Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Practice Problems Process Analysis
Question 1:
Consider the following process flow diagram. There are two identical machines W1 and W2 in parallel at
stage 1, machine M1 at stage 2, then a buffer (F), then machine D1 at stage 3 followed by machines G1 and
G2 in parallel at stage 4.
W1 G1
9 min 8 min
M1 D1
6 min F 5 min
W2 G2
9 min 12min
(a) What is the minimum throughput time ?
(b) What is the hourly capacity for each stage (round off to 2 decimal places)?
(c) Identify the bottleneck stage and the process capacity.
(d) Suppose you can add only one machine in parallel at the bottleneck stage. A machine with higher
capacity costs more. You want to buy the least expensive machine. What should be the cycle time for
the new machine so that you increase the process capacity as much as possible?
Question 2:
For the process shown below:
M3
12 min
M1 M2 M4 M6
3 min 5 min 10 min 4 min
M5
15 min
(a) What is the minimum TT?
(b) What is the cycle time at Stage 3 in min / unit?
(c) What stage is the bottleneck?
Question 3:
Consider the assembly process shown to
the right involving two parts X and Y. Times
are in seconds. There is one worker each at M1 M2
M1, M2, R1, R2 and A1. X 10 8
Station 1 Station 2
(a) What is the cycle time of station 3? A1
(b) What is the capacity of the entire 15
process in units per hour? R1
(c) What is the minimum throughput time Station 4
30
of the complete process? Explain.
Y Station 3
R2
20
Question 4:
A process is divided into 4 stages as shown.
M1
10 min
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3
Stage 4
5 min 4 min
3.5 min
M2
8 min
(a) What is the minimum throughput time?
(b) What is the hourly capacity for each stage (round of to 2 decimal places)?
(c) What is the capacity utilization of the overall process, if the workload = 8.4 units/hr
Question 5:
Luis Poisson is a Paris‐based manufacturer of luxury leather bags. The manufacturing process for their new
flagship product is composed of 5 fully automated stations, as illustrated in figure 1 below. The theoretical
processing times (in minutes) for all the machines used in each of the 5 stations are also reported in the
figure.
Figure 1: Luis Poisson’s manufacturing process
1. What is the average Throughput Rate of the process (in units/hour)?
2. What is the Minimum Throughput Time (in minutes)?
3. Which station is the process bottleneck?
Question 6:
Consider a company that produces scooters. The company produces the steer supports and ribs on the
same machine, and it takes 0.5 minutes to produce a rib (two ribs per scooter), and one minute to produce
one steer support unit (one per scooter). It takes 45 minutes to change over the milling machine from
producing steer support to producing ribs, and 35 minutes to change over from ribs to steer supports.
a) What is the capacity of the milling machine, if the company produces in batches of 60 scooters per
batch? If the company produces in batches of 120? What is the tradeoff between producing 120
rather than 60 scooters per batch?
b) After the milling process, the firm needs to assemble the scooter. The processing time of the assembly
operation (overall) is 3.333 minutes per unit and assembly works at one unit at a time (no batches, not
setup times). What batch size would you recommend for the milling machine, if the company can sell
as many scooters as it can produce?
Question 7:
Consider again the scooter example, but assume that the company bought a second milling machine and is
now producing ribs on one machine and steer support on the other milling machine. The reason for this
investment was the increase in demand after the introduction of another product, Scooter2, which is
targeted at the high end market. The process now looks as follows:
Milling of ribs
Assembly Process
Milling of steer
supports
The processing times for milling ribs and milling steer supports are unchanged (see 6). However, the
company optimized and added an additional assembly line, reducing the assembly processing time (of the
overall process) to 1.5 minutes/unit. (Assembly can produce both types of scooters without setup times
and assembles one unit at a time.)
While there is no setup between ribs and steer supports anymore (produced now on 2 different machines),
the company now has setups when switching between the two product types. It takes 15 minutes to
switch production on the milling machine for ribs (from Scooter1 to Scooter2 and the same time switching
back), and it takes 30 minutes on the milling machine for steer supports.
What is the capacity of the overall process, if you produce Scooter1 in batches of 60 scooters per batch,
and Scooter2 (the new product) in batches of 30 scooters per batch?
Question 8:
A local branch of a bank claims that its customers wait less than 6 minutes (on average) in the queue
during lunch time (actually, this is a two‐hour period between 11:30 and 1:30). Their record shows that on
average 60 customers arrive during the two‐hour lunch time. If 7 customers (on the average) are waiting in
the queue during this period, is the estimate of average time spent in the queue realistic? Justify your
answer.
Question 9:
Suppose a company produces 100,000 units a year and that the inventory turnover for this company is 40.
“Inventory Turnover” is defined as the number of times that a company’s inventory cycles or turns per
year. What is the annual inventory holding cost of this company, if the annual holding cost per unit is
$15?
Question 10:
Mr. K’s is a very popular hair salon. It offers high‐quality hair‐styling and physical relaxation services at a
reasonable price. Customers arrive on average every 25 minutes. The service process includes five activities
that are conducted in the sequence described below. (The average time required for each activity is shown
in parenthesis):
Activity 1: Welcome a guest and offer homemade herb tea. (10 minutes)
Activity 2: Wash and condition hair. (10 minutes)
Activity 3: Neck, shoulder, and back stress release massage. (10 minutes)
Activity 4: Design the hair style and do the hair. (25 minutes)
Activity 5: Check out the guest. (5 minutes)
There are three hair‐stylists working at Mr. K’s, and each one performs all activities for the customer (s)he
is serving. The coefficient of variation of the time between arrivals as well as that of the total processing
time is 1.2.
(a) How long do customers wait on average (if none of them leaves before being serviced), and how many
customers will on average be waiting to be serviced?
(b) How many additional servers would Mr. K need to hire so that customers wait on average no longer than
10 minutes?
Question 11:
Is the following statement true or false? Why?
In a make–to‐order environment (like the Delux bags in Reactik), the only viable strategy to reduce
lead‐time is to increase capacity by adding more machines to each station.
Question 12:
Quick Lube Inc. operates a fast lube and oil change garage. On a typical day customers arrive at the rate of
three per hour, and lube jobs are performed at an average rate of one every 15 minutes. The mechanics
operate as a team on one car at a time, and CVa=CVs=1.
A. Find the average time a car waits before it is lubed.
B. Find the average number of cars in line.
After purchasing a new machine the team changes its operating procedures. With this new machine lube
jobs are still performed at an average rate of one every 15 minutes. However, every lube job now lasts
exactly 15 minutes.
C. What would happen to the average waiting time?
a) It would decrease.
b) It would not change.
c) It would increase.
D. What would happen to the average number of cars in line?
a) It would decrease.
b) It would not change.
c) It would increase.
Question 13:
New Station on Jubilee Line
The city of London has just decided to build a new underground station on the Jubilee Line, between Baker
Street and St John’s Wood. The new station – located in St John’s Wood Road, just opposite the Lords
Cricket Ground, will only serve the Jubilee line.
Matt Richardson is in charge of designing the layout for this new station and he is currently dealing with
the placement of escalators. Due to space constraints the station can accommodate only three escalators.
Hence, two configurations are possible, as indicated in the figure below.
railway railway
platform platform
hall hall
street street
CONFIGURATION A: CONFIGURATION B:
- 1 UPWARD EXCALATOR - 2 UPWARD EXCALATORS
- 2 DOWNWARD EXCALATORS - 1 DOWNWARD EXCALATOR
Which configuration should Matt prefer? Why?
(Assume that at every point in time the average number of incoming customers is equal to the average
number of outgoing customers. Assume also that all escalators move at the same speed and that the
platform and the hall have approximately the same surface).
Answers Practice Problems Process Analysis
Question 1:
(a) 9 + 6 +5 + 8 = 28 minutes
(b) Stage 1: 60 [min /hour] / 9 [min/unit] + 60 [min /hour] / 9 [min/unit] = 13.33 [units/hr]
Stage 2: 60 [min /hour] / 6 [min/unit] = 10 [units/hr]
Stage 3: 60 [min /hour] / 5 [min/unit] = 12 [units/hr]
Stage 4: 60 [min /hour]/ 8 [min/unit] + 60 [min /hour] / 12 [min/unit] = 12.5 [units/hr]
(c) Since the stage with the least capacity is the bottleneck, it is “Stage 2”. The process capacity is thus 10
[units/hr].
(d) We should increase the capacity of stage 2 from 10 to 12 [units/hr]. Thus, this additional machine needs
to produce 2 [units/hr] or it should have the CT = 30 [min /unit].
Question 2:
(a) 3 + 5 + 10 + 4 = 22 (min)
[To achieve the minimum TT, the transaction will go through the stages using the fastest machine
available at each stage. So it’s M1M2M4M6]
(b) Total capacity at Stage 3 =60(min/hr)/12(min/unit) + 60/10 + 60/15 = 5+6+4 = 15(unit/hr)
Cycle time at Stage 3=1/(Total capacity at Stage 3) = 60(min/hr)/15(unit/hr) = 4(min/unit)
[Remember for parallel machines, only capacity can add up but not the CTs!]
(c) STAGE II since it has the LONGEST / LARGEST cycle time of 5 (min/unit)
[The bottleneck of a process is the stage with the LONGEST cycle time, or equivalently the SMALLEST
capacity.]
Question 3:
(a) R1 produces 60/30 = 2 units/ min.
R2 produces 60/20 = 3 units/min.
Capacity of station 3: 2 + 3 = 5 units/min.
CT = 1/capacity = 60 / 5 = 12.0 sec/units.
(b) Station 4 is the bottleneck. Capacity of process = 3600 /15 = 240 units / hr.
(c) It takes part X 10 + 8 = 18 sec. to reach the buffer.
It takes part Y min {30, 20} = 20 sec to reach the buffer.
Thus, station 4 can start after max {16, 20} = 20 sec.
Adding the processing time of station 4: minimum TT = 20 + 15 = 35 sec.
Question 4:
(a) TT= 5 + 4 +8 + 3.5 = 20.5 minutes
(b) Stage 1 : 60 [min /hour] / 5 [min/unit] = 12 [units/hr]
Stage 2 : 60 [min /hour] / 4 [min/unit] = 15 [units/hr]
Stage 3 : 60 [min /hour]/ 10 [min/unit] + 60 [min /hour] / 8 [min/unit] = 13.5 [units/hr]
Stage 4 : 60 [min /hour] / 3.5 [min/unit] = 17.14 [units/hr]
(c) The process capacity is determined by the bottleneck stage, which is “Stage 1”.
Thus, the process capacity is 12 units / hr.
Process utilization = throughput / capacity = 8.4/12 = 70 %
Question 5:
1) You need to calculate the throughput rate (TR) at each station. The process TR is equal to the minimum of
all the TRs. For single machine stations TR (in units/hour) = 60/CT. For multiple machine stations you need
to add up the TRs at each machine. E.g. at station 1: TR1 = 60/4 + 60/2 = 15+30 = 45. The minimum TR is the
TR of station 2: TR2 = 60/6 = 10 units/hour. This corresponds to the process TR.
2) Min TR = 6 + 5 + + 5 + 4 = 20
3) Station 2 is the process bottleneck
Question 6:
a) Capacity at 60 = 0.3 units/min or 18 units/hr; Capacity at 120 = 0.375 units/min or 22.5 units/hr.
Tradeoff: inventory holding costs (lower for batch 60) versus capacity (higher for batch 120).
b) You want to maximize the capacity, however, the capacity is constrained by the capacity of the assembly
process (18 units/hr). Recommended batch size = 60 scooters, that is 120 ribs and 60 steer supports (to
match assembly capacity and maximize capacity without increasing inventory cost.)
Question 7:
capacity milling ribs = total number of scooters / total time it takes to make them = (60 units scooter 1 +30
units scooter 2)/(90 scooters * 2 ribs per scooter * 0.5 minutes processing + 2*15 minutes setups) = 0.75
units / minutes * 60 min/hr = 45 units per hour
capacity milling steer supports= 36 units/hr, assembly capacity = 40 units/hr; process capacity is
determined by the bottleneck (milling steers) => process capacity = 36 units/hr
Question 8:
Given are WIP = 7 [customers] and throughput rate = 60 / 2 = 30 [customers / hour].
Using Little’s formula: Throughput time = WIP / throughput rate
= 7 [customers] / 30 [customers / lunch hour] * 60 [minutes / hour] = 14 [min].
Therefore, the estimate of 6 minutes appears to be unrealistic.
Question 9:
Given are throughput time = 1/40 [years] and throughput rate = 100,000 [units/ year].
WIP = Throughput time * throughput rate = (1/40) [years] * 100,000 [units/year] = 2,500[units]
Thus, the annual holding costs are 15 [$/unit] * 2500 [units] = $ 37,500.
Question 10:
Part a:
Processing time = (10+10+10+25+5)=60 minutes
Utilization=TR/Capacity=(1/25)/[1/60*3]=0.8
Waiting time= 60/3min*(1.2^2+1.2^2)/2* 0.8^(Sqrt(2*(3+1))‐1)/(1‐0.8) = 95.8 minutes
For the average number of customers waiting, we need to use Little’s law:
WIP = TT * TR = 95.8 minutes * 1/25 [units]/[minute] =3.83
(All assuming, no one leaves…)
Part b:
Redo the calculations for different number of servers: If Mr. K hires one additional server (s=4) the waiting
time is 17.9 minutes, if he hires two additional servers (s=5) the waiting time is 5.45 minutes. Thus, Mr. K
needs two additional servers, if he want a waiting time of less than 10 minutes.
[Note: In the exam, I will ensure that you can do the calculations with a normal calculator, i.e., I will pick s
accordingly.]
Question 11:
Not true. Reducing lead time is equivalent to reducing waiting time in a queue. This objective can be
achieved also by reducing variability in the system and by increasing the pace of operations (for
instance replacing slow machines with faster workstations) to reduce utilization.
Question 12:
A) Utilization = 3/4 = 0.75;
TTq = 15 * (0.75/(1‐0.75)) * ½ * (1+1)= 45 minutes (or 0.75 hrs)
B) From Little’s law: WIP = TR * TT = 3 cars/hr x 0.75 hr = 2.25 cars
C‐D) If every job lasts exactly 15 min, the process has no variability, therefore after purchasing the new
machine CVs = 0. The average waiting time would decrease, and since WIP is proportional to TT (Little’s
Law) the average number of cars in line would decrease as well.
Question 13:
Configuration B.
The problem can be analyzed by considering the tube station as a combination of two queuing
systems, where the escalators are the servers. In the first system incoming customers queue to access
the downward escalator, whereas in the second system outgoing customers queue to reach the hall
upstairs and exit the station.
The objective of the designer should clearly be to maintain the average queue length below an
‘acceptable level’. Given that the platform and the hall have the same surface they can tolerate
approximately the same number of customers waiting, hence the ‘acceptable queue length’ is the
same in the two cases. Matt should therefore analyze the two systems (upward and downward) when
operated with only one escalator, and allocate the additional escalator to the one that is more likely to
generate the longest queue.
Remember that queue length is proportional to processing time, utilization and variability. Clearly in
this case processing time and utilization are the same for the two systems (same escalator speed and
same amount of incoming and outgoing customers). Conversely, the variability of outgoing customers
is larger than the variability of incoming customers. To see this consider that whereas incoming
customers arrive at the hall one by one, following a poisson process (coefficient of variation = 1),
outgoing customers arrive at the platform in large batches, whenever a train stops. This is a ‘bursty’
arrival process and has a coefficient of variation larger than one.
Therefore, everything else being equal the system in which customer queue to exit the station is likely
to generate the longest queue and should be given the additional escalator.