Questions for Practice:

1. In terms of human participation, what are the three basic categories of work systems?
Answer: The three categories given in the text are (1) manual work, (2) worker-machine systems, and
(3) automated systems.
2. What is the general characteristic that is common to nearly all pure manual work?
Answer: Moving things.
3. What is the one best method principle?
Answer: According to the one best method principle, of all the possible alternative methods that can be
used to perform a task, there is one optimal method that minimizes the time and effort required to
accomplish it. It is also a safe method that produces a high quality work unit.
4. What is meant by the term normal performance?
Answer: Normal performance refers to a pace of working that can be maintained throughout an entire
work shift (in which periodic rest breaks are allowed) by a properly trained average worker without
deleterious short term or long effects on the worker’s health or physical well-being.
5. What is meant by the term normal time for a task?
Answer: The normal time for a task is the time required to accomplish one cycle of the task when
working at 100% performance (normal performance).
6. What does PFD stand for? What is the purpose of the PFD allowance in determining the standard
time for a task?
Answer: PFD stands for personal time, fatigue, and delays. The purpose of the PFD allowance is to
provide a small amount of additional time above the normal time to account for losses due to personal
time, fatigue (rest breaks), and delays that occur periodically during the work shift.
7. What does sequential operations mean?
Answer: Sequential operations are a work system in which multiple processing steps are accomplished
in order to complete a work unit, and the processing steps are performed sequentially (rather than
simultaneously).

8. What is a precedence constraint in sequential operations?

Answer: A precedence constraint is a restriction on the order in which the sequence of operations must
be performed. Certain operations must be accomplished before other operations can be started. The
example is drilling and tapping. A hole must be drilled before it can be tapped.

9. What is the difference between pure sequential work flow and mixed sequential work flow?
Answer: Pure sequential means that all work units flow through the same exact sequence of
workstations and operations. There is no variation in the processing sequence. Mixed sequential means
that there are variations in the work flow for different work units. Different work units are processed
through different stations.

10. Name and define the four types of part moves between workstations in sequential operations.
Answer: The four types of part moves identified in the text are: (1) in-sequence move, in which the
work unit moves forward from the current operation to the neighbouring operation immediately
downstream; (2) bypassing move, which is a forward move beyond the neighbouring workstation by
two or more stations ahead of the current station; (3) backflow move, in which the work unit moves in
the backward direction by one or more stations; and (4) repeat operation, in which the operation is
repeated at the same workstation and the part does not move between stations.
11. What is a From-To chart?
Answer: A From-To chart is a tabular chart that is used to indicate various quantitative relationships
between operations or workstations in a multi-station work system. Typical quantities displayed in a
From-To chart include quantities between stations, flow rates of parts between stations, and distances
between stations.

12. What is a bottleneck in sequential operations?

Answer: The bottleneck operation is the slowest operation in the sequence. It is the operation that
ultimately limits the production rate of the sequence.

13. What do the terms starving and blocking mean in terms of sequential operations?
Answer: Blocking means that the production rate(s) of one or more upstream operations are limited by
the rate of a downstream operation. The upstream operations are blocked by the slower rate of the
downstream station. Starving means that the production rate(s) of one or more downstream operations
are limited by the rate of an upstream operation (e.g., the bottleneck). The downstream operations can
work no faster than the rate at which the bottleneck feeds work units to them.

14. If the normal time is 1.30 min for a repetitive task that produces one work unit per cycle, and the
company uses a PFD allowance factor of 12%, determine (a) the standard time for the task and
(b) how many work units are produced in an 8-hour shift at standard performance.
Solution: (a) Tstd = 1.30(1 + 0.12) = 1.456 min
(b) Qstd = 8(60)/1.456 = 329.7 pc (if rounded, 329 pc)
15. The normal time for a repetitive task that produces two work units per cycle is 3.0 min. The plant
uses a PFD allowance factor of 15%. Determine (a) the standard time per piece and (b) how many
work units are produced in an 8-hour shift at standard performance.
Solution: (a) Tstd = 3.0(1 + 0.15) = 3.45 min/cycle
With 2 pc/cycle, Tstd = 3.45/2 = 1.725 min/pc
(b) Qstd = 8(60)/1.725 = 278.3 pc (if rounded, 278 pc)
16. A total of 1000 units of a certain product must be completed by the end of the current week. It is
now late Monday afternoon, so only four days (8-hour shifts) are left. The standard time for
producing each unit of the product (all manual operations) is 11.65 min. How many workers will
be required to complete this production order if it is assumed that worker efficiency will be
115%?
Solution: Workload WL = 1000(11.65)/1.15 = 10,130.4 min = 168.84 hr
Available time AT = 4(8.0) = 32 hr/worker
w = 168.84/32 = 5.28 rounded up to 6 workers

17. The CNC grinding section has a large number of machines devoted to grinding of shafts for the
automotive industry. The machine cycle takes 3.6 min to grind the shaft. At the end of this cycle,
an operator must be present to unload and load parts, which takes 40 sec. (a) Determine how many
grinding machines the worker can service if it takes 20 sec to walk between the machines and no
machine idle time is allowed. (b) How many seconds during the work cycle is the worker idle? (c)
What is the hourly production rate of this machine cluster?
Solution: (a) n = (3.6 + 0.667)/(0.667 + 0.333) = 4.267 rounded down to 4 machines to avoid machine
idle time
(b) Machine cycle time = 3.6 + 0.667 = 4.267 min
Worker time per machine = 0.667 + 0.333 = 1.00 min
Worker idle time = 4.267 – 4.00 = 0.267 min = 16 sec
 (c) Given Tc = 4.267 min and 4 machines, Rp = 4(60)/4.267 = 56.25 pc/hr
18. A starting batch of 5000 work units is processed through 8 sequential operations, each of which
has a fraction defect rate of 3%. (a) How many good parts and (b) defects are in the final batch,
and (c) what is the yield of the operation sequence?
Solution: (a) Qf = 5000(1 – 0.03)8 = 5,000(0.97)8 = 5,000(0.7837) = 3919 pc
(b) Df = 5000(1 – 0.7838) = 1081 defects
(c) Y = 0.7837 = 78.37%

19. A welder produces 7 welded assemblies during the first day on a new job, and the seventh assembly
takes 45 minutes (unit time). The worker produces 10 welded assemblies on the second day, and
the 10th assembly on the second day takes 30 minutes. Given this information, (a) what is the
percent learning rate and (b) what is the total cumulative time to produce all 17 welded assemblies?
Use the Crawford learning curve model.
Solution: (a) Given T7 = 45 min and T7+10 = T17 = 30 min
T7 = T1(7)m = 45
T17 = T1(17)m = 30
T1 = 45/7m = 30/17m
45/30 = 7m/17m = (7/17)m
1.5 = (0.41177)m
ln 1.5 = m ln 0.41177
0.40547 = -0.8873 m m = -0.45696
LR = 2-0.45696 = 0.7285 = 72.9%
(b) T1 = 45/7-0.45696 = 109.5 hr
E(TT17) = 109.5{(17.51-0.45696 – 0.51-0.45696)/(1-0.45696)}
E(TT17) = 109.5{(4.7317- 0.6863)/0.54304} = 815.7 min = 13.595 hr

20. A work group of 20 workers in a certain month produced 8600 units of output working 8 hr/day
for 21 days. (a) What is the labor productivity ratio for this month? (b) In the next month, the
same worker group produced 8000 units but there were 22 workdays in the month and the size
of the work group was reduced to 14 workers. What is the labor productivity ratio for this second
month? (c) What is the productivity index using the first month as a base?
Solution: (a) LPR = 8600/20(8)(21) = 2.559 units/hr
(b) LPR = 8000/14(8)(22) = 3.247 units/hr
(c) LPI = 3.247/2.559 = 1.269 = 126.9%