WS & ME (2020) 5th Semester IQTM

Line Balancing and Labor

Productivity – Practice Questions
Q 4. 1 (Empty System, Labor Utilization) Consider a process consisting of three resources in a
worker-paced line and a wage rate of $10 per hour. Assume there is unlimited demand
for the product.

Resource Activity Time (minutes) Number of Workers

1 10 02
2 06 01
3 16 03

a) How long does it take the process to produce 100 units starting with an empty
system? (Ans. 626 minutes)
b) What is the average labor content? (Ans. 32 minutes/unit)
c) What is the average labor utilization? (Ans. 88.88%)
d) What is the cost of direct labor? (Ans. $6/unit)

Q 4.2 (Assign Tasks to Workers) Consider the following six tasks that must be assigned to four
workers on a conveyor-paced assembly line (i.e., a machine-paced line flow). Each
worker must perform at least one task:

Time to Complete Task (seconds)

Task 1 30
Task 2 25
Task 3 35
Task 4 40
Task 5 15
Task 6 30

The current conveyor-paced assembly line configuration assigns the workers in the following
way:
 Worker 1: Task 1
 Worker 2: Task 2
 Worker 3: Task 3, 4
 Worker 4: Task 5, 6
a) What is the capacity of the current line? (Ans. 48 units/hour)
b) Now assume that tasks are allocated to maximize capacity of the line, subject to the
conditions that (1) a worker can only perform two adjacent operations and (2) all
tasks need to be done in their numerical order. What is the capacity of this line
now? (Ans. 65.45 units/hour)
c) Now assume that tasks are allocated to maximize capacity of the line and that tasks
can be performed in any order. What is the maximum capacity that can be
achieved? (Ans. 65.45 units/hour)

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Q 4. 3 (PowerToys) PowerToys Inc. produces a small remote-controlled toy truck on a

conveyor belt with nine stations. Each station has, under the current process layout,
one worker assigned to it. Stations and processing times are summarized in the
following table:

Station Task Processing Times (seconds)

1 Mount battery units 75
2 Insert remote control receiver 85
3 Insert chip 90
4 Mount front axle 65
5 Mount back axle 70
6 Install electric motor 55
7 Connect motor to battery unit 80
8 Connect motor to rear axle 65
9 Mount plastic body 80

a) What is the bottleneck in this process? (Ans. Station 3)

b) What is the capacity, in toy trucks per hour, of the assembly line? (Ans. 40
units/hour)
c) What is the direct labor cost for the toy truck with the current process if each
worker receives $15/hour, expressed in dollars per toy truck? (Ans. $3.38/truck)
d) What would be the direct labor cost for the toy truck if work would be organized in
a work cell, that is, one worker performs all tasks? Assume that the activity times
would remain unchanged (i.e., there are no specialization gains). ($2.77/truck)
e) What is the utilization of the worker in station 2? (Ans. 94.4%)

Because of a drastically reduced forecast, the plant management has decided to cut
staffing from nine to six workers per shift. Assume that (i) the nine tasks in the above
table cannot be divided; (ii) the nine tasks are assigned to the six workers in the most
efficient way possible; and (iii) if one worker is in charge of two tasks, the tasks have to
be adjacent (i.e., one worker cannot work on tasks 1 and 3).
f) How would you assign the nine tasks to the six workers?
g) What is the new capacity of the line (in toy trucks per hour)? (Ans. 24.83
units/hour)

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Q 4.4 (12 Tasks to 4 Workers) Consider the following tasks that must be assigned to four
workers on a conveyor-paced assembly line (i.e., a machine-paced line flow). Each
worker must perform at least one task. There is unlimited demand.

Time to Complete Task (seconds)

Task 1 30
Task 2 25
Task 3 15
Task 4 20
Task 5 15
Task 6 20
Task 7 50
Task 8 15
Task 9 20
Task 10 25
Task 11 15
Task 12 20

The current conveyor-paced assembly-line configuration assigns the workers in the following
way:

o Worker 1: Tasks 1, 2, 3
o Worker 2: Tasks 4, 5, 6
o Worker 3: Tasks 7, 8, 9
o Worker 4: Tasks 10, 11, 12

a) What is the capacity of the current line? (Ans. 42.35 units/hour)

b) What is the direct labor content? (Ans. 270 sec/unit)
c) What is the average labor utilization (do not consider any transient effect such as the
line being emptied before breaks or shift changes)? (Ans. 79.41%)
d) How long would it take to produce 100 units, starting with an empty system? (Ans. 2.43
hours)

The firm is hiring a fifth worker. Assume that tasks are allocated to the five workers to
maximize capacity of the line, subject to the conditions that (i) a worker can only
perform adjacent operations and (ii) all tasks need to be done in their numerical order.
e) What is the capacity of this line now? (Possible Ans. 51.43 units/hour)

Again, assume the firm has hired a fifth worker. Assume further that tasks are allocated
to maximize capacity of the line and that tasks can be performed in any order.
f) What is the maximum capacity that can be achieved? (Possible Ans. 65.45 units/hour)
g) What is the minimum number of workers that could produce at an hourly rate of 72
units? Assume the tasks can be allocated to workers as described in the beginning (i.e.,
tasks cannot be done in any order). (Ans. 8 workers)

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Q 4. 5 (Geneva Watch) The Geneva Watch Corporation manufactures watches on a conveyor

belt with six stations. One worker stands at each station and performs the following
tasks:

Station Task Processing Times

(seconds)
A: Preparation 1 Heat-stake lens to bezel 14
Inspect bezel 26
Clean switch holes 10
Install set switch in bezel 18
Total time for A 68
B: Preparation 2 Check switch travel 23
Clean inside bezel 12
Install module in bezel 25
Total time for B 60

C: Battery installation Install battery clip on module 20

Heat-stake battery clip on module 15
Install 2 batteries in module 22
Check switch 13
Total time for C 70

D: Band installation Install band 45

Inspect band 13
Total time for D 58

E: Packaging preparation Cosmetic inspection 20

Final test 55
Total time for E 75

F: Watch packaging Place watch and cuff in display box 20

Place cover in display box base 14
Place owner’s manual, box into tub 30
Total time for F 64

These six workers begin their workday at 08:00 a.m. and work steadily until 04:00 p.m.
At 04:00, no new watch parts are introduced into station A and the conveyor belt
continues until all of the work-in-process inventory has been processed and leaves
station F. Thus each morning the workers begin with an empty system.
a) What is the bottleneck in this process? (Ans. Station E)
b) What is the capacity, in watches per hour, of the assembly line (ignore the time it
takes for the first watch to come off the line)? (Ans. 48 watches/hour)
c) What is the direct labor content for the processes on this conveyor belt? (Ans. 395
sec.)
d) What is the utilization of the worker in station B (ignore the time it takes for the
first watch to come off the line)? (Ans. 80%)

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e) How many minutes of the idle time will the worker in station C have in one hour
(ignore the time it takes for the first watch to come off the line)? (Ans. 4
minutes/hour)
f) What time will it be (within one minute) when the assembly line has processed 193
watches on any given day? (Ans. 12:07:30)

Q 4. 6 (Yoggo Soft Drink) 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 four steps: (1) the bottling machine takes 1 second to fill a
bottle, (2) the lid machine takes 3 seconds to cover the bottle with a lid, (3) a labeling
machine takes 5 seconds to apply a label to a bottle, and (4) the packaging machine
takes 4 seconds to place a bottle into a box. When a box has been filled with 10 bottles,
a worker attending the packaging machine removes the filled box and replaces it with
an empty box. Assume that the time for the worker to remove a 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, … and the second machine processes bottles 2,
4, 6, … Problem data are summarized in the table below:

Process Step Number of Machines Second per Bottle

Bottling 01 01
Applying a lid 01 03
Labeling 02 05
Packaging 01 04

a) What is the process capacity (bottles/hour) for the machine paced line? (Ans. 900
bottles/hour)
b) What is the bottleneck in the process? (Ans. The packaging machine)
c) If one more identical labeling machine is added to the process, how much is the
increase in the process capacity going to be (in terms of bottles/hour)? (Ans. Nil)
d) What is the implied utilization of the packaging machine if the demand rate is 60
boxes/hour? Recall that a box consists of 10 bottles. (Ans. 66.67%)

Q 4. 7 (Atlas Inc.) Atlas Inc. is a toy bicycle manufacturing company producing a five inch small
version of the bike that Lance Armstrong rode to win his first Tour de France. The
assembly line at Atlas Inc. consists of seven work stations, each performing a single
step. Stations and processing times are summarized below:

 Step 1 (30 sec.): The plastic tube for the frame is cut to size.
 Step 2 (20 sec.): The tube is put together.
 Step 3 (35 sec.): The frame is glued together.
 Step 4 (25 sec.): The frame is cleaned.
 Step 5 (30 sec.): Paint is sprayed onto the frame.
 Step 6 (45 sec.): Wheels are assembled.
 Step 7 (40 sec.): All other parts are assembled to the frame.
Under the current process layout, workers are allocated to the stations as shown below:

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 WS & ME (2020) 5th Semester IQTM

 Worker 1: Steps 1, 2
 Worker 2: Steps 3, 4
 Worker 3: Step 5
 Worker 4: Step 6
 Worker 5: Step 7

a) What is the bottleneck in this process? (Ans. Worker 2)

b) What is the capacity of the assembly line, in finished units/hour? (Ans. 60
units/hour)
c) What is the utilization of worker 4, ignoring the production of the first and last
units? (Ans. 75%)
d) How long does it take to finish production of 100 units, starting with an empty
process? (Ans. 102.75 minutes)
e) What is the average labor utilization of the workers, ignoring the production of the
first and last units? (Ans. 75%)
f) Assume the workers are paid $15 per hour. What is the cost of direct labor for the
bicycle? (Ans. $1.25/unit)
g) Based on recommendations of a consultant, Atlas Inc. decides to reallocate the
tasks among the workers to achieve maximum process capacity. Assume that if a
worker is in charge of two tasks, then the tasks have to be adjacent to each other.
Also, assume that the sequence of steps cannot be changed. What is the maximum
possible capacity, in units per hour, that can be achieved by this reallocation? (Ans.
65.5 units/hour)
h) Again, assume a wage rate of $15 per hour. What would be the cost of direct labor
if one single worker would perform all seven steps? You can ignore benefits of
specialization, set-up times, or quality problems. (Ans. $0.9375/unit)
i) On account of a reduced demand forecast, management has decided to let go of
one worker. If work is to be allocated among the four workers such that (i) the
tasks can’t be divided, (ii) if one worker is in charge of two tasks, the tasks have to
be adjacent, (iii) the tasks are assigned in the most efficient way and (iv) each step
can only be carried out by one worker, what is the new capacity of the line (in
finished units/hour)? (Ans. 48 units/hour)

Q 4. 8 (Worker-Paced Line)

Process Process Process Process Process

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5

U1 U2 U3 U4 U5

The above diagram depicts a five-step, worker-paced headphone manufacturing plant.

The headphones are meant to be used with Walkmans and personal CD players. Step 1
involves a worker bending a metal strip into an arc shape. In step 2, the metal arc is
fitted with a plastic sleeve. In step 3, the headphones are fitted at the end of the metal
and plastic strips. In step 4, the wires are soldered into the headphones. Step 5

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involves a specially designed packaging unit. After the plant has been operational for a
couple of hours, the manager inspects the plant. He is particularly interested in cutting
labor costs. He observes the following. The process is capacity constrained and the
entire process produces 36 units in one hour. U1 through U5 denote the utilization at
steps 1 through 5 respectively. Currently, there is a single worker at each step and the
utilizations are as follows:

U1 = 4/30, U2 = 4/15, U3 = 4/5, U4 = 1, U5 = 2/5.

Answer the following questions based on the above data and information.

a) What is the capacity of step 5? (Ans. 90 units/hour)

b) Which step is the bottleneck? (Ans. Step 4)
c) Which process step has the highest capacity? (Ans. Step 1)
d) If the wage rate is $36 per hour per person, what is the direct labor cost per unit?
(Ans. $5/unit)

Q 4.9 (Glove Design Challenge) A manufacturer of women’s designer gloves has employed a
team of MBA students to redesign his manufacturing unit. They gathered the following
information. The manufacturing process consists of four activities: (1) fabric cutting; (2)
dyeing; (3) stitching, done by specially designed machines; and (4) packaging. Activity
times are shown below. Gloves are moved between activities by a conveyor belt that
paces the flow of work (machine-paced line).

Process Step Number of Machines Minutes per Glove

Cutting 01 02
Dyeing 01 04
Stitching 01 03
Packaging 01 05

a) What is the process capacity in gloves/hour? (Ans. 12 gloves/hour)

b) Which one of the following statements is true?
i) The capacity of the process increases by reducing the dyeing time.
ii) If stitching time increases to 5 min./glove, the capacity of the process remains
unchanged, but “time through an empty machine-paced process” increases.
iii) By reducing packaging time, the process capacity increases.
iv) By reducing cutting time, the capacity of the process increases.
c) What is the implied utilization of the packaging machine if the demand rate is 10
gloves/hour? (Ans. 83.3%)
d) What is the flow time for a glove? (Ans. 20 minutes)

**Happy Learning**

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