Homework 4

Balancing a process with a fixed sequence of activities will achieve a higher average labor utilization than balancing a process with no fixed sequence of activities.

False

Which of the following actions does not relate to off-loading the bottleneck?

Increasing wages for production workers

A process has high fixed costs and low variable costs. It is currently capacity-constrained. Will the impact of an efficiency improvement be small or large?

Large Low variable costs result in a high unit margin, so every additional customer yields a significant contribution to profitability.

The Geneva Watch Corporation manufactures watches on a conveyor belt with six stations. One worker stands at each station and performs the following tasks: a.What is the labor content? b.Assume a demand rate of 50 watches per hour. What is the takt time? c.Assume a demand rate of 50 watches per hour. What is the target manpower?7 d.An external supplier suggests shipping the battery module with preinstalled batteries, thereby eliminating the need for step 10. What will be the process capacity with this change? How could you increase the capacity of the process by rebalancing it? a. Move check switch (step 11) to station D b. Move install set switch in bezel (step 4) to station B c. Move install battery clip on module (step 8) to station B d. Move cosmetic inspection (step 14) to station DDselected answer correctf.What would be the capacity of the process (Watches per hour) if three worker each completed the activities currently assigned to stations A, B,and C, and three other workers each completed the activities currently assigned to stations D, E, and F.Assume processing times for specific tasks remains the same and workes are able to perform tasks without interference.

a. Labor content = 68 seconds Station A + 60 seconds Station B + 70 seconds Station C + 58 seconds Station D + 75 seconds Station E + 64 second Station F = 395 seconds b. Takt Time = 1/Demand rate = 1/(50 watches/3600 seconds per hour) = 72 seconds c. 395 / 72 = 5.49 d. There is no change in watches per hour. e. Move cosmetic inspection (step 14) to station D f. Total time for the first three stations is 68 + 60 + 70 seconds = 198 seconds. Total time for the second three stations is 58 +75 + 64 = 197 seconds. The first station is the bottleneck and has capacity 3 workers × 3600 seconds/hr / 198 seconds per watch = 54.5 watches per hour

It takes a lawyer 120 minutes to serve one customer. Demand is 2 customers per 6-hour day. The lawyer has a wage rate of $250 per hour. a. What is the cost of direct labor for the lawyer expressed in $ per customer? b. What is the labor utilization of the lawyer? (Enter your answer as a decimal between 0 and 1 (not a percentage) rounded to 2 decimal places.)

a. The Direct Labor cost is 6 hours × $250 per hour) / 2 customers = $750 per customer. b. Flow rate = 1/3 customers per hour. Capacity is 1/2 customer per hour. Labor utilization = Flow rate / Capacity = 1/3 / 1/2 = 0.67

It is possible to increase process capacity by balancing a process.

True