A Small Electronics Company Assembles Microchips for Use in Computers

question 1

Essay

A small electronics company assembles microchips for use in computers, printers and fax machines. They want to set up an assembly line to make their operation more efficient and plan to use line balancing with the longest-task-time heuristic. The demand for microchips is 70 per hour, and the productive time per hour is 52 minutes. The following table provides details on their operation. $\begin{array}{ccc}\text { Task } & \text { Time (n minutes) } & \text { Predecessor(s) } \\\text { A } & 0.54 & \text { none } \\\text { B } & 0.34 & \text { A } \\\text { C } & 0.11 & \text { A } \\\text { D } & 0.09 & \text { A } \\\text { E } & 0.43 & \text { B, C } \\\text { F } & 0.22 & \text { D } \\\text { G } & 0.62 & \text { E } \\\text { H } & 0.35 & \text { F, G } \\\text { I } & 0.21 & \text { H } \\\text { J } & 0.57 & \text { H } \\\text { K } & 0.33 & \text { I. J }\end{array}$
a.What is the cycle time?
b.What is the theoretical minimum number of workstations?
c.What tasks go into the first workstation?
d.How many workstations are needed for the entire line?
e.What is the assembly-line efficiency?

---

Definitions:

Manufacturing Overhead

All indirect costs associated with manufacturing, including indirect labor, materials, and utilities, not directly tied to the production of goods.

Job-Order Costing System

A cost accounting method that captures the financial performance of individual jobs or projects, tracking direct labor, direct materials, and applied overhead per task.

Predetermined Overhead Rate

A rate used to allocate manufacturing overhead to products or cost objects, calculated before the production starts based on estimated costs.

Machine-Hours

A measure of the amount of time machines are operated in the production process.