Exam 11: Layout Strategies

An assembly line has been designed to make battery-powered beverage mixers. Task details are shown in the table below: Station Task Assigned Task Time (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?

Utilization of the total "cube" is the dominant consideration in office layout.

What is the role of heuristics in solving layout problems? Provide a brief example, drawing from manufacturing situations, retailing situations, or other service situations.

CRAFT is software for balancing assembly lines.

An assembly line consists of 21 tasks grouped into 5 workstations. The sum of the 21 task times is 85 minutes. The largest assigned cycle time is 20 minutes. The efficiency of this line is

The layout strategy that deals with low-volume, high-variety production is

The fixed-position layout would be most appropriate in which of the following settings?

In a product-oriented layout, the process of deciding how to assign tasks to workstations is referred to as

The objective of layout strategy is to

A company is trying to balance production between 3 workstations on an assembly line. Currently there are 5 tasks that need to be performed. These tasks, ABCDE, have required times of 2 minutes, 4 minutes, 1 minutes, 3 minutes, and 10 minutes respectively. The assembly line needs to produce 40 units per day to meet demand and can work for up to 8 hours each day. A. What is the required cycle time? B. What is the theoretical minimum # of workstations? C. Assign the tasks according to shortest task time. D. Is there a better way to divide the work than in Part C?

A production line is to be designed to make 500 El-More dolls per day. Each doll requires 11 activities totaling 16 minutes of work. The factory operates 750 minutes per day. The required cycle time for this assembly line is

The type of layout which features departments or other functional groupings in which similar activities are performed is

The balancing of work cells uses the same procedures as the balancing of an assembly line.

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 is in the following table. Remember that each trip must be a round-trip (from 1 to 2 and back, for example). -- 20 0 45 -- 25 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?

"Having a focused work center is like having a factory within a factory." Discuss. Include in your discussion what conditions make focused work centers appropriate.

"A special arrangement of machinery and equipment to focus on production of a single product or group of related products" describes what layout type?

A work cell is scheduled to build 120 digital light processor (DLP) assemblies each week. These assemblies are later installed into home theater projection systems. The work cell has 7.5 hours of productive work each day, six days per week. What is takt time for this cell?

Hemo-tech, Inc., a biomedical technology and research laboratory, produces a standard blood filtering device on an assembly line basis. Six basic tasks are performed along an assembly line. The time to perform each task and the tasks that must immediately precede each task are in the table below. Twenty pumps per 450-minute day must be produced by the assembly line. Task Preceding Task Time to perform (min.) A -- 5.40 B A 3.20 C -- 1.50 D B, C 2.80 E D 17.10 F E 12.80 a. Draw the network diagram of the precedence relationships. b. Identify the absolute minimum and maximum cycle times. c. How many workstations are required to meet the schedule? d. What is the cycle time required to meet demand? e. Balance this line using most following tasks heuristic. f. What is the efficiency of the line obtained in part e? g. Can the efficiency of this solution be improved? Explain.

In the Office Relationship Chart, which rating reflects the highest importance for two departments' closeness to each other?

The work cell improves process layouts by reducing floor space and by reducing direct labor cost.