Process Capacity Analysis (Excel Computation) Consider a laundry service that ha
ID: 353193 • Letter: P
Question
Process Capacity Analysis (Excel Computation) Consider a laundry service that has 3 steps to its process. Step 1 is Washing, Step 2 is Drying, Step 3 is Ironing & Step 4 is Packaging. Step 1 Washing is a batch operation, with a batch size of 50 pieces of clothing, variable time of 15 seconds per piece and a fixed time of 20 minutes. Ihere is one washing machime. Step 2 Drying is also a batch operation, with a batch size of 40 pieces of clothing, variable time of 20 seconds per piece, and a fixed time of 60 minutes. There is one drying machine. Step 3 is a manual operation where a team of 2 workers iron the clothes; each worker takes on average 3 minutes to iron a piece of clothing. Step 4 is again a manual operation, where only one worker packages the clothes in an average of 2 minutes per piece, only 50% of the clothes need packaging Answer the next several questions based on the data above. 1. The bottleneck step at the laundry service is a. Washing b. Drying c. Ironing d. Packaging 2. In any demand scenario, the step with the lowest utilization will be a. Washing b. Drying c. Ironing d. Packaging 3. If the demand arrives at the rate of 30 pieces of clothing per hour, the utilization of the laundry will be Approx. 60% Approx. 90% Exactly 100% Greater than 100% a. b. c. 4. If the laundry owner replaces the washer with one that increases the batch size to 60 pieces of clothing instead of 50 at a time, the new capacity of the laundry is (pick the closest integer): a. b. . d. 22 per hour 32 per hour 42 per hour 55 per hour 5. If the demand arrives at the rate of 30 pieces of clothing per hour, the average number of pieces of clothing in the Drying step will be (closest integer): a. b. 0 C. d. 37 6. If the demand arrives at the rate of 30 pieces of clothing per hour, the average number of pieces of clothing in the laundry overall will be (closest integer) a. b. 40 c. 18 d. 55Explanation / Answer
PLEASE FIND ANSWERS TO FIRST 4 QUESTIONS :
Step 1 :
Total time taken for 50 pieces of clothing
= 20 minutes + 750 seconds
= 20 minutes + 12.5 minutes
= 32.5 minutes
Therefore , average time taken per piece of clothing = 32.5/50 = 0.65 minutes
Step 2:
Total time taken for 40 pieces of clothing
= 60 minutes + 20 seconds/ piece x 40 pieces
= 60 minutes + 800 seconds
= 60 minutes + 13.33 minutes
= 73.33 minutes
Therefore, average time taken per piece of clothing = 73.33 / 40 = 1.833 minutes ( 110 seconds)
Step 3 :
Time taken by each worker to iron a cloth = 3 minutes
Number of workers involved in ironing = 2
Therefore , average time taken per piece of clothing = 3/2 = 1.5 minute
Step 4 :
Since only 50% of clothing needs packaging , average time taken per piece of clothing through step 4
= 50 % of2 minutes/ piece
= 1 minute per piece
From above calculation , it is evident that maximum average time taken is at step 2 which is Drying operation. Therefore, this is the bottleneck
THE BOTTLENECK STEP AT THE LAUNDRY OPERATION IS DRYING
Lowest utilization will be at the step which has minimum amount of average time taken per piece of cloth which is Step 1i.e. WASHING with average time of 0.65 minutes.
IN ANY DEMAND SCENARIO, THE STEP WITH LOWEST UTILIZATION WILL BEWASHING
Capacity of the laundry is decided by the capacity of the bottleneck step which 110 seconds ( 1.8333 minutes ) at Step 2 i.e. drying.
Therefore we can say that the service rate of the laundry is 110 seconds per cloth.
Given arrival rate of clothing 30 pieces per hour , or 2 minutes ( 120 seconds ) per clothing ,
We can say that the utilization of the laundry will be
= Service rate/ Arrival rate x 100
= 110/120 x 100
Therefore , correct answer will be “ b. Approx 90 % “
ANSWER : b ) APPROX 90 %
With batch size of 60 pieces at step 1 i.e. Drying , the revised calculation for Step 1 is as follows :
Total time taken for 60 pieces of clothing
= 20 minutes + 900 seconds
= 20 minutes + 15 minutes
= 35 minutes
Therefore, average time taken per piece of clothing = 35/60 =0.58 minutes
As a result , the bottleneck operation still remains unchanged at Step 2 i.e. WASHINGwith average capacity of 110 seconds per clothing.
Since , capacity of the laundry is decided by capacity of bottleneck operation, capacity of the laundry
= 3600 /110
= 32.72 clothing per hour ( 32 rounded to lower whole number)
THE NEW CAPACITY OF THE LAUNDRY IS : b ) 32 PER HOUR
THE BOTTLENECK STEP AT THE LAUNDRY OPERATION IS DRYING
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