You Have Been Asked to Balance a Flow Shop Assembly

Essay

You have been asked to balance a flow shop assembly operation to achieve an output rate of 80 units per eight-hour day. Task times and precedence relationships are shown in the table below.
$$\begin{array} { | c | c | c | } \hline \text { Task } & \text { Predecessor(s) } & \begin{array} { c } \text { Duration } \\\text { (minutes) }\end{array} \\\hline \text { A } & - - & 1.4 \\\hline \text { B } & - - & 0.8 \\\hline \text { C } & \text { A, B } & 0.4 \\\hline \text { D } & - - & 1.8 \\\hline \text { E } & - - & 0.4 \\\hline \text { F } & \text { C } & 2.1 \\\hline \text { G } & \mathrm { E } , \mathrm { F } & 2.0 \\\hline \text { H } & \mathrm { D } , \mathrm { G } & 1.2 \\\hline\end{array}$$
a. Draw the precedence diagram.
b. Determine the desired cycle time.
c. Determine the theoretical minimum number of stations needed.
d. Balance this line using most following tasks.
e. What is the efficiency of the line obtained in part d?