A Company Is Setting Up an Assembly Line to Produce

question 83

Essay

A company is setting up an assembly line to produce cellular phones. They intend to use line balancing with the longest-task-time heuristic. They know the demand per hour is 40 phones and the productive time per hour is 54 minutes. Displayed below is the data they have collected regarding task precedence and times. $\begin{array}{ccc}\text { Task } & \text { Time (n minutes) } & \text { Predecessor(s) } \\\text { A } & 0.40 & \text { none } \\\text { B } & 1.20 & \text { A } \\\text { C } & 0.90 & \text { A } \\\text { D } & 0.70 & \text { B } \\\text { E } & 0.60 & \text { B } \\\text { F } & 0.35 & \text { C } \\\text { G } & 1.00 & \text { D, E } \\\text { H } & 0.80 & \text { F, G } \\\text { I } & 0.50 & \text { H }\end{array}$
a.What is the cycle time?
b.What is the theoretical minimum number of workstations?
c.What tasks are assigned to the first workstation?
d.How many workstations are needed for the entire line?
e.What is the assembly-line efficiency?

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Definitions:

Diffuse Status Characteristics

Information about a person’s abilities that are only obliquely relevant to the group’s task, and derive mainly from large-scale category memberships outside the group.

Groupthink

A psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people when the desire for harmony or conformity results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome.

Consensual Positive Validation

The process through which individuals seek validation and approval for their beliefs or actions from others, typically within a social group that shares similar views.

Fear of Death

A common anxiety that involves dread or apprehension about the prospect of dying or the process of dying.