Download - Review Questions Session 2
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7/25/2019 Review Questions Session 2
1/2
ReviewQuestionsSession2
A
four
stage
process
Theprocessingtimesforthemachinesshowninthefourstageprocessbelowareasfollows(in
minutes): W1:9,W2:9,M1:6,D1:5,G1:8andG2:12.
(a)WhatistheminimumTT,i.e.,ifacustomerrequiresarushorderhowfastcanyoudeliverit?
(b)Whatisthehourlycapacityforeachstage?
(c)Identifythebottleneckstageandtheprocesscapacity.
(d)Supposeyoucanaddonlyonemachineinparallelatthebottleneckstage. Amachinewithhigher
capacitycostsmore. Youwanttobuytheleastexpensivemachine. Whatshouldbethecycletime
forthenewmachinesothatyouincreasetheprocesscapacityasmuchaspossible?
Luis
Poisson
LuisPoissonisaParisbasedmanufacturerofluxuryleatherbags.Themanufacturingprocessfor
theirnewflagshipproductiscomposedof5fullyautomatedstations,asillustratedinfigure1below.
Thetheoreticalprocessingtimes(inminutes)forallthemachinesusedineachofthe5stationsare
alsoreportedinthefigure.
Figure 1: Luis Poissons manufacturing process
1.
Whatis
the
average
Throughput
Rate
of
the
process
(in
units/hour)?
2. WhatistheMinimumThroughputTime(inminutes)?
3. Whichstationistheprocessbottleneck?
W1
9min
W2
9min
D1
5min
G1
8min
G2
12min
F1
M1
6 min
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7/25/2019 Review Questions Session 2
2/2
Eric
&
Old
YouarepartoftheoperationsmanagementteamatEric&Old,amajorconsultingcompany.
AsafirstassignmentyourgroupisbroughtintohelpRodiimprovetheircustomerresponsetimesto
theirnewcustomersintheautomobileindustry.Rodimanufacturescomponentsforairplanesand
motorvehicles.Untilnow,theyhavemostlyworkedinthedefensesector,wherecustomersare
moreconcernedwithtechnologyandqualitythanwithresponsetime.Inthenewenvironment
responsetime
and
production
cost
are
much
more
important
and
have
become
akey
priority
to
them.
Rodisproductionsystemisorganizedasamaketoorderserialproductionline.Becauseofthe
variabilityinthetypesandquantitiesofproductsorderedbytheircustomersandbecausesetups
areoftenrequiredbetweendifferenttypesofproductstheydonotutilizeanassemblyline.Instead
theyproduceinbatchesthataretriggeredbycustomerorders.
Onyourfirstvisit,themanagersexplainthatinordertocontrolcost theyhavetriedtoincrease
theutilizationratesofsomeoftheirequipments.Specifically,theynoticedthatoneofthe
workstationsneartheendoftheproductionlinehadonly60%utilization.Theyfeltitmaybeoneof
theupstreamstations(onethatiscurrentlyutilizedbymanydifferenttypesofjobs)thatis
interferingwiththeutilizationrateofthismachine.Thisupstreamworkstation, infact,causesmany
problemsattheirplant,oneofwhichisthatovertimeisfrequentlyscheduledonweekendsto
reduce
the
numbers
of
jobs
waiting
in
front
to
it
for
processing.
Tomaximizeutilizationatthedownstreammachine,theyhavedecidedtomakesurethatjobs
destinedfortheunderutilizeddownstreamworkstationwouldhavepriorityatthisupstream
station.Theywouldevenbreaksetupsontheupstreammachinewhenthedownstreamworkstation
wasindangerofrunningoutofwork.
Asaconsultantwhatdoyoutellthemabouttheircurrentresponsetotheproblemsfaced?Whatis
theimpactofthenewpolicyonthedownstreamutilizationrate?Whatistheimpactonthe
upstreamutilizationrate?
Itwillimprovethesituation Itwillhavenoeffect Itwillworsenthesituation
Why?