1.

A commemorative plate manufacturing process involves four steps - Forming, Baking,

Glazing and Firing. Each plate is individually formed and glazed, but baking and firing
are done in batches in ovens. The factory operates one 8-hour shift/day with no breaks.
The time taken for each step and the corresponding batch sizes are shown in the table
below:

Activity Forming Baking Glazing Firing

Process time 2 30 3 20
(mins)
Batch Size 1 20 1 10
a. Calculate the daily capacity for each process step.
b. Calculate the daily capacity of the entire plate manufacturing process.
c. What is the cycle time for the entire plate manufacturing process?
d. What is the flowtime for the process?
e. What is the average inventory of partially made plates in the factory if it is running
at full capacity?

2. The figure below shows the process followed in the kitchen of a popular sit-down
sandwich restaurant during the lunch period. Except for the Ingredients station, which
has three workers, each of the stations is staffed with 1 worker. For the given process:
a. Calculate the cycle time for each step and for the entire lunch making process
b. How many lunches can the kitchen serve per hour if each process activity is staffed
as indicated?
c. Calculate the utilization of each station.
d. What is the average number of lunches in the process of being made in the kitchen if
it is operating at its capacity?

Wipe Tray  Place Drink  3. Place Side Orders

on Tray on Tray
30 sec 1 min 1.5 mins

Verify Order
1 min

Slice and  Apply  Add  Wrap Sandwich

Hollow Bread Condiments Ingredients & Place on Tray
45 seconds 30 seconds 4 mins 1 min
(3 workers)
Solutions:
1. Plate manufacturing

a. Activity metrics

Forming Baking Glazing Firing

Process time 2 30 3 20
(mins)
Batch Size 1 20 1 10
Cycle time(mins) 2/1 = 2 30/20 = 3/2 3/1 = 3 mins =20/10 = 2/1
Flowrate 1/2 2/3 1/3 1/2
(plates/min)
Capacity =1/2 *8*60 320 160 240
(plates/day) =240

b. Flowrate or Capacity of the entire process depends on capacity of the bottleneck.

Glazing is the bottleneck so process capacity is 160 plates/day.
c. Process cycle time depends on the cycle time of the bottleneck activity (Glazing).
Process cycle time is 3 minutes/plate.
d. Flow time for the process is the sum of process times since it is a linear process. In this
case, 2+30+3+20 = 55 minutes.
e. Flowrate = 1/3 plates/min; Flowtime = 55 minutes
Using Little’s law I = R * T = Flowrate * Flowtime = 1/3 * 55 = 55/3 = 18.33 plates.
2. Sit-down Restaurant
a.

Wipe Drink Sides Slice Condiments Ingredient Wrap Verify

s
Process 30 60 90 45 30 240 60 60
Time(secs)
No. of 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1
Stations
Cycle Time 30/1= 60 90 45 30 240/3= 60 60
(secs/lunch) 30 80

The cycle time for the entire process is the cycle time of the bottleneck process.
In this case, “Sides” has the longest cycle time and is the bottleneck and so the
cycle time for the entire process is 90 secs/lunch.
b. The capacity or flowrate of the entire process is the reciprocal of the cycle time
of the process. Thus, the capacity is 1/90 lunches/second or (1/90) * 3600
seconds/hour = 40 lunches/hour
c. To calculate utilization, notice that the entire process works at 40 lunches/hour.
We also need available capacity/hour at each station. This can be calculated by
first calculating the flowrate or capacity in lunches/sec and converting to hourly
capacity by multiplying by 3600 seconds. The utilization is then calculated as
Actual Production Rate
Utilization=
Available Capacity
Wipe Drink Sides Slice Condiment Ingredients Wrap Verify
s
Process 30 60 90 45 30 240 60 60
Time(secs)
No. of 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1
Stations
Cycle Time 30/1= 60 90 45 30 240/3= 60 60
(secs/lunch) 30 80
Flowrate 1/30 1/60 1/90 1/45 1/30 1/80 1/60 1/60
(lunches/sec)
Capacity/hou 120 60 40 80 120 45 60 60
r
% Utilization 40/120 66.66 100 50 33.33 88.88 66.66 66.66
=0.333
Or
33.33
%
d. From Little’s law I = R*T = Flowrate*Flowtime. We calculate process flowrate as 1/90
lunches/sec. To calculate Flowtime we look for the longest path. In this case, Slice
CondimentsIngredientsWrapVerify is the longest path and the time taken is
45+30+240+60+60 = 435 seconds. So I= (1/90)*435= 4.833 lunches