Question

There are four steps in the manufacturing process of a stuffed toy: cutting, stuffing, sealing, and packaging. There are two employees each for cutting and stuffing but one each for sealing and packaging. The processing times of cutting, stuffing, sealing, and packaging are 8, 5, 3, and 2 seconds per toy per employee.a) What is the cycle time for stage "cutting" (in [min/unit])?b) What is the cycle time for stage "sealing" (in [min/unit])?c) Which stage is the bottleneck? What is the process capacity in [units/hour]?d) If you can add one employee in parallel at the bottleneck stage, what should be the capacity of a new employee so that you increase the process capacity as much as possible?

Answer 1

Answer:

(a) 2min/15units

(b) 1min/20units

(c) The bottleneck stage is cutting. The process capacity is 450units/hour

(d) The capacity of the new employee should be 1unit/2sec. The process capacity will increase four times

Step-by-step explanation:

(a) Cycle time for stage cutting for 2 employees = 16sec/2units × 1min/60sec = 2min/15units

(b) Cycle time for stage sealing for 1 employee = 3sec/1unit × 1min/60sec = 1min/20units

(c) Process capacity of stage cutting = 15units/2min × 60min/1hour = 450units/hour

(d) If the capacity of the new employee is 1unit/2sec, the process capacity = 1unit/2sec × 3600sec/1hour = 1800units/hour. The process capacity increases 4 times (1800/450 = 4)