A Company Is Trying to Balance Production Between 3 Workstations

question 253

Essay

A company is trying to balance production between 3 workstations on an assembly line. Currently there are 5 tasks that need to be performed. These tasks, ABCDE, have required times of 2 minutes, 4 minutes, 1 minutes, 3 minutes, and 10 minutes, respectively. The assembly line needs to produce 40 units per day to meet demand and can work for up to 8 hours each day.
(a) What is the required cycle time?
(b) What is the theoretical minimum # of workstations?
(c) Assign the tasks according to the shortest task time heuristic.

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Definitions:

Investment Centers

Sections of a company treated as separate business units, responsible for their profit and investment.

Controllable Margin

The portion of profit or margin that can be directly influenced by management's actions by controlling certain costs or revenues.

Average Operating Assets

The average value of the assets used in the core operations of a business over a period, important for evaluating investment efficiency.

Controllable Fixed Costs

Fixed costs that management has the ability to influence or change over the short term, such as advertising expenses.