Data given in question. r b = 2000 per day = 125 per hour, T D = 0.5 hours, W D
ID: 373580 • Letter: D
Question
Data given in question.
r b = 2000 per day = 125 per hour,
T D = 0.5 hours,
WD = 62.5 cases,
TH =1700 cases/day = 106.25 per hr,
CT = 3.5 hrs.
(a) estimate average WIP level to be = TH x CT = 106.25 x 3.5 = 371.81 or 372 cases.
(b) TH PWC = 107.27 per hour, so as per this data we are roughly at the performance level of the PWC, maybe slightly worse.
(c) Throughput would increase (or at least not decrease), because bottleneck would be blocked/starved less. Unbalancing the PWC line causes it to perform better.
(d) Throughput would increase (or at least not decrease), because bottleneck would be blocked/starved less. Replacing single machine stations with parallel machine stations in the PWC causes it to perform better.
(e) Moving cases in batches would further inate cycle time by adding “wait for batch” time.
Explanation / Answer
Floor-On, Ltd, operates a line that produces self-adhesive tiles. This line consists of single machine stations and is almost balanced (i.e., station rates are nearly equal). A manufacturing engineer has estimated the bottleneck rate of the line to be 2,000 cases per 16-hour day and the raw process time to be 30 minutes. The line has averaged 1,700 cases per day, and cycle time has averaged 3.5 hours. a. What would you estimate average WIP level to be? b. How does this performance compare to the practical worst case? c. What would happen to the throughput of the line if we increased capacity at a nonbottleneck station and held WIP constant at its current level? d. What would happen to the throughput of the line if we replaced a single-machine station with four machines whose capacity equaled that of the single machine and held the WIP constant at its current level? e. What would happen to the throughput of the line if we began moving cases of tiles between stations in large batches instead of one at a time?
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