Operations Management

Quiz
Instructions:
1. Read and follow the instructions carefully. Not following instructions will attract penalty.
2. Kindly follow the instructions given by PGP office in the quiz announcement email.
3. Copying and plagiarism in part or full, exchanging ideas or solution with other students will
be severely punished as per PGP policy.
4. The test is for 120 minutes.
5. Make any necessary assumptions, and state them clearly.
6. You need to show the steps clearly. Screenshots and excel sheets without formulas are
deemed invalid.
7. Submit all the files you have used (Excel workbook and Word document) in Moodle within
the time stipulated.
8. The files should be named as
 <Roll-No>_OM_Quiz_Report.docx
 <Roll-No>_OM_Quiz_Working.xlsx

The following information may be useful:

“FLOW TIME includes the time the unit spends actually being worked on, together with the time
spent waiting in the queue” – TEXT BOOK, Opearations And Supply Chain Management, Chase,
Shankar, Jacobs, McGrawHill, 15e.

THROUGHPUT TIME is the time the unit spends only when it is being worked on. The total time a
unit will take in an empty system (rush order).

Hence,

THROUGHPUT TIME + WAITING TIME = FLOW TIME

Tçhalla once asked Shuri- "Can we do better than Vibranium?". This made Shuri design the ultimate
strongest alloy anywhere- AdVibrantium (AVM). Yes, you get AVM by mixing Adamantium (Ad) and
Vibranium (Vb) in equal proportion. However, the process is immensely complex and considered
impossible for five decades. Nevertheless, Shuri developed not just one but two processes to mix Ad
and Vb to obtain AVM. Moreover, she found that AVM can be a better replacement to Titanium
based alloys used for Knee replacement surgery. Ability to produce AVM was considered a significant
development in the healthcare industry. Subsequently, AVM based knee-implants were in high
demand.

Now-a-days, Shuri runs an AVM implants manufacturing facility which has two production lines (Line
A & Line B) next to each other to produce similar knee-implants. The output of the both implants is
exactly same, however, the process are primarily different except three activities which are identical-
(i) Mold transfer, (ii) Cooling and (iii) Final touch-up. Nevertheless, for both the line there are
separate stations for each of these activities, but, they are located close to each other and act as a
back-up, if necessary. For example, if the cooling station of Line A is not working and cooling station
of Line B is available, then it can be used for production process at Line A.

The process used at Line A (referred to as Process A) involves melting Ad and Vb simultaneously in
separate vessels. Ad melts at 1600 degree Celsius while Vb at 1750 degrees. It takes 15 minutes and
14 minutes to melt Ad and Vb, respectively. Once in molten state, both Ad and Vb are mixed through
Splash Infuse Mix (SIM) process which takes 11 minutes at SIM station. The mixture is reheated after
the SIM process is completed for 10 minutes and melted for another 8 minutes at the respective
stations (Reheat station, Melt Station). The molten mixture is now transferred to Mold. It takes
negligible time to transfer material from one station to another station except for Mold transfer
which takes 1 minute per batch. After Mold transfer, the mixture takes 8 minutes to cool down at
cooling station and another 12 minutes for final touch-up before AVM implants are ready to be
delivered.

At Line B, sub-process B1 creates molten Ad by Mixing molten steel and Chemical-L at 1600 degree
for 6 minutes at L-Mixing station. However, before mixing, the steel requires melting at S-Melt
station which takes 12 minutes and Chemical-L requires boiling at L-Boil station for 3 minutes. S-Melt
and L-Boil operations are performed simultaneously. A sub-process B2 produces molten Vb by
Cleaning meteor deposits at Metallic Distillation station for 16 minutes and thereafter Re-filtering it
at Molten Extract station for 1 minute. Both, B1 and B2 happen simultaneously. The outputs from
Processes B1 and B2 are transferred to Coagulated Burst Mixing (CBM) where it takes 24 minutes to
mix. After mixing at CBM, the material is transferred to Mold. It takes negligible time to transfer
material from one station to another station except for Mold transfer which takes 4 minutes per
batch. After Mold transfer, the material cooled for 8 minutes and goes through final touch-up
station for 12 minutes afterwards, AVM implants are ready to be delivered. The costs of setting up
each machinery is given in the Appendix.

All the information provided above is for a batch of AVM implants. In a batch there can be up to 100
implants.

Investment for adding capacity for each stage

Cost
Process (In Lacs INR)
Melt Ad 31
Melt Vb 17
Splash Infuse Mix (SIM) 29
Reheat 19
Melt Ad and Vb 42
S-Melt 18
L-Boil 22
L-Mixing station 15
Metallic Distillation 36
Refiltering Molten Extract 26
Coagulated Burst Mixing (CBM) 21
Mold Transfer 40
Cool 39
Final touch-up 18
Answer the following questions:

1. Draw the process flow diagram of each process. [2 points]

2. How many batches of AVM implants can be delivered in a week, if Shuri runs the plant for 5
days and 8 hours every day? [2 points]
3. The machine for the process Splash Infuse Mix (SIM) is under maintenance and cannot be
used.
Four orders came in at 9:18 AM, 9:20 AM, 9:52 AM and 10:03 AM. If another order came up
at 10:15 AM, when will this be ready to be delivered? [4 points]
4. A recent innovation in the machines in the Line A process has led to the following changes
a. The cool down time is halved.
b. The final touch-up is also halved.
A customer has placed an order. If this is the first order for the day, when can we deliver the
order, if we want to deliver it as soon as possible. [4 points]
5. Clark Kentt, from Krypton brought a machine which will reheat and melt (in process A) a
batch in 18 min. Which of the following options is true? Explain. [4 points]
a. This will decrease the cycle time of the process A.
b. It will not impact the process A, as it is only combining both process and taking time
equal to sum of individual processes, i.e., 10 min + 8 min.
6. The company wants to start production at another location. They can only go for one Line
there. Which Line do you suggest and why? [4 points]