Question

A plant operates on Just-in-Time/lean principles. The total production requirements for next three days are 3000 units of X, 300 units of Y, and 1200 units of Z. Assume that the plant has enough capacity to produce all of the units within the three-day period. Which one of the following plans best represents uniform plant loading for this plant?
a. Produce 3000 units of X on day 1, 300 units of Y on day 2, and then 1200 units of Z on day 3.
b. Produce 3000 units of X first, then 300 units of Y, and then 1200 units of Z during the three-day period.
c. Produce 1500 units of X on day 1, 1500 units of X on day 2, and then 300 units of Y and 1200 units of Z on day 3.
d. none of the choices are correct

Answer 1

Answer:

Just-in-Time/Lean Principles

The plan that best represents uniform plant loading for this plant is:

c. Produce 1500 units of X on day 1, 1500 units of X on day 2, and then 300 units of Y and 1200 units of Z on day 3.

Explanation:

a) Data and Calculations:

Total production requirements               Product X   Product Y   Product Z

for the next three days at the factory       3,000         300             1,200

Uniform plant loading plan:

Day 1                                                             1,500             0                    0

Day 2                                                            1,500             0                    0

Day 3                                                                   0        300             1,200

Total production on the three days          3,000        300              1,200

b) The uniform plant loading plan within the just-in-time or lean production environment ensures that wastes and disruptions are minimized.  It reduces inventory of raw materials, work-in-process, and finished goods, and loss due to production stoppages and setups.  Operating on this just-in-time principle, production of product X will continue from Day 1 through Day 2, while production of products Y and Z will take place on Day 3, with the same quantity of products produced each day.