Managing Engineering and Technology 6th Edition by Lucy Morse,Daniel Babcock

Exercise 2

Setup for a stamping operation required a time-consuming fixture installation and testing that took 4 hours each time a different part was to be produced; typically, 12 hours' production was made for inventory of a given stamping before the machine was stopped to permit setup for a new part. After careful process analysis, fixtures and transfer methods were revised to permit setup in 15 minutes. Discuss the implications for this change on ( a ) optimum batch size, ( b ) order frequency, and ( c ) machine and labor productivity.