Chase-Operations SCM-191-222

CHAPTER 6
MANUFACTURING
PROCESSES
Learning Objectives
LO6–1 Understand what a manufacturing process is.
LO6–2 Understand production process mapping and Little’s law.
LO6–3 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.
LO6–4 Understand how to design and analyze an assembly line.
THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTING—THE
TECHNOLOGY COULD BE USED TO MAKE PARTS
THAT PERFORM BETTER AND COST LESS
The technology for printing three-dimensional objects has existed for decades,
but its application has been largely limited to novelty items and specialized cus-
tom fabrication, such as making personalized prosthetics. The technology has
now improved to the point where
these printers can make intricate
objects out of durable materials,
including ceramics and metals
(such as titanium and aluminum),
©NASA/Sipa USA/Newscom
with a resolution on the scale of
tens of micrometers.
THIS RATCHET WRENCH WAS MADE USING A 3-D PRINTER ON THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE
STATION IN ABOUT FOUR HOURS.
PRODUCTION PROCESSES
In this chapter, we consider how processes used to make tangible goods are designed. LO6–1 Understand
Production processes are used to make everything that we buy ranging from the apartment what a manufacturing
building in which we live to the ink pens with which we write. The high-level view of process is.
what is required to make something can be divided into three simple steps. The first step
is sourcing the parts we need, followed by actually making the item, and then sending the
item to the customer. As discussed in Chapter 1, a supply chain view of this may involve a
complex series of players where subcontractors feed suppliers, suppliers feed manufactur-
ing plants, manufacturing plants feed warehouses, and, finally, warehouses feed retailers.
Depending on the item being produced, the supply chain can be very long with subcon-
tractors and manufacturing plants spread out over the globe (such as an automobile or
computer manufacturer) or short where parts are sourced and the product is made locally
(such as a house builder).
Consider Exhibit 6.1, which illustrates the Source step where parts are procured from
one or more suppliers, the Make step where manufacturing takes place, and the Deliver
step where the product is shipped to the customer. Depending on the strategy of the
firm, the capabilities of manufacturing, and the needs of customers, these activities are
168 OPERATIONS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
exhibit 6.1 Positioning Inventory in the Supply Chain
Long Customer Lead Time Short
Source Make Deliver
Make-to-Stock
Assemble-to-Order
Make-to-Order
Engineer-to-Order
Low Inventory Investment High
The inverted triangles represent customer order decoupling points.
organized to minimize cost while meeting the competitive priorities necessary to attract
customer orders. For example, in the case of consumer products such as candy or clothes,
customers normally want these products “on-demand” for quick delivery from a local
store. As a manufacturer of these products, we build them ahead of time in anticipation
of demand and ship them to the retail stores where they are carried in inventory until
Lead time they are sold. At the other end of the spectrum are custom products, such as military
The time needed airplanes, that are ordered with very specific uses in mind and that need to be designed
to respond to a and then built to the design. In the case of an airplane, the time needed to respond to a
customer order. customer order, called the lead time, could easily be years, compared to only a few min-
utes for the candy.
Customer order
decoupling point A key concept in production processes is the customer order decoupling point,
Where inventory is which determines where inventory is positioned to allow processes or entities in the
positioned in the supply chain to operate independently. For example, if a product is stocked at a retailer,
supply chain. the customer pulls the item from the shelf and the manufacturer never sees a customer
order. Inventory acts as a buffer to separate the customer from the manufacturing pro-
Make-to-stock
cess. Selection of decoupling points is a strategic decision that determines customer
A production
environment where lead times and can greatly impact inventory investment. The closer this point is to the
the customer is customer, the quicker the customer can be served. Typically, there is a trade-off where
served “on-demand” quicker response to customer demand comes at the expense of greater inventory invest-
from finished goods ment because finished goods inventory is more expensive than raw material inventory.
inventory. An item in finished goods inventory typically contains all the raw materials needed to
MANUFACTURING PROCESSES chapter 6 169
produce the item. So, from a cost view it includes the cost of the material plus the cost to Assemble-to-order
fabricate the finished item. A production
Positioning of the customer order decoupling point is important in understanding environment where
production environments. Firms that serve customers from finished goods inventory are preassembled
known as make-to-stock firms. Those that combine a number of preassembled modules to components,
subassemblies, and
meet a customer’s specifications are called assemble-to-order firms. Those that make the
modules are put
customer’s product from raw materials, parts, and components are make-to-order firms. together in response
An engineer-to-order firm will work with the customer to design the product, and then to a specific
make it from purchased materials, parts, and components. Of course, many firms serve customer order.
a combination of these environments and a few will have all simultaneously. Depending
on the environment and the location of the customer order decoupling point, one would Make-to-order
A production
expect inventory concentrated in finished goods, work-in-process (this is inventory in
environment where
the manufacturing process), manufacturing raw material, or at the supplier, as shown in the product is
Exhibit 6.1. built directly from
The essential issue in satisfying customers in the make-to-stock environment is to bal- raw materials
ance the level of finished inventory against the level of service to the customer. Examples and components
of products produced by these firms include televisions, clothing, and packaged food prod- in response to a
ucts. If unlimited inventory were possible and free, the task would be trivial. Unfortunately, specific customer
that is not the case. Providing more inventory increases costs, so a trade-off between the order.
costs of the inventory and the level of customer service must be made. The trade-off can Engineer-to-order
be improved by better estimates (or knowledge) of customer demand, by more rapid trans- Here the firm works
portation alternatives, by speedier production, and by more flexible manufacturing. Many with the customer to
make-to-stock firms invest in lean manufacturing programs in order to achieve higher design the product,
service levels for a given inventory investment. Regardless of the trade-offs involved, the which is then made
focus in the make-to-stock environment is on providing finished goods where and when from purchased
the customers want them. material, parts, and
In the assemble-to-order environment, a primary task is to define a customer’s order in components.
terms of alternative components and options since it is these components that are carried Lean manufacturing
in inventory. A good example is the way Dell Computer makes its desktop computers. The To achieve high
number of combinations that can be made may be nearly infinite (although some might customer service
not be feasible). One of the capabilities required for success in the assemble-to-order envi- with minimum
ronment is an engineering design that enables as much flexibility as possible in combining levels of inventory
components, options, and modules into finished products. Similar to make-to-stock, many investment.
assemble-to-order companies have applied lean manu-
facturing principles to dramatically decrease the time
required to assemble finished goods. By doing so, they
are delivering customers’ orders so quickly that they
appear to be make-to-stock firms from the perspective
of the customer.
When assembling-to-order, there are significant
advantages from moving the customer order decoupling
point from finished goods to components. The num-
ber of finished products is usually substantially greater
than the number of components that are combined to
produce the finished product. Consider, for example,
a computer for which there are four processor alter-
natives, three hard-disk drive choices, four memory
alternatives, two speaker systems, and four monitors CONFIGURING A DELL COMPUTER.
available. If all combinations of these 17 components ©Liu Zheng/ColorChinaPhoto/AP Images
are valid, they can be combined into a total of 384 different final configurations. This can
be calculated as follows:
If Ni is the number of alternatives for component i, the total number of combinations of
n components (given all are viable) is
Total number of combinations = N 1 × N 2 × · · · × N n [6.1]
      
Or 384 = 4 × 3 × 4 × 2 × 4 for this example.
It is much easier to manage and forecast the demand for 17 components than for 384
computers.
In the make-to-order and engineer-to-order environments, the customer order decou-
pling point could be in either raw materials at the manufacturing site or possibly even with
the supplier inventory. Boeing’s process for making commercial aircraft is an example of
make-to-order. The need for engineering resources in the engineer-to-order case is some-
what different than make-to-order because engineering determines what materials will be
required and what steps will be required in manufacturing. Depending on how similar the
products are, it might not even be possible to preorder parts. Rather than inventory, the
emphasis in these environments may be more toward managing the capacity of critical
resources, such as engineering and construction crews. Lockheed Martin’s Satellite divi-
sion uses an engineer-to-order strategy.
PRODUCTION PROCESS MAPPING

AND LITTLE’S LAW
LO6–2 Understand Next, we look at how to quickly develop a high-level map of a supply chain process,
which can be useful to understand how material flows and where inventory is held. The
production process
approach used here should be the first step in analyzing the flow of material through a
mapping and Little’s
production process. This idea will be further developed in “Value Stream Mapping” in
law.
Chapter 12.
Consider a simple system that might be typical of many make-to-stock companies. As
shown in Exhibit 6.2, material is purchased from a set of suppliers and initially staged
in raw material inventory. The material is used in a manufacturing process where the
product is fabricated (different types of manufacturing processes are discussed in the next
exhibit 6.2 Make-to-Stock Process Map
Buffer Buffer
Raw Finished
Material Goods
Source In-Transit Factory In-Transit Deliver
Suppliers Customers
Make
section, “How Production Processes Are Organized”). After fabrication, the product is
put into finished goods inventory and from here it is shipped according to orders received
from customers.
Focusing on the Make part of the process, it is useful to analyze how this step operates
using performance measures that relate to the inventory investment and also how quickly
material flows through the process. A simplified way of thinking about material in a pro-
cess is that it is in one of two states. The first state is where material is moving or “in-
transit.” The second state is material that is sitting in inventory and acting as a “buffer”
waiting to be used.
In the first state, material is moving in the process. This is material that is in-transit
between entities in the process; for example, between the vendor and the raw material
inventory at the manufacturer. Material that is in a manufacturing process in a factory
can also be considered in-transit. Actually, we refer to this material as “work-in-process”
inventory. In the second state, material is held in a storage area and waits until it is needed.
In the case of raw material inventory, the need is dependent on the factory usage of the
item. This buffer inventory allows different entities in the process to operate relatively
Total average value
independently. of inventory
A common measure is the total average value of inventory in the process. From an The total investment
accounting view, this would be the sum of the value (at cost) of the raw material, work-in- in inventory at the
process, and finished goods inventory. This is commonly tracked in accounting systems firm, which includes
and reported in the firm’s financial statements. Although useful for accounting purposes, raw material, work-in-
these measures are not particularly useful for evaluating the performance of a process. process, and finished
Consider the total average value of inventory. What is better, a firm that has $2 million goods.
worth of inventory on average or one that has $4 million? This depends greatly on the size Inventory turn
of the firm, the type of strategy being used (make-to-order or make-to-stock, for example), An efficiency
and the relative cost of the product being produced. measure where the
A better measure than the total value of inventory is inventory turn, which is the cost cost of goods sold is
of goods sold divided by the average inventory value. Because inventory turn scales the divided by the total
amount of inventory by dividing by the cost of goods sold, this provides a relative measure average value of
inventory.
that has some comparability, at least across similar firms. For two similar consumer prod-
ucts manufacturers, an inventory turn of six times per year is certainly much better than a Days-of-supply
firm turning inventory two times per year. A measure directly related is days-of-supply, A measure of the
which is the inverse of inventory turn scaled to days. For example, if a firm turns inventory number of days of
six times per year, the days of supply is equal to one-sixth times per year, or approximately supply of an item.
every 61 days (this is calculated as 1/6 year × 365 days/year = 60.8 days). Little’s law
Simple systems can be analyzed quickly using a principle known as Little’s law. Little’s Mathematically
law says there is a long-term relationship between the inventory, throughput, and flow time relates inventory,
of a production system in steady state. The relationship is throughput, and flow
time.

Inventory = Throughput rate × Flow time [6.2] Throughput
The average rate
Throughput is the long-term average rate that items are flowing through the process. (e.g., units/day) that
Flow time is the time that it takes a unit to flow through the process from beginning to end. items flow through a
Consider the factory process in Exhibit 6.2. Raw material is brought into the factory and process.
is transformed and then stored in finished goods inventory. The analysis assumes that the Flow time
process is operating in “steady state,” meaning that over a long enough period of time the The time it takes one
amount that is produced by the factory is equal to the amount shipped to customers. The unit to completely
throughput rate of the process is equal to average demand, and the process is not producing flow through a
any excess or shortage. If this were not true and the amount produced by the manufacturing process.
process was greater than demand, for example, the finished goods inventory would build
over time. So if demand averages 1,000 units per day and if it takes 20 days for a unit to flow
through the factory, then the expected work-in-process in the factory would be 20,000 units.
We can think of Little’s law as a relationship between units and time. Inventory is mea-
sured in pieces, flow time in days, and throughput in pieces per day. Therefore, if we
divide inventory by throughput, we get flow time. For example, 20,000 units divided by
1,000 units per day is 20 days. We can also take inventory and divide by flow time and get
throughput rate. Here, 20,000 units divided by 20 days is equal to 1,000 units a day. This
conversion is useful when diagnosing a plant’s performance.
To appreciate a major limitation, suppose that a process has just started with no inven-
tory on-hand. Some of the initial production will be used to fill the system, thus limiting
initial throughput. In this case, Little’s law will not hold, but after the process has been
operating for a while, and there is inventory at every step, the process stabilizes, and then
the relationship holds.
Little’s law is actually much more general than a simple way to convert between units. It
can be applied to single workstations, multistep production lines, factories, or even entire sup-
ply chains. Further, it applies to processes with variability in the arrival rate (or demand rate)
and processing time. It can be applied to single or multiple product systems. It even applies to
nonproduction systems where inventory represents people, financial orders, or other entities.
For our factory, it is common for accounting systems to capture average work-in-process
in terms of the value (at cost) of the inventory that is being worked on in the factory.
For our example, say that work-in-process averages $200,000 and that each unit is valued
at a cost of $10. This would imply that there are 20,000 units in the factory (calculated
$200,000 ÷ $10 per unit = 20,000 units).
The following example shows how these concepts can be applied to quickly analyze
simple processes.
Example 6.1: Car Batteries

An automobile company assembles cars in a plant and purchases batteries from a vendor in China.
The average cost of each battery is $45. The automobile company takes ownership of the batter-
ies when they arrive at the plant. It takes exactly 12 hours to make a car in the plant and the plant
assembles 200 cars per 8-hour shift (currently the plant operates one shift per day). Each car uses
one battery. The company holds, on average, 8,000 batteries in raw material inventory at the plant as
a buffer. Assignment: Find the total number of batteries in the plant on average (in work-in-process
at the plant and in raw material inventory). How much are these batteries worth? How many days of
supply are held in raw material inventory on average?
SOLUTION
We can split this into two inventories: work-in-process and raw material. For the work-in-process,
Little’s law can be directly applied to find the amount of work-in-process inventory:
Inventory = Throughput × Flow time
Throughput is the production rate of the plant, 200 cars per 8-hour shift or 25 cars per hour. Since we
use one battery per car, our throughput rate for the batteries is 25 per hour. Flow time is 12 hours, so
the work-in-process is
Work-in-process inventory = 25 batteries / hour × 12 hours = 300 batteries
We know from the problem that there are 8,000 batteries in raw material inventory, so the total num-
ber of batteries in the pipeline on average is
Total inventory = 8,000 + 300 = 8,300 batteries
These batteries are worth 8,300 × $45 = $373,500.

The days of supply in raw material inventory is equal to the “flow time” for a battery in raw mate-
rial inventory (or the average amount of time that a battery spends in raw material inventory). Here,
we need to assume that the batteries are used in the same order they arrive. Rearrange our Little’s
law formula to
Flow time = Inventory / Throughput
So, Flow time = 8,000 batteries/(200 batteries/day) = 40 days, which represents a 40-day supply of

inventory.
•
In the next section, we look at how the production processes are organized in different
environments. This is largely dependent on the variety of products being produced and on
the volume. How a company produces airplanes is very different when compared to build-
ing computers or making ink pens.
HOW PRODUCTION PROCESSES ARE ORGANIZED

Process selection refers to the strategic decision of selecting which kind of production LO6–3 Explain
processes to use to produce a product or provide a service. For example, in the case of
how manufacturing
Toshiba notebook computers, if the volume is very low, we may just have a worker manu-
processes are
ally assemble each computer by hand. In contrast, if the volume is higher, setting up an
organized.
assembly line is appropriate.
The format by which a facility is arranged is defined by the general pattern of work
flow; there are five basic structures (project, workcenter, manufacturing cell, assembly
Project layout
line, and continuous process).
For large or massive
In a project layout, the product (by virtue of its bulk or weight) remains in a fixed loca- products produced
tion. Manufacturing equipment is moved to the product rather than vice versa. Construction in a specific location,
sites (houses and bridges) and movie shooting lots are examples of this format. Items pro- labor, material,
duced with this type of layout are typically managed using the project management tech- and equipment
niques described in Chapter 5. Areas on the site will be designated for various purposes, are moved to the
such as material staging, subassembly construction, site access for heavy equipment, and product rather than
a management area. vice versa.
A workcenter layout, sometimes referred to as a job shop, is where similar equipment Workcenter
or functions are grouped together, such as all drilling machines in one area and all stamp- A process with great
ing machines in another. A part being worked on travels, according to the established flexibility to produce
sequence of operations, from workcenter to workcenter, where the proper machines are a variety of products,
located for each operation. typically at lower
A manufacturing cell layout is a dedicated area where products that are similar in volume levels.
processing requirements are produced. These cells are designed to perform a specific set Manufacturing cell
of processes, and the cells are dedicated to a limited range of products. A firm may have Dedicated area
many different cells in a production area, each set up to produce a single product or a simi- where a group of
lar group of products efficiently, but typically at lower volume levels. These cells typically similar products are
are scheduled to produce “as needed” in response to current customer demand. produced.
Assembly line An assembly line is where work processes are arranged according to the progressive
Area where an item steps by which the product is made. These steps are defined so that a specific production
is produced through rate can be achieved. The path for each part is, in effect, a straight line. Discrete products
a fixed sequence are made by moving from workstation to workstation at a controlled rate, following the
of workstations, sequence needed to build the product. Examples include the assembly of toys, appliances,
designed to achieve
and automobiles. These are typically used in high-volume items where the specialized
a specific production
process can be justified.
rate.
A continuous process is similar to an assembly line in that production follows a prede-
Continuous process termined sequence of steps, but the flow is continuous such as with liquids, rather than dis-
A process that crete. Such structures are usually highly automated and, in effect, constitute one integrated
converts raw “machine” that may operate 24 hours a day to avoid expensive shutdowns and start-ups.
materials into Conversion and processing of undifferentiated materials such as petroleum, chemicals, and
finished product
drugs are good examples.
in one contiguous
The relationship between layout structures is often depicted on a product–process
process.
matrix similar to the one shown in Exhibit 6.3. Two dimensions are shown. The hori-
Product–process zontal dimension relates to the volume of a particular product or group of standardized
matrix products. Standardization is shown on the vertical axis and refers to variations in the
A framework product that is produced. These variations are measured in terms of geometric differ-
depicting when the ences, material differences, and so on. Standardized products are highly similar from a
different production manufacturing processing point of view, whereas low standardized products require dif-
process types
ferent processes.
are typically used
depending on
Exhibit 6.3 shows the processes approximately on a diagonal. In general, it can be
product volume and argued that it is desirable to design processes along the diagonal. For example, if we pro-
how standardized duce nonstandard products at relatively low volumes, workcenters should be used. A highly
the product is. standardized product (commodity) produced at high volumes should be produced using an
assembly line or a continuous process, if possible. As a result of the advanced manufactur-
ing technology available today, we see that some of the layout structures span relatively
large areas of the product–process matrix. For example, manufacturing cells can be used
for a very wide range of applications, and this has become a popular layout structure that
often is employed by manufacturing engineers.
exhibit 6.3 Product–Process Matrix: Framework Describing Layout Strategies

Low—
one-of-a-kind Mass Customization
Project
Product Workcenter
Manufacturing
Standardization Cell
Assembly
Line
Continuous
High— Process
standardized Inefficient
commodity Processes
product
Low Product Volume High
Designing a Production System

There are many techniques available to determine the actual layouts of the production
process. This section gives a quick overview of how the problems are addressed. For each
of the layout types, descriptions are given of how the layouts are represented and the
main criteria used. The next section takes an in-depth look at the assembly-line balancing
problem.
Project Layout In developing a project layout, visualize the product as the hub of a
wheel, with materials and equipment arranged concentrically around the production
point in the order of use and movement difficulty. Thus, in building commercial aircraft,
for example, rivets used throughout construction would be placed close to or in the fuse-
lage; heavy engine parts, which must travel to the fuselage only once, would be placed at
a more distant location; and cranes would be set up close to the fuselage because of their
constant use.
In a project layout, a high degree of task ordering is common. To the extent that this
task ordering, or precedence, determines production stages, a project layout may be devel-
oped by arranging materials according to their assembly priority. This procedure would be
expected in making a layout for a large machine tool, such as a stamping machine, where
manufacturing follows a rigid sequence; assembly is performed from the ground up, with
parts being added to the base in almost a building-block fashion.
Workcenters The most common approach to developing this type of layout is to arrange
workcenters in a way that optimizes the movement of material. A workcenter sometimes
AN EXAMPLE OF A
PROJECT LAYOUT.
©Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg/
Getty Images
A WORKCENTER.
©servickuz/Shutterstock
A MANUFACTURING CELL.
©William Taufic/Corbis/Getty Images
is referred to as a department and is focused on a particular type of operation. Examples

include a workcenter for drilling holes, one for performing grinding operations, and a
painting area. The workcenters in a low-volume toy factory might consist of shipping and
receiving, plastic molding and stamping, metal forming, sewing, and painting. Parts for the
toys are fabricated in these workcenters and then sent to the assembly workcenter, where
they are put together. In many installations, optimal placement often means placing work-
centers with large amounts of interdepartmental traffic adjacent to each other.
Manufacturing Cells A manufacturing cell is formed by allocating dissimilar machines

to cells that are designed to work on products that have similar shapes and processing
requirements. Manufacturing cells are widely used in metal fabricating, computer chip
manufacture, and assembly work.
The process used to develop a manufacturing cell is depicted in Exhibit 6.4. It can be
broken down into three distinct steps:
1. Group parts into families that follow a common sequence of steps. This requires
classifying parts by using some type of coding system. In practice, this can often
be quite complex and can require a computerized system. For the purpose of the
example shown in Exhibit 6.4A, four “part families” have already been defined and
are identified by unique arrow designs. This part of the exhibit shows the routing of
parts when a conventional workcenter-based layout is used. Here, parts are routed
through the individual workcenters to be produced.
2. Next, dominant flow patterns are identified for each part family. This will be used as
the basis for reallocating equipment to the manufacturing cells (see Exhibit 6.4B).
3. Finally, machines and the associated processes are physically regrouped into cells
(see Exhibit 6.4C). Often, there will be parts that cannot be associated with a
family and specialized machinery that cannot be placed in any single cell because
of its general use. These unattached parts and machinery are placed in a “remain-
der cell.”
Development of Manufacturing Cell exhibit 6.4
A. Original workcenter layout
Mills Drills Grind

R M (M) (D) (G) A
a a
s
w t
s
e Families
e
r of
m
i Parts
b
a
l
l
Lathes Heat Treat Gear Cutting y
s
(L) (HT) (GC)
Source: Adapted from D. Fogarty and T. Hoffman, Production and Inventory Management (Cincinnati: South-Western Publishing, 1983), p. 472.
B. Routing matrix based on flow of parts

Raw Part Heat Gear
Materials Family Lathes Mills Drills Treating Grinders Cutting To Assembly
X X X X
X X X
X X X X X
X X X X
C. Reallocating machines to form cells according to part family processing requirements
L M
I D Cell One
GC HT
n
v M D
HT Cell Two
e
G
L M
t
HT Cell Three
o G
r
M D
y Cell Four
GC
AN ASSEMBLY LINE. AN EXAMPLE OF A CONTINUOUS PROCESS.

©Jeff Kowalsky/Bloomberg/Getty Images ©Andrew Holt/Photographer’s Choice/Getty Images
Assembly-Line and Continuous Process Layouts

An assembly line is a layout design for the special purpose of building a product by going
through a progressive set of steps. The assembly steps are done in areas referred to as “sta-
tions,” and typically the stations are linked by some form of material handling device. In
addition, usually there is some form of pacing by which the amount of time allowed at each
station is managed. Rather than develop the process for designing assembly at this time, we
will devote the entire next section of this chapter to the topic of assembly-line design since
these designs are used so often by manufacturing firms around the world. A continuous
or flow process is similar to an assembly line except that the product continuously moves
LO6–4 Understand through the process. Often, the item being produced by the continuous process is a liquid
how to design and or chemical that actually “flows” through the system; this is the origin of the term. A gaso-
analyze an assembly line refinery is a good example of a flow process.
line.
Workstation cycle
time
ASSEMBLY-LINE DESIGN
The time between
The most common assembly line is a moving conveyor that passes a series of worksta-
successive units
coming off the end tions in a uniform time interval called the workstation cycle time (which is also the time
of an assembly line. between successive units coming off the end of the line). At each workstation, work is
performed on a product either by adding parts or by completing assembly operations. The
Assembly-line work performed at each station is made up of many bits of work, termed tasks.
balancing
The total work to be performed at a workstation is equal to the sum of the tasks assigned
The problem of
to that workstation. The assembly-line balancing problem is one of assigning all tasks
assigning tasks
to a series of to a series of workstations so that each workstation has no more than can be done in the
workstations so that workstation cycle time and so that the unassigned (that is, idle) time across all worksta-
the required cycle tions is minimized. The problem is complicated by the relationships among tasks imposed
time is met and idle by product design and process technologies. This is called the precedence relationship,
time is minimized. which specifies the order in which tasks must be performed in the assembly process.
Precedence
The steps in balancing an assembly line are straightforward:
relationship
The required order 1. Specify the sequential relationships among tasks using a precedence diagram. The
in which tasks must diagram consists of circles and arrows. Circles represent individual tasks; arrows
be performed in an indicate the order of task performance. This is similar to the project network dia-
assembly process. gram in Chapter 5.
2. Determine the required workstation cycle time (C), using the formula
Production time per day
C = _______________________________
    
     [6.3]
Required output per day (in units)
3. Determine the theoretical minimum number of workstations (Nt) required to sat-

isfy the workstation cycle time constraint using the formula (note that this must be
rounded up to the next highest integer)
Sum of task times (T )
N t = ______________________
         [6.4]
Cycle time (C )
4. Select a primary rule by which tasks are to be assigned to workstations and a

secondary rule to break ties. For example, the primary rule might be the longest
task time, and the secondary rule, the task with the longest number of following
tasks. In this case, for the tasks that can be assigned, pick the one with the longest
task time. If there is a tie, pick the one that has the greatest number of following
tasks.
5. Assign tasks, one at a time, to the first workstation until the sum of the task times
is equal to the workstation cycle time or no other tasks are feasible because of
time or sequence restrictions. Every time a task is assigned, re-create the list of
tasks that are feasible to assign and then pick one based on the rule defined in 4.
Repeat the process for Workstation 2, Workstation 3, and so on until all tasks are
assigned.
6. Evaluate the efficiency of the balance derived using the formula
Efficiency = _____________________________________________________________
           
    [6.5]
Actual number of workstations (N a) × Workstation cycle time (C )
Here, we assume there is one worker per workstation. When, for some reason,
the number of workstations does not equal the number of workers, we would usu-
ally substitute the number of workers for number of workstations.
7. If efficiency is unsatisfactory, rebalance using a different decision rule.
Example 6.2: Assembly-Line Balancing

The Model J Wagon is to be assembled on a conveyor belt. Five hundred wagons are required per
day. Production time per day is 420 minutes, and the assembly steps and times for the wagon are
given in Exhibit 6.5A. Assignment: Find the balance that minimizes the number of workstations,
subject to cycle time and precedence constraints.
SOLUTION
1. Draw a precedence diagram. Exhibit 6.5B illustrates the sequential relationships identified in
Exhibit 6.6A. (The length of the arrows has no meaning.)
2. Determine workstation cycle time. Here we have to convert to seconds because our task times
are in seconds.
Production time  per  day ________________________
60 sec. × 420 min. ______
25,200
C = ___________________
      
      =           =     
  
= 50.4
Output  per day 500 wagons 500
exhibit 6.5
A. Assembly Steps and Times for Model J Wagon

TASK TIME TASKS THAT
TASK (IN SECONDS) DESCRIPTION MUST PRECEDE
A 45 Position rear axle support and hand fasten four screws to nuts. —
B 11 Insert rear axle. A
C 9 Tighten rear axle support screws to nuts. B
D 50 Position front axle assembly and hand fasten with four screws —
to nuts.
E 15 Tighten front axle assembly screws. D
F 12 Position rear wheel #1 and fasten hubcap. C
G 12 Position rear wheel #2 and fasten hubcap. C
H 12 Position front wheel #1 and fasten hubcap. E
I 12 Position front wheel #2 and fasten hubcap. E
J 8 Position wagon handle shaft on front axle assembly and hand F, G, H, I

fasten bolt and nut.
K 9 Tighten bolt and nut. J
195
B. Precedence Graph for Model J Wagon
12 sec.
F
11 sec. 9 sec.
B C 12 sec.
45 sec.
A G
50 sec. 15 sec. 12 sec. 8 sec. 9 sec.

D E H J K
12 sec.
I
3. Determine the theoretical minimum number of workstations required (the actual number may
be greater):
T 195 sec.
N t = __
     = ____________
      
= 3.87 = 4 (rounded up)
C 50.4 sec.
4. Select assignment rules. In general, the strategy is to use a rule assigning tasks that either have
many followers or are of long duration because they effectively limit the balance achievable.
In this case, we use the following as our primary rule:
a. Prioritize tasks in order of the largest number of following tasks.
TASK NUMBER OF FOLLOWING TASKS
A 6
B or D 5
C or E 4
F, G, H, or I 2
J 1
K 0
Our secondary rule, to be invoked where ties exist from our primary rule, is:
b. Prioritize tasks in order of longest task time (shown in Exhibit 6.6). Note that D should be
assigned before B, and E assigned before C, due to this tiebreaking rule.
exhibit 6.6
A. Balance Made According to Largest-Number-of-Following-Tasks Rule
TASK TIME REMAINING UNASSIGNED FEASIBLE TASK WITH MOST TASK WITH LONGEST
TASK (IN SECONDS) TIME (IN SECONDS) REMAINING TASKS FOLLOWERS OPERATION TIME
Station 1 A 45 5.4 idle None
Station 2 D 50 0.4 idle None
B 11 39.4 C, E C, E E
E 15 24.4 C, H, I C
Station 3
C 9 15.4 F, G, H, I F, G, H, I F, G, H, I
F* 12 3.4 idle None
G* 12 38.4 H, I H, I H, I
H* 12 26.4 I
Station 4 I 12 14.4 J
J 8 6.4 idle None
Station 5 K 9 41.4 idle None
*Denotes task arbitrarily selected where there is a tie between longest operation times.
B. Precedence Graph for Model J Wagon

WS 3
12 sec.
F
WS 1 11 sec. 9 sec.
A B C 12 sec.
45 sec. G
WS 5
50 sec. 15 sec. 12 sec. 8 sec. 9 sec.
D E H J K
WS 2 12 sec.
I WS 4
C. Efficiency Calculation
T 195
Efficiency = ____
       = ________
       
= 0.77, or 77%
N aC (5)(50.4)
5. Make task assignments to form Workstation 1, Workstation 2, and so forth until all tasks
are assigned. The actual assignment is given in Exhibit 6.6A and is shown graphically in
Exhibit 6.6B. To understand this, it is best to trace through the task assignments in sequence
in Exhibit 6.6A. See that when an assignment is made, the feasible, remaining assignments
are updated along with the priority rules. It is important to meet precedence and cycle time
requirements as the assignments are made.
6. Calculate the efficiency. This is shown in Exhibit 6.6C.
7. Evaluate the solution. An efficiency of 77 percent indicates an imbalance or idle time of
23 percent (1.0–0.77) across the entire line. From Exhibit 6.6A we can see that there are
57 total seconds of idle time, and the “choice” job is at Workstation 5.
Is a better balance possible? In this case, yes. Try balancing the line with rule b and breaking ties
•
with rule a. (This will give you a feasible four-station balance.)
Splitting Tasks
Often, the longest required task time defines the shortest possible workstation cycle time
for the production line. This task time is the lower time bound unless it is possible to split
the task into two or more workstations.
Consider the following illustration. Suppose that an assembly line contains the follow-
ing task times in seconds: 40, 30, 15, 25, 20, 18, 15. The line runs for 7½ hours per day and
demand for output is 750 per day.
The workstation cycle time required to produce 750 per day is 36 seconds [(7½
hours × 60 minutes × 60 seconds)/750]. Our problem is that we have one task that takes 40
seconds. How do we deal with this task?
There are several ways that we may be able to accommodate the 40-second task in a
36-second cycle. Possibilities are
1.
Split the task. Can we split the task so that complete units are processed in two
workstations?
2.
Share the task. Can the task somehow be shared so an adjacent workstation does
part of the work? This differs from the split task in the first option because the adja-
cent station acts to assist, not to do some units containing the entire task.
3.
Use parallel workstations. It may be necessary to assign the task to two worksta-
tions that would operate in parallel.
4.
Use a more skilled worker. Because this task exceeds the workstation cycle time
by just 11 percent, a faster worker may be able to meet the 36-second time.
5.
Work overtime. Producing at a rate of one every 40 seconds would create 675 per
day, 75 short of the needed 750. The amount of overtime required to produce the
additional 75 is 50 minutes (75 × 40 seconds/60 seconds).
6.
Redesign. It may be possible to redesign the product to reduce the task time slightly.
Other possibilities to reduce the task time include an equipment upgrade, a roaming
helper to support the line, a change of materials, and multiskilled workers to operate the
line as a team rather than as independent workers.
Flexible and U-Shaped Line Layouts

As we saw in the preceding example, assembly-line balances frequently result in unequal
workstation times. Flexible line layouts such as those shown in Exhibit 6.7 are a common
way of dealing with this problem. In our toy company example, the U-shaped line with
work-sharing at the bottom of the figure could help resolve the imbalance.
Flexible Line Layouts exhibit 6.7
Material flow Material flow
Better: Operators can trade elements of

Bad: Operators caged. No chance work. Can add and subtract
to trade elements of work operators. Trained ones can
between them. nearly self-balance at different
(Subassembly line layout output rates.
common in American plants.)
Material
Better: Operators can help
each other. Might
Bad: Operators birdcaged. No increase output with
chance to increase output a third operator.
with a third operator.
Bad: Straight line difficult to balance.
Better: One of several advantages

of U-line is better operator
access. Here, five operators
were reduced to four.
Source: R. W. Hall, Attaining Manufacturing Excellence (Homewood, IL: Dow Jones-Irwin, 1987), p. 125.
Copyright © 1987 McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.
CONCEPT CONNECTIONS
LO6–1 Understand what a manufacturing process is.
∙ Manufacturing processes are used to make tangible items.
∙ At a high level, these processes can be divided into three steps: (1) sourcing the parts needed,
(2) making the item, and (3) sending the item to the customer.
∙ To allow parts of the process to operate independently, inventory is strategically positioned
in the process. These places in the process are called decoupling points. Positioning the
decoupling points has an impact on how fast a customer can be served, the flexibility the
firm has in responding to specific customer requests, and many other trade-offs.
Lead time The time needed to respond to a customer order.

Customer order decoupling point Where inventory is positioned in the supply chain.
Make-to-stock A production environment where the customer is served “on-demand” from
finished goods inventory.
Assemble-to-order A production environment where preassembled components, subassemblies,
and modules are put together in response to a specific customer order.
Make-to-order A production environment where the product is built directly from raw materials
and components in response to a specific customer order.
Engineer-to-order Here the firm works with the customer to design the product, which is then
made from purchased material, parts, and components.
Lean manufacturing To achieve high customer service with minimum levels of inventory
investment.
Total number of combinations = N1  × N2   × · · · × Nn 
[6.1]
LO6–2 Understand production process mapping and Little’s law.

∙ Process mapping is the drawing of a diagram that depicts the material flow and inventory in
a process.
∙ Material in a process is in one of two states. The first state is where material is moving or
“in-transit” and the second is when material is sitting in inventory and acting as a “buffer”
waiting to be used. Material that is in a manufacturing process in a factory can be considered
in-transit and is referred to as “work-in-process.”
∙ Little’s law is a mathematical relationship between units in inventory and time.
Total average value of inventory The total investment in inventory at the firm, which includes
raw material, work-in-process, and finished goods.
Inventory turn An efficiency measure where the cost of goods sold is divided by the total
average value of inventory.
Days-of-supply A measure of the number of days of supply of an item.
Little’s law Mathematically relates inventory, throughput, and flow time.
Throughput The average rate (e.g., units/day) that items flow through a process.
Flow time The time it takes one unit to completely flow through a process.

Inventory = Throughput rate × Flow time [6.2]
LO6–3 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

∙ Manufacturing layouts are designed based on the nature of the product, the volume needed to
meet demand, and the cost of equipment.
∙ The trade-offs are depicted in the product–process matrix, which depicts the type of layout
relative to product volume and the relative standardization of the product. Break-even
analysis, which is discussed in Chapter 6A, is useful for understanding the cost trade-offs
between alternative equipment choices.
Project layout For large or massive products produced in a specific location, labor, material, and
equipment are moved to the product rather than vice versa.
Workcenter A process with great flexibility to produce a variety of products, typically at lower
volume levels.
Manufacturing cell Dedicated area where a group of similar products are produced.
Assembly line Area where an item is produced through a fixed sequence of workstations,
designed to achieve a specific production rate.
Continuous process A process that converts raw materials into finished product in one
contiguous process.
Product–process matrix A framework depicting when the different production process types
are typically used, depending on product volume and how standardized the product is.
LO6–4 Understand how to design and analyze an assembly line.

∙ The assembly-line design is centered on defining the work content of workstations that are
typically spaced along the line. This technique is called assembly-line balancing.
∙ The workstations need to be defined so that efficiency is maximized while meeting
maximum cycle times and precedence constraints.
Workstation cycle time The time between successive units coming off the end of an assembly
line.
Assembly-line balancing The problem of assigning tasks to a series of workstations so that the
required cycle time is met and idle time is minimized.
Precedence relationship The required order in which tasks must be performed in an assembly
process.
Production time per day
_______________________________

C =    
      [6.3]
Required output per day (in units)
______________________

N t =          [6.4]
Cycle time (C )
_____________________________________________________________

Efficiency =     
         [6.5]
Actual number of workstations (N a ) × Workstation cycle time (C )
SOLVED PROBLEMS
LO6–2 SOLVED PROBLEM 1
Suppose we schedule shipments to our customers so that we expect each shipment to wait for two
days in finished goods inventory (in essence, we add two days to the expected ship date). We do
this to protect against system variability and ensure a high on-time delivery service. If we ship
approximately 2,000 units each day, how many units do we expect to have in finished goods inven-
tory by allowing this extra time? If the item is valued at $4.50 each, what is the expected value of
this inventory?
Solution
Using Little’s law, the expected finished goods inventory is
Inventory = 2,000 units per day × 2 days = 4,000 units
This would be valued at 4,000 units × $4.50 per unit = $18,000.

The following tasks must be performed on an assembly line in the sequence and times specified:
TASK TIME TASKS THAT MUST

TASK (SECONDS) PRECEDE
A 50 —
B 40 —
C 20 A
D 45 C
E 20 C
F 25 D
G 10 E
H 35 B, F, G
a. Draw the schematic diagram.

b. What is the theoretical minimum number of stations required to meet a forecast demand of
400 units per eight-hour day?
c. Use the longest-task-time rule and balance the line in the minimum number of stations to
produce 400 units per day.
Solution
a.
45 25
D F
50 20 35
A C 20 10 H
E G
40
B
b. The theoretical minimum number of stations to meet D = 400 is
245 seconds
T ________________________________ 245
N t = __       = ____
     =        
 = 3.4 stations
( )
C 60 seconds × 480 minutes 72
______________________________
    
   
400 units
c.
TASK TIME REMAINING FEASIBLE
TASK (SECONDS) UNASSIGNED TIME REMAINING TASK
A 50 22 C
Station 1
C 20 2 None
D 45 27 E, F
Station 2
F 25 2 None
B 40 32 E
Station 3 E 20 12 G
G 10 2 None
Station 4 H 35 37 None
The manufacturing engineers at Suny Manufacturing were working on a new remote-controlled toy
monster truck. They hired a production consultant to help them determine the best type of produc-
tion process to meet the forecasted demand for this new product. The consultant recommended that
they use an assembly line. He told the manufacturing engineers that the line must be able to pro-
duce 600 monster trucks per day to meet the demand forecast. The workers in the plant work eight
hours per day. The task information for the new monster truck is given below:
TASK TIME TASK THAT

TASK (SECONDS) MUST PRECEDE
A 28 —
B 13 —
C 35 B
D 11 A
E 20 C
F 6 D, E
G 23 F
H 25 F
I 37 G
J 11 G, H
K 27 I, J
Total 236
a. Draw the schematic diagram.

b. What is the required cycle time to meet the forecasted demand of 600 trucks per day based
on an eight-hour workday?
c. What is the theoretical minimum number of workstations, given the answer in part (b)?
d. Use longest task time with alphabetical order as the tie breaker, and balance the line in the
minimum number of stations to produce 600 trucks per day.
e. Use the largest number of following tasks, and as a tie breaker use the shortest task time, to
balance the line in the minimum number of stations to produce 600 trucks per day.
Solution
a.
28 11 6 23 37
A D F G I 27
13 35 20 25 11
B C E H J
Production time per day ______________________________
___________________ 60 seconds × 480 minutes ______
28,800
C =   
b.         =           =     
  
= 48 seconds
Output per day 600 trucks 600
T 236 seconds
N t = __
c.      = _______________
    
 = 4.92 = 5 (rounded up)
C 48 seconds
d.
FEASIBLE TASK TIME REMAINING
TASKS TASK (SECONDS) UNASSIGNED TIME
Station 1 A, B A 28 20
B, D B 13 7
Station 2 C, D C 35 13
D D 11 2
Station 3 E E 20 28
F F 6 22
Station 4 G, H H 25 23
G G 23 0
Station 5 I, J I 37 11
J J 11 0
Station 6 K K 27 21
e. Solution same as above.
An assembly process requires the following five tasks that must be done in sequence:
TASK TASK TIME (MINUTES)

A 10
B 15
C 5
D 15
E 15
Total work content 60 minutes
What is the trade-off between the capacity and the efficiency of assembly-line configurations that
have between one and four stations?
Solution
Recall that Efficiency = Work content/(Number of workstations × Cycle time).
The first configuration has all the tasks assigned to a single station as follows:
TASKS STATION WORK CYCLE TIME CAPACITY EFFICIENCY

CONFIGURATION 1 ASSIGNED CONTENT (MINUTES) (MINUTES) (UNITS PER HOUR) (PERCENT)
Station 1 A, B, C, D, E 60 60 1 100.00
The second configuration splits the tasks between two stations. Note that the tasks must be done
in sequence. Using trial and error, the best assignment is as follows:

Station 1 A, B, C 30
Station 2 D, E 30
30 2 100.00
This configuration splits the tasks between the two workstations such that the work content is
the same in each station (a perfectly balanced system). Using the configuration, one unit can be
made every 30 minutes or two units per hour.
Configuration 3 splits the tasks across three workstations as shown:

Station 1 A, B 25
Station 2 C, D 20
Station 3 E 15
25 2.4 80.00
With this configuration it is not possible to perfectly balance the work in each station. Station 1
has the most work and is the bottleneck. This assembly line can produce only one unit every 25
seconds or 2.4 (2.4 = 60/25) units per hour. The efficiency of this line is 80 percent [0.8 = 60/
(3 × 25)].
Configuration 4 splits the tasks across four workstations as shown:
Station 1 A 10
Station 2 B, C 20
Station 3 D 15
Station 4 E 15
20 3 75.00
With this configuration, station 2 is the bottleneck and the fastest sustainable cycle time of the
assembly line is 20 minutes per unit. Producing a unit every 20 minutes would allow the assem-
bly line to produce three (3 = 60/20) units per hour when operating at a steady rate. The effi-
ciency of this line is 75 percent [0.75 = 60/(4 × 20)].
As the capacity of the line increases by splitting tasks into more stations, the efficiency is
reduced. A key to understanding this analysis is the idea of the process bottleneck. The bottle-
neck is the station that has the most work content in the assembly line. When operating at a
steady rate, the assembly line cannot operate faster than the slowest workstation, so this station
limits capacity. The difference between the cycle time of the assembly line and the work content
in each station is idle time. In configuration 3 there would be 10 minutes of idle time in station
1, 5 minutes in station 3, and 5 minutes in station 4 for a total of 20 minutes of idle time for
each unit produced. The efficiency equation captures this idle time; for the 60 minutes of actual
work content to make a unit, 80 minutes is used (20 minutes of this time is the idle time).
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
LO6–1 1. What is meant by a process? Describe its important features.
2. What is a customer order decoupling point? Why is it important?
3. What’s the relationship between the design of a manufacturing process and the
firm’s strategic competitive dimensions (Chapter 2)?
LO6–2 4. What is meant by manufacturing process flow?

5. Why is it that reducing the number of moves, delays, and storages in a
manufacturing process is a good thing? Can they be completely eliminated?
LO6–3 6. What does the product–process matrix tell us? How should the kitchen of a
Chinese restaurant be structured?
7. It has been noted that during World War II Germany made a critical mistake by
having its formidable Tiger tanks produced by locomotive manufacturers, while the
less formidable U.S. Sherman tank was produced by American car manufacturers.
Use the product–process matrix to explain that mistake and its likely result.
8. How does the production volume affect the selection of a process and
profitability?
LO6–4 9. What is the objective of assembly-line balancing? How would you deal with the
situation where one worker, although trying hard, is 20 percent slower than the
other 10 people on the line?
OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS
LO6–1 1. What is the first of the three simple steps in the high-level view of manufacturing?
2. The customer order decoupling point determines the position of what in the
supply chain?
3. Dell Computer’s primary consumer business takes orders from customers for
specific configurations of desktop and laptop computers. Customers must select
from a certain model line of computer and choose from available parts, but within
those constraints may customize the computer as they desire. Once the order is
received, Dell assembles the computer as ordered and delivers it to the customer.
What type of manufacturing process is described here?
4. What term is used to mean manufacturing designed to achieve high customer
satisfaction with minimum levels of inventory investment?
LO6–2
5. You are in a line at the bank drive-through and 10 cars are in front of you. You
estimate that the clerk is serving 1 car about every five minutes. How long do you
expect to wait in line?
6. A firm has redesigned its production process so that it now takes 10 hours for
a unit to be made. Using the old process, it took 15 hours to make a unit. If the
process makes one unit each hour on average and each unit is worth $1,500, what
is the reduction in work-in-process value?
7. The Avis Company is a car rental company and is located three miles from the
Los Angeles airport (LAX). Avis is dispatching a bus from its offices to the
airport every 2 minutes. The average traveling time (a round trip) is 20 minutes.
a. How many Avis buses are traveling to and from the airport?
b. The branch manager wants to improve the service and suggests dispatching
buses every 0.5 minute. She argues that this will reduce the average traveling
time from the airport to Avis’s offices to 2.5 minutes. Is she correct? If your
answer is negative, then what will the average traveling time be?
8. Safety regulations require that the time between airplane takeoffs (on the same
runway) will be at least 3 minutes. When taking off, the run time of an airplane on
the runway is 45 seconds. Planes wait, on average, 4 minutes and 15 seconds for
takeoff. On average, there are 15 planes taking off per hour. How many planes are
either on the runway or waiting to take off?
9. In Children’s Hospital in Seattle, there are, on average, 60 births per week.
Mothers and babies stay, on average, two days before they leave the hospital. In
Swedish Hospital (also in Seattle), the average number of births per week is 210.
Mothers and children stay in the hospital two days, on average.
a. How many new mothers are staying in Children’s Hospital?
b. How many new mothers are staying in Swedish Hospital?
c. The directors of the two hospitals are negotiating unifying the children wards
of the two hospitals. They believe that by doing so they will be able to reduce
the number of new mothers staying in the hospital. Are they correct? How
many new mothers will stay, on average, in the unified ward?
You may assume that the average number of births and the lengths of stay
of the new mothers will not change.
10. A call center employs 1,000 agents. Every month, 50 employees leave the
company and 50 new employees are hired.
a. How long, on average, does an agent work for this call center?
Suppose the cost of hiring and training a new agent is $1,000. The manager
of this call center believes that increasing agents’ salaries would keep them
working longer at the company. The manager wants to increase the average
time that an agent works for the call center to 24 months, or two years.
b. If an agent works for the call center for 24 months on average, how much
can the company save on hiring and training costs over a year? (Hint: First
determine the current annual cost for hiring and training, then determine the
new annual cost for hiring and training.)
11. Money Laundry has 10 washers and 15 dryers. All orders are first sent to wash and
then to dry. It takes, on average, 30 minutes to wash one order and 40 minutes to dry.
a. What is the capacity of the washing stage?
b. What is the capacity of the drying stage?
c. Identify the bottleneck(s). Briefly explain.
d. What is the capacity of Money Laundry? Briefly explain.
e. If Money Laundry would like to increase the capacity by buying one more
machine, should they buy a washer or a dryer? Why?
The manager, Mr. Money, decided not to buy a machine. He still has 10
washers and 15 dryers. The manager estimates that, on average, Money Laundry
receives eight orders every hour. The manager also finds that, on average, there
are five orders in the washing stage and seven orders in the drying stage.
f. What is the utilization of washers, on average?
g. What is the utilization of dryers, on average?
h. On average, how long does it take an order to finish the washing process from
the time the order is received?
i. On average, how long does it take an order to finish the drying process from
the time the order finishes the washing process?
j. On average, how long does an order stay in Money Laundry?
LO6–3 12. How would you characterize the most important difference for the following
issues when comparing a workcenter (job shop) and an assembly line?
ISSUE WORKCENTER (JOB SHOP) ASSEMBLY LINE
Number of setups ( job
changeovers)
Labor content of product
Flexibility
13. The product–process matrix is a convenient way of characterizing the relationship

between product volumes (one-of-a-kind to continuous) and the processing system
employed by a firm at a particular location. In the box presented below, describe
the nature of the intersection between the type of shop (column) and process
dimension (row).
WORKCENTER ASSEMBLY LINE
Engineering emphasis
General workforce skill
Facility layout
WIP inventory level
14. For each of the following variables, explain the differences (in general) as one
moves from a workcenter to an assembly-line environment.
a. Throughput time (time to convert raw material into product)
b. Capital/labor intensity
c. Bottlenecks
LO6–4 15. An assembly line is to operate eight hours per day with a desired output of 240
units per day. The following table contains information on this product’s task
times and precedence relationships:
TASK TASK TIME (SECONDS) IMMEDIATE PREDECESSOR
A 60 —
B 80 A
C 20 A
D 50 A
E 90 B, C
F 30 C, D
G 30 E, F
H 60 G
a. Draw the precedence diagram.

b. What is the workstation cycle time required to produce 240 units per day?
c. Balance this line using the longest task time.
d. What is the efficiency of your line balance, assuming it is running at the cycle
time from part (b)?
16. The desired daily output for an assembly line is 360 units. This assembly line will
operate 450 minutes per day. The following table contains information on this
product’s task times and precedence relationships:
TASK TASK TIME (SECONDS) IMMEDIATE PREDECESSOR

A 30 —
B 35 A
C 30 A
D 35 B
E 15 C
F 65 C
G 40 E, F
H 25 D, G

c. Balance this line using the largest number of following tasks. Use the longest
task time as a secondary criterion.
d. What is the efficiency of your line balance, assuming it is running at the cycle
time 17 from part (b)?
17. Some tasks and the order in which they must be performed according to their
assembly requirements are shown in the following table. These are to be combined
into workstations to create an assembly line. The assembly line operates 7½ hours
per day. The output requirement is 1,000 units per day.
TASK PRECEDING TASKS TIME (SECONDS)

A — 15
B A 24
C A 6
D B 12
E B 18
F C 7
G C 11
H D 9
I E 14
J F, G 7
K H, I 15
L J, K 10
a. What is the workstation cycle time required to produce 1,000 units per day?
b. Balance the line using the longest task time based on the 1,000-unit forecast,
stating which tasks would be done in each workstation.
c. For part (b), what is the efficiency of your line balance, assuming it is running
at the cycle time from part (a)?
d. After production was started, Marketing realized that it understated demand
and must increase output to 1,100 units. What action would you take? Be
specific and quantitative in your answer.
18. An assembly line is to be designed to operate 7½ hours per day and supply a
steady demand of 300 units per day. Here are the tasks and their performance
times:
PRECEDING PERFORMANCE PRECEDING PERFORMANCE

TASK TASKS TIME (SECONDS) TASK TASKS TIME (SECONDS)
A — 70 G D 60
B — 40 H E 50
C — 45 I F 15
D A 10 J G 25
E B 30 K H, I 20
F C 20 L J, K 25

c. What is the theoretical minimum number of workstations?
d. Assign tasks to workstations using the longest operating time.
e. What is the efficiency of your line balance, assuming it is running at the cycle
time from part (b)?
f. Suppose demand increases by 10 percent. How would you react to this?
Assume that you can operate only 7½ hours per day.
19. The following tasks are to be performed on an assembly line:
TASK SECONDS TASKS THAT MUST PRECEDE

A 20 —
B 7 A
C 20 B
D 22 B
E 15 C
F 10 D
G 16 E, F
H 8 G
The workday is seven hours long. The demand for completed product is 750 per day.
a. Find the cycle time required to produce 750 units per day.
b. What is the theoretical number of workstations?
c. Draw the precedence diagram.
d. Balance the line using sequential restrictions and the longest-operating-time
rule.
e. What is the efficiency of the line balanced as in part (d), assuming it is running
at the cycle time from part (a)?
f. Suppose that demand rose from 750 to 800 units per day. What would you do?
Show any amounts or calculations.
g. Suppose that demand rose from 750 to 1,000 units per day. What would you
do? Show any amounts or calculations.
20. The Sun River beverage company is a regional producer of teas, exotic juices, and
energy drinks. With an interest in healthier lifestyles, there has been an increase in
demand for its sugar-free formulation.
The final packing operation requires 13 tasks. Sun River bottles its sugar-free
product five hours a day, five days a week. Each week, there is a demand for 3,000
bottles of this product. Using the data below, solve the assembly-line balancing
problem and calculate the efficiency of your solution, assuming the line runs at the
cycle time required to meet demand. Use the longest task time for your decision
criteria. Use the largest number of following tasks as a secondary criterion.
PRECEDING TIME TASKS THAT MUST PRECEDING TIME TASKS THAT MUST
TASK (MINUTES) FOLLOW TASK (MINUTES) FOLLOW
1 0.1 — 8 0.15 7
2 0.1 1 9 0.3 8
3 0.1 2 10 0.5 9
4 0.2 2 11 0.2 6
5 0.1 2 12 0.2 10, 11
6 0.2 3, 4, 5 13 0.1 12
7 0.1 1
21. Consider the following tasks, times, and predecessors for an assembly of set-top
cable converter boxes:
TASK ELEMENT TIME (MINUTES) ELEMENT PREDECESSOR

A 1 —
B 1 A
C 2 B
D 1 B
E 3 C, D
F 1 A
G 1 F
H 2 G
I 1 E, H
Given a cycle time of four minutes, develop two alternative layouts. Use the longest
task time rule and the largest number of following tasks as a secondary criterion.
What is the efficiency of your layouts, assuming the 4-minute cycle time?
ADVANCED PROBLEM
22. Francis Johnson’s plant needs to design an efficient assembly line to make a
new product. The assembly line needs to produce 15 units per hour, and there is
room for only four workstations. The tasks and the order in which they must be
performed are shown in the following table. Tasks cannot be split, and it would be
too expensive to duplicate any task.
TASK TASK TIME (MINUTES) IMMEDIATE PREDECESSOR

A 1 —
B 2 —
C 3 —
D 1 A, B, C
E 3 C
F 2 E
G 3 E

b. What is the workstation cycle time required to produce 15 units per hour?
c. Balance the line so that only four workstations are required. Use whatever
method you feel is appropriate.
d. What is the efficiency of your line balance, assuming the cycle time from
part (b)?
ANALYTICS EXERCISE: DESIGNING A MANUFACTURING PROCESS

A Notebook Computer Production of the subnotebook is scheduled to begin in
10 days. Initial production for the new model is to be 150
Assembly Line units per day, increasing to 250 units per day the follow-
A manufacturing engineering section manager is examining ing week (management thought that eventually produc-
the prototype assembly process sheet (shown in Exhibit 6.8) tion would reach 300 units per day). Assembly lines at the
for his company’s newest subnotebook computer model. plant normally are staffed by 10 operators who work at a
With every new model introduced, management felt that the 14.4-meter-long assembly line. The line is organized in a
assembly line had to increase productivity and lower costs, straight line with workers shoulder to shoulder on one
usually resulting in changes to the assembly process. When side. The line can accommodate up to 12 operators if there
a new model is designed, considerable attention is directed is a need. The line normally operates for 7.5 hours a day
toward reducing the number of components and simplify- (employees work from 8:15 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. and regular
ing parts production and assembly requirements. This new hours include one hour of unpaid lunch and 15 minutes of
computer was a marvel of high-tech, low-cost innovation and scheduled breaks). It is possible to run one, two, or three
should give the company an advantage during the upcoming hours of overtime, but employees need at least three days’
fall/winter selling season. notice for planning purposes.
Notebook Computer Assembly Process Sheet exhibit 6.8
TASK TASK TIME (SECONDS) TASKS THAT MUST PRECEDE

1. Assemble cover. 75 None
2. Install LCD in cover. 61 Task 1
3. Prepare base assembly. 24 None
4. Install M-PCB in base. 36 Task 3
5. Install CPU. 22 Task 4
6. Install backup batteries and test. 39 Task 4
7. Install Accupoint pointing device and wrist rest. 32 Task 4
8. Install speaker and microphone. 44 Task 4
9. Install auxiliary printed circuit board (A-PCB) on M-PCB. 29 Task 4
10. Prepare and install keyboard. 26 Task 9
11. Prepare and install digital video drive (DVD) and hard disk 52 Task 10
drive (HDD).
12. Install battery pack. 7 Task 11
13. Insert memory card. 5 Task 12
14. Start software load. 11 Tasks 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 13
15. Software load (unattended). 310 Task 14
16. Test video display. 60 Task 15
17. Test keyboard. 60 Task 16
exhibit 6.9 Engineers’ Initial Design of the Assembly Line
ASSEMBLY-LINE WORKSTATION
POSITION TASKS NUMBER LABOR TIME (SECONDS)
1 1. Assemble cover. (75) 1 75
2 2. Install LCD in cover. (61) 2 61 + 24 = 85
3. Prepare base assembly. (24)
3 4. Install main printed circuit board (M-PCB) in base. (36) 3 36 + 22 + 39 = 97
5. Install CPU. (22)
6. Install backup batteries and test. (39)
4 7. Install Accupoint pointing device and wrist rest. (32) 4 32 + 44 + 29 = 105
8. Install speaker and microphone. (44)
9. Install auxiliary printed circuit board (A-PCB) on M-PCB.
5 10. Prepare and install keyboard. (26) 5 26 + 52 + 7 + 5 + 11 = 101
11. Prepare and install digital video drive (DVD) and hard disk
drive (HDD). (52)
12. Install battery pack. (7)
13. Insert memory card. (5)
14. Start software load. (11)
15. Software load. (19)
6 Continue software load. (120)
9 16. Test video display. (60) 6 120
17. Test keyboard. (60)
10 Empty.
11 Empty.
12 Empty.
The Assembly Line units as they move by. In addition to the assembly workers,
At the head of the assembly line, a computer displays the a highly skilled worker, called a “supporter,” is assigned
daily production schedule, consisting of a list of model types to each line. The supporter moves along the line, assist-
and corresponding lot sizes scheduled to be assembled on ing workers who are falling behind and replacing workers
the line. The models are simple variations of hard disk size, who need to take a break. Supporters also make decisions
memory, and battery power. A typical production schedule about what to do when problems are encountered during the
includes seven or eight model types in lot sizes varying from assembly process (such as a defective part). The line speed
10 to 100 units. The models are assembled sequentially: All and the number of workers vary from day to day, depending
the units of the first model are assembled, followed by all on production demand and the workers’ skills and availabil-
the units of the second, and so on. This computer screen also ity. Although the assembly line has 12 positions, often they
indicates how far along the assembly line is in completing are not all used.
its daily schedule, which serves as a guide for the material Exhibit 6.9 provides details of how the engineers who
handlers who supply parts to the assembly lines. designed the new subnotebook computer felt that the new
The daily schedules are shared with the nearby Parts line should be organized. These engineers designed the line
Collection and Distribution Center (PCDC). Parts are brought assuming that one notebook would be assembled every two
from the PCDC to the plant within two hours of when they minutes by six line workers.
are needed. The material supply system is very tightly coor- In words, the following is a brief description of what is
dinated and works well. done at each workstation:
The assembly line consists of a 14.4-meter conveyor
belt that carries the computers, separated at 1.2-meter inter- Workstation 1: The first operator lays out the major com-
vals by white stripes on the belt. Workers stand shoulder ponents of a computer between two white lines on the
to shoulder on one side of the conveyor and work on the conveyor. The operator then prepares the cover for
accepting the LCD screen by installing fasteners and computers are put in racks for a 24-hour, 25°C “burn-in”
securing a cable. of the circuit components. After burn-in, the computers are
Workstation 2: The second operator performs two differ- tested again, software is installed, and the finished notebook
ent tasks. First, the LCD screen is installed in the computers are packaged and placed on pallets for shipment to
cover. This task needs to be done after the cover is as- Toshiba distribution centers around the world.
sembled (task 1). A second independent task done by
the operator is the preparation of the base so that the
main printed circuit board (M-PCB) can be installed.
Tweaking the Initial Assembly-Line
Workstation 3: Here the M-PCB is installed in the base. Design
After this is done, the central processing unit (CPU) From past experience, the engineering manager has found
and backup batteries are installed and tested. that the initial assembly-line design supplied by the engineers
Workstation 4: The Accupoint pointing device (touchpad) often needs to be tweaked. Consider the following questions
and wrist rest are installed, the speaker and micro- that the manager is considering:
phone are installed, and the auxiliary printed circuit 1. What is the daily capacity of the assembly line
board (A-PCB) is installed. These are all independent designed by the engineers? Assume that the assembly
tasks that can be done after the M-PCB is installed. line has a computer at every position when it is started
Workstation 5: Here, tasks are performed in a sequence. at the beginning of the day.
First, the keyboard is installed, followed by the DVD 2. When the assembly line designed by the engineers is
and hard disk drive (HDD). The battery pack is then running at maximum capacity, what is the efficiency
installed, followed by the memory card. The computer of the line relative to its use of labor? Assume that the
is then powered up and a program started that loads supporter is not included in efficiency calculations.
software that can be used to test the computer. Actu- 3. How should the line be redesigned to operate at the ini-
ally loading the software takes 310 seconds, and this is tial 250 units per day target, assuming that no overtime
done while the computer travels through positions 6, 7, will be used? What is the efficiency of your new design?
and 8 on the assembly line. Computers that do not 4. What about running the line at 300 units per day? If
work are sent to a rework area where they are fixed. overtime were used with the engineers’ initial design,
Only about 1 percent of the computers fail to start, and how much time would the line need to be run each
these are usually quickly repaired by the supporter. day?
Workstation 6: The video display and keyboard are tested 5. Design a new assembly line that can produce 300 units
in this workstation. per day without using overtime.
After assembly, the computers are moved to a separate 6. What other issues might the manager consider when
burn-in area that is separate from the assembly line. Here, bringing the new assembly line up to speed?
PRACTICE EXAM
1. A firm that makes predesigned products directly that each item held in inventory is valued at about the
to fill customer orders has this type of production same amount.
environment. 6. This is a production layout where similar products are
2. A point where inventory is positioned to allow the pro- made. Typically, it is scheduled on an as-needed basis
duction process to operate independently of the cus- in response to current customer demand.
tomer order delivery process. 7. The relationship between how different layout structures
3. A firm that designs and builds products from scratch are best suited depending on volume and product variety
according to customer specifications would have this characteristics is depicted using this type of graph.
type of production environment. 8. A firm is using an assembly line and needs to pro-
4. If a production process makes a unit every 2 hours and it duce 500 units during an eight-hour day. What is the
takes 42 hours for the unit to go through the entire pro- required cycle time in seconds?
cess, then the expected work-in-process is equal to this. 9. What is the efficiency of an assembly line that has 25
5. A finished goods inventory contains, on average, workers and a cycle time of 45 seconds? Each unit pro-
10,000 units. Demand averages 1,500 units per week. duced on the line has 16 minutes of work that needs
Given that the process runs 50 weeks a year, what is to be completed based on a time study completed by
the expected inventory turn for the inventory? Assume engineers at the factory.
8. 57.6 seconds = (8 × 60 × 60)/500 9. 85% = (16 × 60)/(25 × 45)
4. 21 units = 42/2 5. 7.5 turns = (1,500 × 50)/10,000 6. Manufacturing cell 7. Product–process matrix
Answers to Practice Exam 1. Make-to-order 2. Customer order decoupling point 3. Engineer-to-order

Chase-Operations SCM-191-222

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CHAPTER 6

exhibit 6.1 Positioning Inventory in the Supply Chain

Long Customer Lead Time Short

Source Make Deliver

Low Inventory Investment High

The inverted triangles represent customer order decoupling points.

PRODUCTION PROCESS MAPPING

exhibit 6.2 Make-to-Stock Process Map

Example 6.1: Car Batteries

These batteries are worth 8,300 × $45 = $373,500.

So, Flow time = 8,000 batteries/(200 batteries/day) = 40 days, which represents a 40-day supply of

HOW PRODUCTION PROCESSES ARE ORGANIZED

exhibit 6.3 Product–Process Matrix: Framework Describing Layout Strategies

Designing a Production System

is referred to as a department and is focused on a particular type of operation. Examples

Manufacturing Cells A manufacturing cell is formed by allocating dissimilar machines

Development of Manufacturing Cell exhibit 6.4

A. Original workcenter layout

Mills Drills Grind

B. Routing matrix based on flow of parts

C. Reallocating machines to form cells according to part family processing requirements

AN ASSEMBLY LINE. AN EXAMPLE OF A CONTINUOUS PROCESS.

Assembly-Line and Continuous Process Layouts

3. Determine the theoretical minimum number of workstations (Nt) required to sat-

4. Select a primary rule by which tasks are to be assigned to workstations and a

Example 6.2: Assembly-Line Balancing

A. Assembly Steps and Times for Model J Wagon

B 11 Insert rear axle. A

C 9 Tighten rear axle support screws to nuts. B

E 15 Tighten front axle assembly screws. D

F 12 Position rear wheel #1 and fasten hubcap. C

G 12 Position rear wheel #2 and fasten hubcap. C

H 12 Position front wheel #1 and fasten hubcap. E

I 12 Position front wheel #2 and fasten hubcap. E

J 8 Position wagon handle shaft on front axle assembly and hand F, G, H, I

K 9 Tighten bolt and nut. J

B. Precedence Graph for Model J Wagon

50 sec. 15 sec. 12 sec. 8 sec. 9 sec.

a. Prioritize tasks in order of the largest number of following tasks.

TASK NUMBER OF FOLLOWING TASKS

Station 2 D 50 0.4 idle None

Station 5 K 9 41.4 idle None

B. Precedence Graph for Model J Wagon

Flexible and U-Shaped Line Layouts

Flexible Line Layouts exhibit 6.7

Material flow Material flow

Better: Operators can trade elements of

Bad: Straight line difficult to balance.

Better: One of several advantages

Lead time The time needed to respond to a customer order.

LO6–2 Understand production process mapping and Little’s law.

LO6–3 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

LO6–4 Understand how to design and analyze an assembly line.

This would be valued at 4,000 units × $4.50 per unit = $18,000.

LO6–4 SOLVED PROBLEM 2

TASK TIME TASKS THAT MUST

a. Draw the schematic diagram.

b. The theoretical minimum number of stations to meet D = 400 is

LO6–4 SOLVED PROBLEM 3

TASK TIME TASK THAT

a. Draw the schematic diagram.

e. Solution same as above.

LO6–4 SOLVED PROBLEM 5