Chapter 4 Process Analysis

CHAPTER 5 PROCESS ANALYSIS
Review and Discussion Questions

1. Compare McDonald's old and new processes for making hamburgers. How valid is McDonald's claim that the new process will produce fresher hamburgers for the customers? Comparing McDonald's new process to the processes used by Burger King and Wendy's, which process would appear to produce the freshest hamburgers? Exhibit 5.2 illustrates the various processes. McDonald's old process was a make-to-stock, where orders were pulled from finished goods. However, McDonald's new process will assemble-to-order. Therefore, McDonald's claim of a fresher hamburger should hold. Burger King's process is a combination of McDonald's old and new processes. The best Burger King can hope to do is match McDonald's with their orders that are assembled-to-order. The ones that are taken from finished goods will generally not be as fresh. Wendy's, on the other hand, should beat both McDonald's and Burger King on freshness, since they cook-to-order (Make-to-order)! 2. State in your own words what Little's Law means. Think of an example that you have observed where Little's Law applies. Little's Law shows the relationship between throughput rate, throughput time, and the amount of workin-process inventory. Specifically, it is throughput time equals amount of work-in-process inventory divided by the throughput rate. Little's Law is useful for examining the performance of a process. Example 5.1, bread-making operation, illustrate an application of Little Law. 3. Explain how having more work-in-process inventory can improve the efficiency of a process? How can this ever be bad? More work-in-process inventory can be used to buffer multiple stage processes. Specifically, it can help with blocking or starving. Blocking is when the activities in the stage must stop because there is no place to deposit the item just completed. Starving is when the activities in a stage must stop because there is no work. Buffer inventories between operations can help relieve these problems, and improve the efficiency of the overall process. Increasing work-in-process inventory can be bad in that it involves more investment in inventory, as well as taking-up valuable floor space. Also, the JIT philosophy view work-in-process as being negative for a variety of reasons (more on JIT in a later chapter). 4. Recently some Operations Management experts have begun insisting that simple minimizing process velocity, which actually means minimizing the time that it takes to process something through the system, is the single most important measure for improving a process. Can you think of a situation when this might not be true? The problem with focusing exclusively on process velocity is that other dimensions might be ignored, such as quality or safety. There are many examples. One would be if drying time was reduced, this might impact the quality of the process. Another example would be whiskey, reducing the aging time would probably impact its quality.
63
Chapter 5
Problems
Problem 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Type of Problem Process Analysis Difficulty New Problem Modified Problem Check Figure in Appendix H
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Easy Easy Moderate Moderate Moderate Moderate Moderate Moderate Moderate
Yes Yes
Yes Yes
1.
Traditional method: 20 minutes setup plus 10 companies times 2 minutes per company. 20 + (10*2) = 40 minutes. Alternative method: 1 minute setup plus 10 companies times 5 minutes per company. 1 + (10*5) = 51 minutes. Therefore, the traditional method is best.
2.
The longest process on this "assembly line" will govern the output. Therefore, the maximum output from this line will be: Output = available time/cycle time = (40 hours per week)*(60 minutes per hour)/1.5 minutes per student = 1,600 students per week. Therefore, this line cannot produce the 2,000 students per week.
3. a. The market can only be served at 3 gal/hr, while raw material is received at 4 gal/hr. Consequently, there is a 1gal/hr build-up of WIP in the bathtub. After 50 hours (50 gal bathtub/1 gal per hour build-up), the bathtub will overflow. b. The average amount being supplied is only 2.5 gal/hr, so that is the output rate. The market will be shy by .5 gal/hr, and a stock-out will occur within each 2 hour cycle.
4. a. One operator per project: 10 projects per day/8 hours per day = 1.25 projects/hour. The productivity of this option is also 1.25 projects/hour. For the two operator approach,
64
Process Analysis
the second operator will limit the system to a rate of 2 projects/hour (this assumes 30 minutes per project). The first operator would be idle for an average of 10 minutes each project. The productivity for the two operator approach is 2 projects per hour/2 hours of labor = 1 project/hour. b. With the one operator, 1000 projects would take 1000 projects/1.25 project per hour = 800 hours or 100 days. With two operators, it would take 1000 projects/2 projects per hour = 500 hours or 62.5 days. The labor content for the first option is 800 hours. The second option requires 1000 hours of labor.
5. Current plans are to make 100 units of component A, then 100 units of component B, then 100 units of component A, then 100 units of component B, etc, where the setup and run times for each component are given below.
Component A B
Setup / Changeover Time 5 minutes 10 minutes
Run Time/unit 0.2 minutes 0.1 minutes
Assume the packaging of the two components is totally automated and only takes 2 seconds per unit of the final product. This packaging time is small enough that you can ignore it. What is the average hourly output, in terms of the number of units of packaged product (which includes 1 component A and 1 component B)? 5 + 10 + .2(100) + .1(100) = 15 + 30 = 45 minutes/100 units 45/100 = 60/X X = 133.3 units/hr.
65
Chapter 5
6.
A B C X L K J Y Z
Given the following amount of work in seconds required at each station: A B C a. (8 X 60 X 60)/38 = 757 b. Efficiency: 263/ (9 X 38) = 76.9% c. 6 x 38 = 228 seconds
7.
38 34 35
J K L
32 30 34
X Y Z
22 18 20
a.
Take Order = 100 per hour * 12 hours = 1200 Pick Order = 80 per hour * 24 hours = 1920 Pack Order = 60 per hour * 24 hours = 1440 Maximum output is determined by order taking (1200) since the pick and pack operations can work up to 24 hours to clear out their order backlog.
b.
If we take the maximum of 1200 orders then: Pick Order = 1200 orders/80 per hour = 15 hours Pack Order = 1200 orders/60 per hour = 20 hours
c.
Orders can be taken at a rate of 100/hours and can be picked at the rate of 80/hour so they build at the rate of 20/hour. Orders are taken for 12 hours. Maximum orders waiting for picking = 20/hour * 12 hours = 240
66
Process Analysis
d.
Orders can be picked at a rate of 80/hours and can be packed at the rate of 60/hour so they build at the rate of 20/hour. Orders are picked for 15 hours. Maximum orders waiting for packing= 20/hour * 15 hours = 300
e.
(b. revisited) If we take the maximum of 1200 orders then: Pick Order = 1200 orders/80 per hour = 15 hours Pack Order = 1200 orders/120 per hour = 10 hours However, Packing has to wait for the orders to be picked so it would be 15 hours (c. revisited) This answer does not change. Orders can be taken at a rate of 100/hours and can be picked at the rate of 80/hour so they build at the rate of 20/hour. Orders are taken for 12 hours. Maximum orders waiting for picking = 20/hour * 12 hours = 240 (d. revisited) Orders can be picked at a rate of 80/hours and can be packed at the rate of 120/hour so they build at the rate of 0/hour. Orders are picked for 15 hours. Maximum orders waiting for packing= 0/hour * 15 hours = 0
67
Chapter 5 8.
a.
The maximum capacity at National State would be (8 tellers * 60 minutes)/5 minutes per customer or 96 customers per hour.
b. c.
We can not handle all the customers by 5:00 pm (see table below). The last customers are processed after National State closes their doors at 5:00 but they will be done at 5:05. The maximum waiting time is 12.5 minutes (see table below) and it occurs from 4:40 4:45.
Customers Arriving During Period (Cumulative) 2 5(7) 6(13) 8(21) 10(31) 12(43) 16(59) 12(71) 10(81) 6(87) 4(91) 2(93) 0(93) Customers Departing During Period (Cumulative) 2(2) 5(7) 6(13) 8(21) 8(29) 8(37) 8(45) 8(53) 8(61) 8(69) 8(77) 8(85) 8(93) Customers at Teller or Waiting 2 5 6 8 10 14 22 26 28 26 22 16 8 Customers Waiting at end of Period 0 0 0 0 2 6 14 18 20 18 14 8 0
Time 4:00 - 4:05 4:05 - 4:10 4:10 - 4:15 4:15 - 4:20 4:20 - 4:25 4:25 - 4:30 4:30 - 4:35 4:35 - 4:40 4:40 - 4:45 4:45 - 4:50 4:50 - 4:55 4:55 - 5:00 5:00 - 5:05
Expected Waiting Time* 0 0 0 0 1.25 3.75 8.75 11.25 12.50 11.25 8.75 5.00 0
* Waiting time is customers waiting * .625 minutes. A customer should complete service every . 625 minutes (5 minutes service/8 tellers)
9. The expected output is 3.5 professors per hour (the average of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, the individual output rates). But, after simulating this process, the actual output would be less due to the starving that takes place in the system.
68

Chapter 4 Process Analysis

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CHAPTER 5 PROCESS ANALYSIS

Review and Discussion Questions

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Easy Easy Moderate Moderate Moderate Moderate Moderate Moderate Moderate

Setup / Changeover Time 5 minutes 10 minutes

Run Time/unit 0.2 minutes 0.1 minutes

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