A rapid prototyping department in a factory contains a number of machines devote

Question

A rapid prototyping department in a factory contains a number of machines devoted to 3-D printing small parts on demand for their customers. On average, the standard cycle to print one part is 48 minutes. When the cycle ends, the operator must remove the printed part and set the machine up for the next part. This process takes approximately 10 minutes on average . a) Determine the number of 3-D printing machines the operator can handle if it takes 5 seconds to walk between machines with minimal machine idle time allowed. b) How many seconds during each work cycle is a worker idle? c) What is the hourly production rate of the machine cluster assuming the printers can only produce one part at a time?

Explanation / Answer

Answer:

Printing time: 48 mins, worker work time: 10 mins, worker walk time: 5 secs

Because worker takes time to walk between machines, therefore, a worker can remove 5 printed parts from machines and spend 25 secs to walk between them. Because the first machine would have printed another part in 58th min (48 min + 10 min) , so a worker can only handle 5 machines

Answer a: 5 machines

Because the work cycle is of 58 mins

Therefore, the worker was free after 50 mins and 25 secs ie 3025 secs

Answer b: idle time of worker = 3600-3025 = 575 secs

Because the cycle time of 5 parts is 58 mins

Answer c: therefore, 5parts*60 /58mins= 5.17 parts per hour

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