AUTOMATION
Worked out Problems
1. A CNC grinding section has a large number of machines devoted to grinding of shafts
for the automotive industry. The grinding machine cycle takes 3.6 min. At the end of this
cycle an operator must be present to unload and load parts, which takes 40 sec.
Determine how many grinding machines the worker can service if it takes 40 sec. to walk
between the machines and no machine idle time is allowed.(b) How many seconds during
the work cycle is the worker idle? c) What is the hourly production rate of this machine
cluster?
2. A total of 800 shafts must be produced in the lathe section of the machine shop
during a particular week. Each shaft is identical and requires a machine cycle
time Tc = 11.5 min. All of these in the departments are equivalent in terms of
their capability to produce the shaft in the specified cycle time. How many lathes
must be devoted to shaft production during the given week, if there are 40 hr of
available time on each lathe.
3. A certain part is produced in a batch size of 50 units and requires a sequence of eight
operations in the plant. The average setup time is 3hr, and the average operation time per
machine is 6 min. The average non-operation time due to handling, delays, inspections,
and so on, is 7hr.Compute how many days it will take to produce a batch, assuming that
the plant operates on a 7-hr shift per day.
4. A production machine is operated 65hr/week at full capacity. Its production rate is 20
units/hr. During a certain week, the machine produced 1000 good parts and was idle the
remaining time. a) Determine the production capacity of the machine b) What was the
utilization of the machine during the week under consideration?
5. The average part produced in a certain batch manufacturing plant must be processed
through an average of six machines. There are 20 new batches of parts launched each
week. Other pertinent data are as follows:
Average operation time = 6hr
Average setup time = 5hr
Average batch size = 25 parts
Average non-operation time per batch = 10hr
There are 18 machines in the plant. The plant operates an average of 70
production hours per week. Scrap rate is negligible.
a) Determine the manufacturing lead time for an average part.
b) Determine the plant capacity.
c) Determine the plant utilization.
6. Based on the data provided in the above problem, determine
a) the average level of work -in-process (number of parts -in-process) in the plant
b) the WIP ratio c) the TIP ratio
7. A total of 800 shafts must be produced in the lathe section of the machine shop during
a particular week. The shafts are of 20 different types, each type being produced in
its own batch. Average batch size is 40 parts. Each batch requires a setup and the
average setup time is 3.5 hr. The average machine cycle time to produce a shaft Tc =
11.5 min. How many lathes are required during the week?
8. A machine shop contains many CNC lathes that operate on a semi-automatic
machining cycle under part program control. A significant number of these
machines produce the same part, whose machining cycle time = 2.75 min. One
worker is required to perform unloading and loading of parts at the end of each
machining cycle. This takes 25 sec. Determine how many machines one worker
can service if it takes an average of 20 sec to walk between the machines and no
machine idle time is allowed?
9. The mean time between failures for a certain production machine is 250hr, and
the mean time to repair is 6hr.Determine the availability of the machine.
10. A certain part is routed through six months in a batch production plant. The setup
and operation times for machine are given in the following table:
Machine Setup time (h) Operation time (min)
1 4 5.0
2 2 3.5
3 8 10.0
4 3 1.9
5 3 4.1
6 4 2.5
The batch size is 100 and the average non-operation time per machine is 12hr.
a) Determine the manufacturing lead time.
b) Determine the production rate for operation 3.
Suggested Brief Answers:
Ans 1 a) Tm = 3.6 minutes; Ts = 40 seconds; Tr = 40 seconds
n = (3.6(60)+40) / (40+40) = 3.2 machines
n = 3 machines (rounded down so machines do not idle)
b) Total machine and service time = [(3.6)(60)+40] = 256 seconds.
Total service and repositioning time = 3[40 + 40] = 240 seconds.
Hence, the operator has 256-240 = 16 seconds idle per cycle.
(Hourly production rate) = Rp = n/ Tp = (3 / 256) pc/sec = 3(14.06) pc/hr = 42.2 pc/hr
Ans 2
The workload consists of 800 shafts at 11.5 min/shaft
WL = 800(11.5 min) = 9200 min = 153.33 hr.
Available Time = 40 hr , n=153.33 /40 = 3.83 lathes
Ans 3 anufacturing lead time is
MLT= nm (Tsu+ To+ Tno)
= 8(3 + 50(0.1)+ 7) = 120 hr
At 7 hr per day, then 120/7= 17.14 days
Ans 4 The capacity of the machine can be determined using the assumed 65 hr
PC= 65(20) = 1300 units/week
The utilization can be determined as the ratio of the number of parts made during productive use
of the machine relative to its capacity.
U= 1000/1300 = 0.7692=76.92%
To produce 1000 units, the machine was operated, H= 1000/20=50hr
Ans 5 MLT= 6(5+(6/60)(36)+ 10) = 111.6 hr
Plant Capacity = WSwHRp/n
Tp= 6/60+5/36=0.238 hr
Rp = 1/Tp= 4.186 part/hr
PC= 18(70)(4.186)/6= 879 part/week
Utilization = no. of parts produced/ plant capacity = 20(36)/880=81.81%
The above mentioned problems are referred from the below text books. I am thankful for
the authors.
References
1. Automation, Production Systems, and Computer Integrated Manufacturing by Mikell
P.Groover.
2. CAD/CAM by C.S.P Rao
3. Systems approach to Computer Design and Integrated Manufacturing by Nauna Singh.
