Assignment 5

Operations management

Soha hashmi

Sec K

Theory of Constraints

Read the article "theory of constraints" and write the key take away from the paper.
Furthermore, discuss how in this case study author has applied theory of constraints on the
bottlenecks of the manufacturing facility. What implications were discussed?

Answer: The theory of constraints views manufacturing processes/organizations as “chains”,

wherein the entire system is only as strong as its weakest link. The purpose of TOC is to
identify the weak link (constraint) within an organization and to strengthen this link to the
point where it is no longer the limiting factor in determining the strength of the chain (or
organization). The TOC process emphasizes the need to maximize throughput and focuses on
identifying and managing the constraints that can reduce the amount of throughput a
company is able to achieve. The company is a first tier supplier to heavy-duty truck and
trailer manufacturers and to the replacement components market. Its products are tail, marker,
interior, auxiliary and head light assemblies for heavy-duty trucks and trailers. There are two
technology streams in the heavy-duty vehicle lighting systems market, consisting of the older
technology incandescent lighting systems and the newer technology light emitting diode
(LED) systems. The company competes in both markets. Despite the fact that many of the
company’s products appear to be quite similar, the manufacturing processes required to make
these products can be slightly different, depending on the required light output and the
volumes in which the products are produced. For instance, a specific light emitting diode
(LED) tail lamp (which can be found on over 60 percent of the trailers on the road today)
utilizes a great deal of automated assembly, whereas a side marker light that is a custom
design for a specific truck original equipment manufacturer (OEM) generally utilizes very
little automated assembly. In terms of light output, some products have much higher
photometric requirements (measurement of the amount of light that a lamp generates) than
others, and therefore it is necessary to vacuum metalize the reflectors to increase their
reflectivity. Vacuum metalizing is a process wherein a thin layer of metal (aluminum in this
case) is deposited on the surface of a plastic part, giving it a mirror-like appearance. This
mirrorized surface is much more reflective than a polished plastic surface, and thus reflects
much more light, making the lamp brighter. The manufacturing process generally begins with
raw plastic materials being injection molded to form the basic plastic lens and housing
components that make up the lamps. After molding, the parts are then transferred to the
assembly area of the plant where they undergo secondary processes (as required) such as
coating, vacuum metalizing, and painting. It is also in this secondary process stage that sub-
assemblies are sometimes made which will be used in final assembly. For a typical light
assembly, the lens does not require additional processing. However, the housing must be
vacuum metalized before final assembly. The final stage of the manufacturing process is final
assembly, where molded components are joined with purchased components to form the
finished assembly. Purchased items generally include circuit boards, LEDs, light bulbs, wire
connectors, wire harnesses and miscellaneous sub-assemblies. For a typical product, the
purchased components are a gasket, light bulbs and the wire harness. It is in the final
assembly stage that the lens and housing are vibration welded together and the remaining
components are assembled and packaged for shipment to the customer. The plant has been
struggling to complete customer orders on time due to the large number of relatively low
volume customer orders that it has to fill. While completing orders on time has always been a
challenge, the problem seems to have grown worse in the past year as the business has
continued to grow, but largely with more of the short-run products. The major problem that
arises is the set-up time that is required to keep the production process running smoothly.
This problem will be described using a typical light assembly. The first step in the production
sequence is the receipt of a purchase order (PO) from a customer. A typical order quantity
consists of 1,000 pieces. Once the 1,000-piece PO has been entered, the next step is to
schedule the injection molding of the component parts, which in this case are the lens and
housing. Due to the nature of the injection molding process, each of these components is
produced in a single mold that runs in a single injection molding machine. This is where the
bottleneck occurs, because of the number of components that are required (some products
require four to six different molded components) and the set-up times that are associated with
each component. The bottlenecks result due to the fact that the production runs are not evenly
distributed throughout the day, creating instances where several set-ups are required in a very
short period of time. The final step of the TOC implementation process was to determine
whether the system’s constraints had been broken. Due to the implementation of the action
items listed above, the constraint was in fact broken. Molding set-ups no longer limit
throughput within the plant. The improvements have resulted in a 26 percent decrease in the
amount of time that is required for a PM to complete a mold change. The overall result is that
the constraint that hampered efficiency and productivity at the plant has been eliminated.