9.

20 The assembly-line activities are:

Time Ready Time Station
Task (in minutes) Predecessors Tasks Left Assignment
A 3 None A, B 1 1
B 6 None C, D, E 1
C 7 A D, E, F 3 2
D 5 A, B 3
E 2 B F, G, H, I 3 3
F 4 C 4
G 5 F J, H, I, K 1 4
H 7 D, E 5
I 1 H K, J 2 5
J 6 E 6
K 4 G, I, J 0 6
50

(a, g)

(f) Idle time ime allocated per unit  ime needed per unit
60  50
10min/cycle
(g) Best assignment is shown in part (a) with the efficiency shown in part (e) (i.e., 83.33%)

9.21

1
 Performance Time Task Must Follow
Task (in minutes) This Task
A 5 —
B 3 A
C 4 B
D 3 B
E 6 C
F 1 C
G 4 D, E, F
H 2 G
28

Cycle time is given as 7 minutes in the problem.

The work activities may be grouped, however, into no fewer than five workstations without violating precedence
requirements.

or
Efficiency 80%

However, note that the efficiency of this particular grouping

Several other balances are also possible. One of them is to place A alone, tasks B and C together, D and F
together, E by itself, and G and H together.

9.22
(a) One possible layout is:

2
(b) The throughput is 3.75 patients per hour.
(c) The bottleneck is at the medical exam station— 16 minutes.
(d) Paramedics are idle 2 minutes, and doctors are idle
10 minutes for each patient.
(e) If one more doctor and one more paramedic are added, it is possible to increase the throughput to at least
five per hour with this simple layout:

3
 The bottlenecks are now the two stations, psychological exam and eye/measurements, taking 12 minutes.

9.23 (a)

(b)

(c) n = 6 workstations in our answer.

Precedence diagram:

Number of
Task Successors
A 9
B 4
C 4
D 2
E 2
Number of
Task Successors
F 2
G 2
H 1
I 1
J 0

Available
Available and Fit Assigned
Station 1 A A A

4
 B, C — —
Station 2 B, C B, C C (Broke a tie)
B, F, G — —
Station 3 B, F, G B, F, G B
D, E, F G E, F, G F (Broke ties)
D, E, G — —
Station 4 D, E, G D, E, G D (Broke ties)
E, G E, G G (Broke a tie)
E, I — —
Station 5 E, I E, I E
I, H I, H H (Broke a tie)
I I I
J — —
Station 6 J J J

Answer: Station Tasks

(Other answers 1 A
possible, depending 2 C
upon how ties are 3 B, F
broken in above 4 D, G
procedure) 5 E, H, I
6 J

5
9.27* Performance Time Task Must Follow
Task (in minutes) This Task
A 13 —
B 4 A
C 10 B
D 10 —
E 6 D
F 12 E
G 5 E
H 6 F, G
I 7 H
J 5 H
K 4 I, J
L 15 C, K
97

Using Longest Operation Time, the results are:

Total idle time  5 seconds

or
Efficiency = 95.1%