*Please read carefully all provided details below to help you to answer all the questions of a case study:
Additional Information:
*A backorder costs Pines Industries $10 per item.
*Storing an item at the warehouse costs $2 per item per month.
*Based on training and severance, there is a one-time $2000 cost for hiring a worker and a $3000 for hiring a worker due to production. Based on these costs, what can you assume? You can arbitrarily set the worker count on 1 January based on your production line estimation from the previous month.
*The GCP 3000 and 4000 are high-end machines retailing between $8000 and $10000 based on the market. What does that tell you?
Assignment Notes and Hints:
A successful answer must be a professional recommendation that summarizes and captures all the information provided. Although there is not a specific page count, it would be nearly impossible to provide all information, plots, and recommendations in less than 3 to 4 pages.
At a minimum, you must answer:
1. Based on the last 24 months of sales with the GCP 3000, what general hypotheses can you make about demand? Hint {consider the product use!
2. What methods would you use to forecast the next 12 months based on previous data? Why?
3. Given the product structure, what is your ordering strategy for vendor-procured items for 2019?
4. Using line balancing, how you recommend structuring work? How many assembly lines are needed based on a 36-hour workweek and 4 week month.
5. Not a math question!! How do you recommend switching production from the GCP 3000 to the GCP 4000? Use the information provided and make any needed assumptions {I want to see your logical process.
Problem Definition:
Pines Industries wants to introduce a new and improved Green Chile Processor, the Pines GCP 4000, to replace the popular GCP 3000. Due to demand projections, the GCP 3000 will be out of stock on 1 January 2019 and will be immediately replaced by the GCP 4000. As the head production engineer, the CEO tasked you to provide a recommendation on production scheduling, workforce planning, and warehousing in order to seamlessly replace the GCP 3000 with the GCP 4000 in January 2019. This recommendation is due no later than 2 August 2018 via NMSU Canvas.
Product Forecast:
Pines industries sells the GCP 3000 worldwide with most sales in the Northern Hemisphere. The CEO assumes that GCP 3000 sales over the previous 24 months to be the best forecasting tool for GCP 4000 sales in the first 12 months following introduction.
Monthly sales for the past 24 months are as follows:
|
Months
|
2017
|
218
|
|
January
|
10167
|
9614
|
|
February
|
10279
|
10325
|
|
March
|
10106
|
10107
|
|
April
|
9896
|
9596
|
|
May
|
9807
|
9596
|
|
June
|
10182
|
9896
|
|
July
|
24819
|
25348
|
|
August
|
25141
|
25050
|
|
September
|
19697
|
20016
|
|
October
|
19882
|
19665
|
|
November
|
9993
|
10066
|
|
December
|
9986
|
9949
|
What trends do you see in the previous sales demands? Why?
Product Structure:
The GCP 4000 is similar to the GCP 3000 but requires completely new components.
Components A, B, and C are assembled in-house, but D, E, and F are sourced from vendors with the following shipment times:
|
Step
|
Activity
|
Time (one worker)
|
Immediate Predecessor
|
|
1
|
Assemble Component C
|
2 minutes
|
None
|
|
2
|
Assemble Component A
|
5 minutes
|
Step 1
|
|
3
|
Assemble Component B
|
7 minutes
|
None
|
|
4
|
End Item Assembly
|
4 minutes
|
Steps 2,3
|
|
5
|
Quality Assurance Checks
|
3 minutes
|
Step 4
|
|
6
|
Package End Item
|
8 minutes
|
Step 5
|
Figure 1: Question 1 Product Structure Diagram
Line Balancing Information:
The GCP 4000 is produced with the following steps:
The CEO wants you to determine how the jobs should be scheduled in order to minimize the total Makespan. Include an appropriate chart indicating the optimal schedule.
End Item A (2) Two weeks D (1) Two weeks F (1) One week E (2) F (2) One week One week