Assignment 2

Short Answer Questions: TRUE/FALSE.

(Provide on a separate WORD or EXCEL file your T or F responses only – Do not insert responses within the question
file and submit. Photograph submissions will not be accepted).

1) In a service package the greater the emphasis on intangible activities is, the more critical is the training and retention of
skilled employees and the development and maintenance of the firm's knowledge assets. 1) _______

2) Products that use standard components, but the final configuration of those components is customer-specific, are called
make-to-order products. 2) _______

3) Takt time sets the upper limit on the elapsed time between completion of successive items on a production line. 3)
_______

4) The only way to ensure that a layout design is optimal is to try to evaluate literally every possible layout and compute
the total distance travelled. 4) _______

5) A batch manufacturing process may be linked only to another batch manufacturing process in a supply chain. 5)
_______

6) A product-based layout arranges resources sequentially according to the steps required to make a product. 6)
_______

7) Service positioning is based on the three axes of contact, customization, and cost. 7) _______

8) Activities that take place prior to the point of customization are called upstream activities. 8) _______

9) Batch processing is less flexible than a production line and less efficient than a job shop. 9) _______

10) The shorter the required takt time, the more workstations will be required to balance a production line. 10)
______

11) A job shop manufacturing process is better suited to make a variety of products than a continuous flow process.
11) ______

12) In a service blueprint, the line of internal interaction falls between the customer and the onstage service provider.
12) ______

13) In a supply chain, the output from an upstream process is linked to the adjacent downstream process. 13) ______

14) When McDonald's studies the drive-through operations of Burger King, they are engaging in competitive
benchmarking. 14) ______
15) A laundry tracks clean linen output in pounds and their inputs of gas, water, electricity, and labor. A productivity
measure incorporating all of these inputs is a multifactor measure. 15) ______

16) While efficiency can exceed 100%, percent value-added time has a maximum of 100%. 16) ______

17) Among all approaches to organizing for business process improvement, the Six Sigma methodology arguably best
represents current thinking. 17) ______

18) Cycle time is the sum of all of the task times. 18) ______

19) Capability variety is the difference in how customers view an identical service outcome. What some customers might
view as economical and thrifty others might view as cheap and poor value. 19) ______

20) A manager deciding where six departments could be located in a six-room office building has over 500 possible
arrangements. 20) ______

21) Level 1 of the SCOR model is organized around the five core management processes: plan, source, make, deliver, and
return. 21) ______

22) Cycle time is the total elapsed time needed to complete a business process. 22) ______

23) According to the law of variability, converting from an assemble-to-order to a make-to-order production process
should increase productivity of the manufacturing processes. 23) ______

24) Mapping creates a common understanding of process activities, their results, and who performs the various steps.
24) ______
Computational Questions.
(Provide within the same response file as required above, your answers. Note, for full credit, please show your
complete computations).

25) With the backyard poultry craze unleashing a tidal wave of municipal code proposals, Chickenverks is poised to
capitalize on the sudden demand for chicken tractors. The portable henhouses they have designed can be assembled in 10
basic steps, each with a required time and predecessor as shown in the table. There are 8 productive hours available in a
day and the manufacturer wishes to produce 40 units per hour.

Task Time (sec) Predecessor

A 25 --
B 35 A
C 20 A
D 55 B
E 45 C, D
F 15 B
G 35 C
H 40 D, E
J 25 F, G
K 30 H, J

Balance the line according to the longest operation rule and calculate the percent idle time. Using the same arrangement
of tasks at workstations, what is the greatest output that can be achieved in an eight-hour day and what is the percent idle
time of this design?

26) An assembly line is assigned as follows. Station 1- task A, B, and C. Station 2- task D. Station 3- task E and F. The task
times are 7, 3, 2, 9, 4, and 5 minutes respective to A, B, C, D, E, and F. (Assume that there are no precedence relationships
between the tasks, i.e., they can be performed in any order)
(a) Calculate the efficiency.

27) (Concept Challenge) Departments A, B, C, and D need to be assigned to four rooms 1, 2, 3, and 4. These rooms are
arranged in a row, in that order, with 20 meters between each. The departmental workflows are contained in the table
below.

(a) What is the material handling total of assigning A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4?
(b) What is the material handling total of assigning A-1, B-3, C-4, D-2?

Flow Matrix
Dept. A Dept. B Dept. C Dept. D
Dept. A 0 30 5 20
Dept. B 5 0 40 20
Dept. C 0 10 0 40
Dept. D 10 5 0 0
28) There are three work centers (A, B, and C) behind the financial aid counter at a nearby university. They can each fit
into any of three office spaces (1, 2, and 3) off the corridor behind the desk. There is no student contact in these areas, only
workers. The distance 1-2 is 20 feet, 2-3 is 30 feet, and 1-3 is 50 feet. The matrix of work (trips per day) at the three centers
are shown in the following table. Remember that each trip must be a round-trip (from 1 to 2 and back, for example).

A B C
A -- 20 0
B 45 -- 25
C 60 0 --

(a) How many possible assignments are there? List them.

(b) Calculate the total distance traveled in each of these assignments.
(c) Which assignment minimizes distance traveled?

29) A manufacturing work cell has a takt time of 7 minutes. Exactly 10 workers are required. Suppose that the work cell
delivers 68 units each day.
(a) What is the total operation time?
(b) What is the amount of time worked during the day for all 10 workers combined?
(c) If the plant is open for only 8 hours per day, can the staff meet demand? (Refer to Worked Solutions Formulas)

30) A work cell is required to make 80 computerized diagnostic assemblies (for installation into hybrid automobiles) each
day. The cell currently works an eight-hour shift, of which seven hours are available for productive work. These
assemblies require five operations, with times of 1.0, 1.8, 2.4, 2.5, and 1.4 minutes each. (a) What is takt time for this cell?
(b) How many workers will be needed? (Refer to Worked Solutions Formulas)

31) Develop a solution for the following line balancing problem, allowing a cycle time of 5 minutes.
a. Draw the precedence diagram for the set of tasks.
b. Calculate the theoretical minimum number of workstations.
c. Balance this line using the longest task time heuristic.
d. What tasks are assigned to which stations?
e. Does the solution have the minimum number of stations? Explain.
f. How much idle time is there, summed over all workstations?
g. What is the efficiency of this line?

Task Time
Work Task (seconds) Task Predecessor(s)
A 70 -
B 60 A
C 120 B
D 60 -
E 240 C, D
F 100 A
G 190 E, F
32) An assembly line has been designed to make battery-powered beverage mixers. Task details are shown in the table
below:

Task Time
Station Task Assigned (minutes)
1 1 3.0
2 3; 4 1.5; 2.0
3 2; 5; 6 1.5; 1.5; 1.0
4 7 3.0
5 8 2.5
6 9; 10; 11 2.0; 1.0; 1.0

a. What is the assigned cycle time (in minutes)?

b. What is the maximum output rate of this line in mixers per hour?
c. What is the total idle time per cycle?
d. What is the assembly line's efficiency?

33) A company is designing a product layout for a new product. It plans to use this production line eight hours a day in
order to meet a schedule of 400 units per day. The tasks necessary to produce this product are detailed in the table below.

Task Predecessor Time (seconds)

A - 50
B A 36
C - 26
D - 22
E B, D 70
F C, E 30

a. Draw the network described in the table.

b. Without regard to a production schedule, what is the minimum possible cycle time (in seconds) for this situation;
what is the maximum?
c. What is the required cycle time (in seconds) in order to meet the schedule?
d. What is the theoretical minimum number of workstations needed to meet the schedule?
e. Balance this line using longest processing time.
f. What is the efficiency of the balance obtained in part e?