PowerToys Inc. produces a small remote-controlled toy truck on a conveyor belt with nine stations. Each station has, under the current process layout, one worker assigned to it. Stations and processing times are summarized in the following table:
|
Station |
Task Processing Times (seconds) |
| 1 |
Mount battery units |
75 |
| 2 |
Insert remote control receiver |
85 |
| 3 |
Insert chip |
90 |
| 4 |
Mount front axle |
65 |
| 5 |
Mount back axle |
70 |
| 6 |
Install electric mirror |
55 |
| 7 |
connect motor to battery unit |
80 |
| 8 |
connect motor to rear axle |
65 |
| 9 |
Mount plastic body |
80 |
a. What is the bottleneck in this process?
b. What is the capacity, in toy trucks per hour, of the assembly line? 75 85 90 65 70 55 80 65 80
c. What is the direct labor cost for the toy truck with the current process if each worker receives $ 1 5/hour, expressed in dollars per toy truck?
d. What would be the direct labor cost for the toy truck if work would be organized in a work cell, that is, one worker performs all tasks? Assume that the activity times would remain unchanged (i.e., there are no specialization gains).
e. What is the utilization of the worker in station 2?
Because of a drastically reduced forecast, the plant management has decided to cut staffing from nine to six workers per shift. Assume that (i) the nine tasks in the above table cannot be divided; (ii) the nine tasks are assigned to the six workers in the most efficient way possible; and (iii) if one worker is in charge of two tasks, the tasks have to be adjacent (i.e., one worker cannot work on tasks 1 and 3 ).
f. How would you assign the nine tasks to the six workers?
g. What is the new capacity of the line (in toy trucks per hour)?