1. Lean Operations
Identify and describe five ways lean operations for a service company differ from lean operations in a product company.
You will find Internet resources helpful. Plagiarism is a serious college offence. You must use your own words and cite your sources.
2. Just-In-Time Inventory (JIT)
Conduct research to find a company that is successfully using JIT systems in its operations.
(i) Describe the company briefly - product/services, locations, customers
(ii) Describe the company's operations briefly - type of process
(iii) Describe how JIT is being used and how it has benefitted this company
Complete in WORD. 2 pages. 12 point font. 1.15 line spacing. 1" margins.
Plagiarism is a serious college offence. You must use your own words and cite your sources.
3. Kanban
Blue Wave Enterprises is a Canadian manufacturer of party products. A new line of birthday candles is selling successfully but not profitable. The production process is fairly but takes 4 days and candles have to retail at a very low price to be competitive. The owner of the company feels that the greatest cost is in keeping 50,000 packages of candles in inventory. She wants to implement a Kanban system to reduce storage costs. The operations manager provides the owner with the following information:
Daily demand 3,000 packages of candles
Lead time 4 days
Safety stock 1 day
Container size 250 packages
How many Kanbans will be required and what does this mean?
4. Standard Time
A large cable company received a shipment of audio video cables with the wrong connectors. The error was made by the cable company's specifications provided to the overseas supplier. The operations manager calculates that it would be cheaper to manually change the connectors rather than the supplier re-doing or fixing the cables. The manager observes the first set of workers pulled aside to change the cables and from these observations will set a standard time. The observations are as follows for workers to each change the connectors on sets of 20 cables.
Determine the standard time the manager will use to change the connectors.
5. Sample size
The operations manager from Q4 wants to make sure the right sample size was used to collect the observations and calculate the standard time.
The company's owner will be satisfied within an accuracy 2% in the time estimates but wants to be 99% confident.
Determine of the sample size of 10 that was used was sufficient to meet the owner's expectations. Describe your findings. Hint: You will have to recall how to calculate the standard deviation from the observations in Q4.
6. Utilization, efficiency, and productivity
The operations manager from Q4 creates an 8 hour shift with a 30 minute lunch and two 10 minute breaks, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. With personal bathroom and other breaks such as stretching, the manager feels the workers actually put in 7 hours of productive time in the shift. The manager uses 3 workers to switch the connectors. After each shift each worker on average produces 58 sets of 20 connectors. Calculate the utilization, efficiency, and productivity.
Will the owner be satisfied?