Question

A small, privately-owned Asian company is producing a private-label soft drink Yoggo. A machine paced line puts the soft drinks into plastic bottles and then packages the bottles into boxes holding 10 bottles each. The machine paced line is comprised of the following 4 steps:Step 1 Bottling machine takes 1 second to fill a bottleStep 2 The lid machine takes 3 seconds to cover the bottle with a lidStep 3 A labelling machine takes 5 seconds to apply a label to the bottleStep 4 The packaging machine takes 4 seconds to place a bottle into a boxWhen a box has been filled with 10 bottles, a worker tending the packaging machine removes the filled box and replaces it with an empty box. Assume that the time for the worker to remove the filled box and replace it with an empty box is negligible and hence does not affect the capacity of the line. At step 3, there are two labeling machines that each process alternating bottles. That is, the first machine processes bottles 1,3,5 etc and the second machine processes 2,4,6 etc.Problem data are summarized in the table:Process step: Bottling# of machines: 1 Second per bottle: 1Process step: Apply a lid # of machines: 1 Second per bottle: 3Process step: Labeling # of machines: 2 Seconds per bottle: 5Process step: Packaging # of machines: 1 Second per bottle: 4a) What is the processing capacity (bottles/hr) for the machine paced line?b) What is the bottleneck in the process?c) If one identical labelling machine is added to the process, how much is the increase in the processing capacity going to be (in terms of bottles/hr)?

Answer 1

Answer:

A. 15 per min or 900 bottles per hour

B. Station 4

C. No increase

Explanation:

a) Calculation to determine the processing capacity (bottles/hr) for the machine paced line

Output of station 1 = 60 /1

Output of station 1 = 60 per minutes

Output of station 2 = 60/3

Output of station 2 =20 per minute

Output of station 3 = 2x 60/5

Output of station 3 =24per minute

Output of station 4 = 60/4

Output of station 4=15 per minute

Based on the above calculation the PROCESS CAPACITY  of the machine paced line will either be  15 per minute or 900 bottles per hour (15minx60)

b)The BOTTLENECK  in the process will be STATION 4

c) In a situation were an identical labelling machine is been  added to the process there won't be any  increase in the processing capacity in terms of bottles/hr reason been that the bottleneck is not the labelling machine.