40 1 60
3 4 Total Utilization 0.10 0.5 5 25 50 0.417 5 25 35 0.58 4.166 20.83 25 0.4166 83.33 83.33 1.388
Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: Bottleneck, Process Capacity, and Flow Rate (Throughput) AACSB: Analytical Thinking Blooms: Analyze
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12) How many customers a day will not be served? Answer: 7 customers Explanation: Service D receives 0.5*(50/12)*40=83.33 minutes of work every hour. Only 60 minutes of work can be served. Thus, every hour, 23.33 minutes of work, or 23.33/40th of a customer is not served. Customers not served in a day = [(83.333 – 60)/40]*12=7 customers a day will not be served. Put another way, the worker has 60x12=720 minutes available each day. 40 min per customer means that 720/40=18 customers can be served. 50% of 50 = 25 customers arrive each day, so 25–18=7 cannot be served. Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: Bottleneck, Process Capacity, and Flow Rate (Throughput) AACSB: Analytical Thinking; Knowledge Application Blooms: Analyze
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[The following information applies to questions 13-15.] Old City Photographics Located alongside a cobblestoned street in Old City, Old City Photographics (OCP) specializes in the processing of the traditional 35mm negative film, a once dominant photographic medium now in decline due to the popularity of digital photography. OCP offers three packages to their customers. With the standard package, the customer gets a set of 6"×4" prints for $19.99. The deluxe package adds to the standard package a CD-ROM of high-resolution scans of the pictures for $29.99. Finally, the $39.99 pro package is similar to the deluxe package in that it comes with a CD-ROM, although the customer gets a contact print rather than a set of prints. (A contact print is an 8"×10" sheet of photographic paper that has all pictures on the roll of film printed next to each other at reduced dimensions and is used as an index.) The workflow for OCP is shown below (s = standard, d = deluxe, p = pro):
OCP is operated by one person at every station. 13) On average, OCP receives 13 jobs per hour which consist of 44% standard, 37% deluxe and 19% pro. Which of the following statement best describes OCP's process? A) The process is demand-constrained. B) The process is capacity-constrained and "process film" is the bottleneck C) The process is capacity-constrained and "scan film" is the bottleneck. D) The process is capacity-constrained and "make 6"×4" prints" is the bottleneck. E) The process is capacity-constrained and "make contact print" is the bottleneck. Answer: A
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Explanation: Implied utilization is: (100% * 13 jobs/hr * 2min/job ) / (60 min/hr) = 0.43 at "process film" ((37% + 19%) * 13 jobs/hr * 5 min/job ) / (60 min/hr) = 0.61 at "scan film" ((44% + 37%) * 13 jobs/hr * 4 min/job) / (60 min/hr) = 0.70 at "make 6"×4" prints" (19% * 13 jobs/hr * 10 min/job) / (60 min/hr) = 0.41 at "make contact print" As implied utilization is less than 1.0 at all steps, the process is demand-constrained. Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: Bottleneck, Process Capacity, and Flow Rate (Throughput) AACSB: Analytical Thinking; Knowledge Application Blooms: Analyze 14) What is the implied utilization (ratio of workload relative to capacity) at "Scan Film"? A) less than 50% B) 50% to 60% C) 60% to 70% D) 80% to 90% E) 90% to 100% F) more than 100% Answer: C Explanation: ((37% + 19%) * 13 jobs/hr * 5 min/job ) / (60 min/hr) = 0.61 Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: Workload and Implied Utilization AACSB: Analytical Thinking Blooms: Apply
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15) Fixing the relative proportions of job types, what is the largest number of jobs per hour that OCP can handle? Choose the answer from the list below that is closest to the correct answer. A) 10 B) 11 C) 12 D) 13 E) 14 F) 15 G) 16 H) 17 J) 18 Answer: J Explanation: From the calculations for OCP1, we know that "make 6"×4" prints" will become the bottleneck once the process is capacity-constrained (if the mix of jobs does not change). The answer to our present question is given by the solution X to the equation ((44% + 37%) * X jobs/hr * 4 min/job) / (60 min/hr) = 1.00. Re-arranging the equation yields X = (60 min/hr) / (81% * 4 min/job) = 18.5 jobs/hr. Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: Multiple Types of Flow Units AACSB: Analytical Thinking; Knowledge Application Blooms: Analyze
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Matching Supply with Demand: An Introduction to Operations Management, 4e (Cachon) Chapter 4 Estimating and Reducing Labor Costs [The following information applies to questions 1-3.] Furniture Face Lift refinishes old wood furniture. Their process for refinishing chairs has 8 workers and 4 stations. Each chair starts at the Stripping station, then goes to Priming, then to Painting and finally to Inspection. Where there are multiple workers within a station, each worker works independently on his/her own chair. Assume inventory buffers are allowed between each station. Station
Staffing
Stripping Priming Painting Inspection
3 2 2 1
Processing time (hours per chair per worker) 2.5 1.5 1.75 0.8
1) What is the maximum number of chairs per hour that can be produced? Assume they start the day with inventory at each station to work on. Answer: 1.14 chairs per hour. Explanation: The average time needed to finish one chair at each station are as follows. Capacity = staffing/activity time Station Stripping Priming Painting Inspection
Staffing 3 2 2 1
Activity time (hours) Capacity = staffing/activity time 2.5 1.2 1.5 1.333333333 1.75 1.142857143 0.8 1.25
Painting is the bottleneck since it has the lowest capacity. The process capacity is the capacity of the bottleneck. Thus, the process capacity is 1.14 chairs per hour. Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: Analyzing an Assembly Operation AACSB: Analytical Thinking Blooms: Apply
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2) Suppose at the start of the day there is no inventory of chairs in the shop. That is, there are no chairs within any of the stations nor between them in any buffer. A truck loaded with 15 chairs arrives. How many hours will it take them to complete these 15 chairs? Answer: 18.8 hours Explanation: It takes 2.5 + 1.5 + 1.75 + 0.8 = 6.55 hours for the first chair to be produced. It takes 1/1.14 hours for each of the subsequent chairs. In total, it takes 6.55 + 1/1.14 * 14 = 18.8 hours to complete 15 chairs. Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: Analyzing an Assembly Operation AACSB: Analytical Thinking Blooms: Analyze 3) Suppose now that each worker is trained to do all tasks and each worker works on a chair from start to finish, i.e., each worker does Stripping, Priming, Painting, and Inspection. What is the maximum capacity of the process in chairs per hour? Answer: 1.22 chairs per hour Explanation: In this system, there will be no bottleneck, i.e., every worker is working at their full capacity. It takes each worker 2.5 + 1.5 + 1.75 + 0.8 = 6.55 hours to finish one chair. 3 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 8 workers can complete 8/6.55 = . The maximum capacity is 1.22 chairs per hour. Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: Increasing Capacity by Line Balancing AACSB: Analytical Thinking Blooms: Analyze
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[The following information applies to questions 4-6.] The White Tooth Device Company is a manufacturer of high-end electric toothbrushes. For each toothbrush, there is a sequence of assembly steps performed by five workers. Each worker does two tasks. Inventory buffers are allowed between workers. Worker A A B B C C D D E E
Task T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7 T8 T9 T10
Time (seconds) 40 25 20 15 10 15 10 20 25 35
4) What is the capacity of this process (toothbrushes per minute)? Answer: 0.92 toothbrushes per minute. Explanation: The process time for each worker is: A: 65 sec, B: 35 sec, C: 25 sec, D: 30 sec, E: 60 sec. Worker A is the bottleneck. The process capacity is 60sec/65sec = 0.92 toothbrushes per minute Difficulty: 3 Hard Topic: Analyzing an Assembly Operation AACSB: Analytical Thinking Blooms: Apply
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