Question

1. Consider the following 4-stage production system that makes an industrial-type product named,

Cosmos. The processing time for each of these stages are shown in minutes.

          2.5 minutes                  10 minutes                       15 minutes                        4 minutes     

Station A    Station B     Station C Station D

1. How many units of Cosmos can this system make in 1 hour, under steady state conditions?
2. Assume that the company runs 2 production shifts each day from Monday to Saturday: One shift is from 7:00 am to 4:00 pm, and the second shift is from 4:00 pm to 1:00 am, with 30 minutes break time allowed each production shift, How many units of Cosmos would be made in 1 week (under steady state conditions), if process improvements led to 60% reduction in process time for station C?

Answer 1

Under steady state

Hourly Capacity of stations

A = 60/2.5 =24

B= 60/10 =6

C= 60/15 =4

D=60/4 =15

The slowest resource is station C which has a capacity of 4 units per hour, which restricts the process capacity to this level. The maximum output is 4 per hour.

2. New process time of station C = 15x(1-0.6) =6 minutes

New output of station C = 60/6 =10 per hour.

Noe, the new bottleneck is B which has output of 6 per hour. Now, the capacity of process will be 6 per hour

Number of shifts each week = 6 days x 2 = 12 shifts

Hours per shift = 9-0.5 =8.5

Weekly hours = 12 x8.5 =102

Weekly production = 102x6 =612 units