Chanakya Round 1 Case 3

8/13/2019 Chanakya Round 1 Case 3

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Case #3

Of MAN, MACHINE & MANUFACTURING

Chanakya, IIM Indore

ROUND1

CASECHALLENGE


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Case #3 Of Man, Machine & Manufacturing

OF MAN, MACHINE & MANUFACTURING

Sitting in his office on the first floor with a clear view of the 4 assembly lines, the highly dynamic and energetic

Production Manager of Innovat Electronics Rajat Dubey, had been rather gloomy since morning. On his

insistence, Innovat had taken the highly ambitious project of manufacturing the latest K-Series laptops in-

house with the advance orders simply 4 months away. While Rajat and his team were successful in establishing

and starting the assembly line, various issues had now creeped in. He now seeks solutions to these challenges.

The Company

Innovat Electronics was an Indian Manufacturing Firm set up in the early 1980s mainly as a vendor to various

multinationals. Having been in trade for several years and developing its own contacts in the industry, the

company decided to start designing and manufacturing its products. The latest in the portfolio of products

being developed by Innovat was its K-series Laptop.

The Production

Rajat and his team had designed and were able to start production of the K-series laptops in a record time.

Rajat himself was at the heart of the entire process, right from designing to the implementation of the

assembly line which he considered to be his most important contribution to the organization. Innovat had

asked Trusted Inc. to develop the motherboard which was one of its kinds both in terms of complexity and

design and which would make Innovatslaptops the fastest and the most robust ones in the market.

Process

Rajat and his team had designed 4 assembly lines each 20 meters with a total number of workers required per

line to be 14 and 1 line manager or the supervisor taking care of the assembly line assigned to him (Exhibit 1

gives the overview of the assembly line and Exhibit 2gives the summary of tasks and planned and actual time

taken per station). Rajat designed the operations of each line to produce 700 laptops per nine hour shift

(including an hours lunch break), with two shifts per day, 26 days per month. The companys goal was to meet

peak monthly demand and wanted to keep the inventory of finished laptops as low as possible. The marketing

team gave the production team a 5 month demand forecast which was also adjusted monthly if need arose

(Exhibit 3). Each assembly line had 2 floaters who were trained in the complete process and who could help

out the line workers with any issues and delays. Apart from that the line also had different type of workers

trained on particular skill sets and these workers could be used interchangeably but only within the type which

they were assigned to. (See Exhibit 4which gives the type of worker and their salaries).

Challenges Faced

Rajat had designed the line such that each station took 40 seconds, but few stations were giving problems and

presently they were able to produce a laptop every 50 seconds. The station where webcam was attached was

a problem which had crept in recently. The vendor had provided a lot of webcams which required additional

rework before it could be installed. Rajat expected this problem to be solved after this lot was over. Since the

motherboard was unique and quite complex, workers were facing issues installing it and connecting it to other

components. (Exhibit 5gives the breakup of the tasks and time taken per task for certain stations).

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Additional Information

4 assembly lines Planned output was 700 laptops per line per line per shift 2 shifts of 9 hours each with a 1 hour lunch break Presently taking 50 seconds to assemble one laptop Overtime labor cost is Rs. 75 per hour per worker Cost of overtime for floater is Rs. 120 per hour Workers of particular type can stay and work within those stations though interchangeably Cost of training a new worker is Rs. 1000 Cost of holding inventory Rs. 1500/laptop.

The Dilemma

While pondering over how to meet the demand set by the marketing team Rajat was thinking about few ideas:

Should he hire new workers, add one more assembly line to the existing 4 lines, add a floater who could help

increase the number of laptops per line, talk to the management for maintaining inventory for meetingdemand or increase the shift time such that workers are made to work over time.

Rajat has hired ATK Consulting firm to solve his dilemma. As a consultant you have to come up with a most

efficient and a cost effective solution keeping in mind the constraints of the organization. Help Rajat solve his

dilemma.

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Exhibits

Exhibit 1

Exhibit 2

Station Summary of operations

Planned

Time(Seconds)

Workers

perstation

Actual

Time(seconds)

Type of

Worker

Actual

Workers

1

Put all the components required on

conveyor belt and look out for defects if

any

40 1 40 L1 1.5

2Attaching Web cam into cover assembly

and preparing the laptop for next station40 1 50 L2 1.5

3Connect LCD Cable and install LCD display

panel40 2 38 L3 2

4Install and secure motherboard onto the

base40 1 50 L3 1

5Install and screw in the hard disk and

connect it to mother board40 2 41 L3 2

6Install microphone to base assembly and

connect it to mother board40 1 50 L3 1

7Install speaker holders and speakers and

connect speaker cable to sound card40 2 38 L4 2.25

8Connect battery and clock battery; install

wireless card to mother board40 1 42 L4 1.5

9 Install touchpad, keyboard support plate 40 2 41 L5 2.25

10 Tighten the srews; install connectorprotective flap and battery pack

40 1 40 L5 1

Total assembly line workers per line 14

Supervisors per line 1

Floaters per line 2

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Exhibit 3: Monthly Demand Forecast

Exhibit 4:

Exhibit 5: Monthly Demand Forecast

Station Summary of operations

Planned

Time

(Seconds)

Workers

per

station

Actual

Time

(seconds)

Type of

Worker

3

1. Connect LCD cable to display

2. Install LCD display panel in cover assembly

3. Put screw for next station in tray

15

20

5

2

14

19

5

L3

4

1. Install motherboard onto base assembly

2. Secure mother board with screws

3. Place screws for next station in the tray

15

18

7

1

25

18

7

L3

5

1. Install and screw in solid state hard drive

2. Connect harddrive cable to mother board

3. Place insulator sheet on hard drive

4. Put screws in tray for next station

20

11

4

5

2

20

11

5

5

L3

6

1. Screw in microphone to base assembly

2. Connect microphone to motherboard

3. Install support frame on base

4. Put screws for next station

13

9

13

5

1

20

12

13

5

L3

136000

120000

130000

120000

135000

110000

115000

120000

125000

130000

135000

140000

January February March April May

Type of Worker Wage per Day (Rs.)

L1 450

L2 450

L3 450

L4 450

L5 450

Supervisor 900

Floater 750

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Chanakya, IIM Indore

Chanakya Round 1 Case 3

Documents

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