IE323 – PRODUCTION & SERVICE OPERATIONS PLANNING I

CASE STUDY I

Due Date: 04.12.2019, Wednesday (17:00)

Roseburrow Appliances is a European major appliances company. In its dishwasher plant they have
developed an American style dishwasher that will be produced on an assembly line. The assembly of
a dishwasher includes 36 tasks in general. The management wants to build an assembly line to
produce dishwashers by building stations. Each station that is going to be built, will include a set of
tasks and a worker to perform these assigned tasks. The precedence relationships and the processing
times of tasks for the model are given in following Table 1.

Table 1. Task structure

Type/ Immediate Duration Type/ Immediate Duration

tasks predecessors (seconds) tasks predecessors (seconds)
1 - 0 19 14,18 13
2 - 77 20 7,18 0
3 1 73 21 17 20
4 3 82 22 21 47
5 3 88 23 15,19,21 96
6 3 62 24 20,22,23 41
7 3 36 25 24 90
8 4,5 0 26 19,23 28
9 5 66 27 20,24 53
10 6 25 28 25,27 42
11 5,6 55 29 27 25
12 8,9 71 30 25,26 42
13 11 59 31 25,28 0
14 9 13 32 28,29,30 36
15 12,13 55 33 29,31,32 25
16 2,10,13 19 34 33 33
17 16 37 35 32,33 18
18 16 94 36 34,35 15

Note: 0 task time means that the product does not need this task.

a) The management wants to build an assembly line to produce dishwashers with minimum
investment cost for the alternative cycle times. In order to construct a workstation; an investment
with a constant cost of $300,000 per workstation is required. Cycle time gives the time to produce
one dishwasher. For instance, if the cycle time is 80 seconds, every 80 seconds the assembly line
produces one dishwasher.

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Build a mathematical model for this assembly line balancing problem which aims to minimize total
investment cost and determine the assembly line for the given alternative cycle times, namely 120,
135 and 150 sec.

b) Before giving the final decision for the line investment, the management requests another
analysis. They want a line which aims to reach the maximum production rate for alternative allocated
budgets for the investment.

Build a mathematical model for this assembly line balancing problem which aims to maximize
production rate and determine the assembly line for the given alternative budgets, namely 4.25, 4.5
and 5 million dollars.

c) The management is likely to allocate $3.75 M for the investment. Moreover, according to sales
department, at most 150 sec cycle time is available to satisfy expected demand. The management
wants a line that workloads assigned to workstations are balanced.

Build a mathematical model for this assembly line balancing problem which aims to minimize the
maximum idle time of a workstation for the given budget and cycle time.

d) During this period, R&D department designed another American style dishwasher model with
task times given at following table 2. The management expects a significant demand for this model.
Thus, they want to produce the new model. However, due to available area in the facility is limited,
the management insist that one line will be able to produce both models. Hence, on the same
assembly line both models will be produced.

Table 2. Tasks times of model 2

Type/ Duration Type/ Duration Type/ Duration Type/ Duration

tasks (seconds) tasks (seconds) tasks (seconds) tasks (seconds)
1 20 10 69 19 13 28 12
2 0 11 55 20 90 29 81
3 73 12 71 21 20 30 0
4 97 13 43 22 47 31 35
5 88 14 0 23 82 32 26
6 0 15 55 24 37 33 25
7 0 16 28 25 0 34 12
8 20 17 0 26 72 35 0
9 66 18 50 27 0 36 78

Note: precedence relations between tasks are same for all dishwasher models.

Build mathematical models, for same assembly line balancing problems discussed at previous parts
by considering same cycle time and budget alternatives.

e) Roseburrow Appliances is signed a contract with an American company and now these models
will be sold under that company’s brand name. Their production target is fixed and 150 seconds as

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cycle time is sufficient to meet the target. Since cycle time is fixed minimum investment cost is
desired. Production department performed an exclusive search and found a now workstation
alternative which uses robots instead of human-power. This new workstation type has higher
investment cost of $500,000 per workstation. On the other hand, a robot operates the tasks within
half times as the worker does.

Build a mathematical model for this assembly line balancing problem which aims to minimize
budget required to satisfy production target.

Prepare a comprehensive report for the management to help them to decide the investment for the
assembly line. Explain any assumption you made in the report clearly. Discuss the results in each
part and the difference in results between the parts. You are expected to follow the case guide
provided with this assignment. You may use any Mathematical Programming software.

CASE STUDY GUIDELINE

PURPOSE
A case study is to get in touch with real-life systems. In performing a case study, the goal is to inquire
(ask questions + discover+ doubt about the discovery + ask new questions...) and consider alternatives.
Explore, make judgments and be creative.

FORMAT AND CONTENT

The main section headings are to be numbered and written in capital letters. The subtitles must be
written in lower case letters and underlined. All pages should be given page numbers. Figures,
drawings, tables, pictures, etc. should be numbered appropriately. In the title page, only the title of
this case, date, your group’s name and your team members’ names should be written. Please write in
Times New Roman, font 12 and with 1.5 space and do not exceed 8 pages excluding the appendices.

The report should consist of the following sections:

• Table of contents (with corresponding page numbers)
• Introduction (briefly summarize the problem situation and what the reader should expect to
find in the report)
• Main body of the report (the detailed explanation of the work carried out)
o Define any notation that you use and clearly explain any models that you formulate.
Explain the decision variables, constraints and objective function clearly.
o State your assumptions, if any, that you used in your approach.
o Formulate mathematical models for each problem described in each part of the case.
o Solve your mathematical models by using appropriate software (GAMS, etc.).
o Summarize the software (GAMS, etc.) outputs by using tables, figures or graphs in the
body of main text.
o Avoid repetitions in the report. For example, when you change a model, write only the
modified parts, not all of it.

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 • Conclusion
o Summarize your findings.
o Answer “So what?” type questions. Make sensible recommendations. Do what-ifs, if
possible. Do not cut toothpicks by an ax!
• References (list all the material referred to in the report text)
• Appendix
o Include all data, tables, diagrams, drawings, etc. which are not immediately relevant
to the main text in the appendix.
o Include software (GAMS, etc.) outputs in appendices.
o Discuss all the material in the body of the text. Note that we will not look at an
appendix if you do not discuss it.

EVALUATION
This assignment is to be done in teams of three students. Working in collaboration with
other teams is not allowed. Students can discuss about the problem with their partners only.
Any kind of non-ethical conduct (i.e. cheating) will be penalized harshly!

SUBMISSION
Submit printed reports to teaching assistants. Do not put your reports in plastic folders!
Stapling is necessary and sufficient! Upload your software (GAMS, etc.) files to METU
Online before the deadline. Your file names should include your group number and the
content in the file. Do not forget that we will only grade what is written in the report. So,
providing software files does not mean that you provide the details of your models!