ME483/MFG502

HW3 Solutions

Problem 1
The solution to the Problem 4-a shown below is an example of many possible solutions, since the
solutions depend on assumptions.
a) Additional assumptions:
• The ball contacts only to the circuit board.
• The cover contacts only to the base and button.
• The circuit board does not contact cover.
• The ball does not contact the cover
• The cord is inserted before the ball is attached to the circuit board.
Ball
6
C
A B E D
4 2 1 3 5
Cord Circuit Base Cover Button
b)
• From the given conditions, A  E, C  E and D  E.
• From the fact that the circuit board is located inside the mouse, B  E.
• From the assumption that the cord is inserted before the ball A  C.
c) Feasible assembly sequences
A , C, D, B, E
A, D, C, B, E
D, A, B, C, E
B, D, A, C, E
…
d)
D

A C E

B
Problem 2
a) Tw = 314 seconds, C = 80.
The lower bound on N is 314  = 4, where # represents the smallest integer that is
 80 
greater than or equal to a number.
b)
Task Positional Weight Ranking
T01 314 1
T02 211 2
T03 140 4
T04 178 3
T05 123 5
T06 51 10
T07 102 6
T08 60 9
T09 99 7
T10 82 8
T11 29 11
T12 25 12

Note: the positional weight of a task is its task time plus the sum of task times of all successor
tasks.

Station Task
Remaining Time
1 T01 T02 T03
70 35 18
2 T04 T05
21 0
3 T07 T09 T10
60 43 15
4 T08 T06 T12
49 27 2
5 T11
51
Note: T03 should be in Station 1. A task should be assigned to the earliest feasible
station.
c)
Station 1 2 3 4 5 Total
Idle Time 18 0 15 2 51 86

In fact, idle time is the same as the remaining time at each station.
d) N = 5 > the lower bound.
The reasons are as follows:
• Tasks, in general, cannot be divided further to fill the remaining time in a station.
• Precedence constraints may prevent a more balanced line.
• RPW is a heuristic method, and there could be a true optimal solution that has
smaller N.
 • In real situations, zoning constraint may exist. Some tasks should be processed
together in the same station, whereas other tasks cannot be processed in the same
station.

Problem 3

a) Takt Time = 60 × 60 × 250 × 8 / 60000=120s

b) Cycle Time = 120s × 0.85 = 102s

=
N lower =
300 /102  3
c) Precedence Graph:

B F

A C G H

(The precedence graph should be UNIQUE. You cannot make any

additional assumptions on the precedence relationship.)
Task A B C D E F G H
Weight 300 100 120 30 20 30 60 30
At least 3 machines are needed. The Assignment can be
Machine 1 2 3 4
Assigned Tasks AB CG DFH (in any order) E
(RPW is required – to assign the task to the FIRST available station.)
d) Objective: minimize the maximum task time on the machines.
Possible optimal sequence can be
Machine 1 2 3 4
Assigned AD BF CE (in any order) GH (in any order)
Tasks AD BF C GHE (in any oder)

Justify the optimality: the lower bound of task time is 300/4=75s, but the task time should
be divisible by 10. Therefore, 80s should be the optimal solution
e) The maximum cycle time in d) is 80 sec, while that in b) is 102 sec. The throughput increase
is 25%.

Problem 4

(a) The takt time

250 × 8 × 3600
𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇 𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇 = = 90𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠
80,000
(b) The cycle time
𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶 𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇 = 𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇 𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇 × 80% = 72 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠
Lower bound
25 + 10 + 10 + 35 + 50 + 15 + 45
𝑁𝑁 = = 2.64 → 3
72
(c)

Task Positional Ranking Task

Weight Time(optional)
A 75 5 25
B 85 3 10
C 85 3 10
D 50 6 35
E 100 1 50
F 15 7 15
G 95 2 45
 Task Assignment, cycle time=72 sec
B and C could be exchanged.
Station Tasks Time Remaining
1 E,B,C 2
2 G,A 2
3 D,F 22

The number of stations from RPW is 3, which is the same as the lower bound calculated in (b).
The utilization of each station is relatively high and the idle time is only 2 seconds in the first
two stations..

(d) The RPW method gives the optimum solution within 3 stations. The throughput can be increased by adding
parallel configurations to task G and E.

(e) Pros: Single pass; Simpler and smaller amount of calculation.

Cons: Does not guarantee a global optimal solution.