Last month, a processing facility (such as a check processing facility or a distribution center) transitioned from an unpaced assembly line to a machine-paced assembly line, so that now work is done to the product while it stays on the conveyor belt. Yesterday, the worker at the bottleneck station was replaced by another worker who works more slowly than the original worker (and nothing was done to compensate). Which of the following is most likely to result?
a. Inventory piles up before the new bottleneck worker.
b. Quality problems occur.
c. Cycle time increases.
d. The direction of the workflow changes
How does the cost of learning change as the division of labor increases (having more workers, doing more narrowly defined tasks)?
a. It tends to decrease at first but eventually starts growing again.
b. It tends to increase at first but eventually starts decreasing.
c. It tends to decrease with the growing degree of division of labor.
d. It is unchanged by the division of labor.