Q 4.3 POWERTOYS PowerToys Inc produces a small remote-controlled toy truck on a conveyor belt with nine stations. Each station has, under the current process layout, on worker assigned to it. Stations and processing times are summarized in the following table:

Station Task Processing Times (seconds)1. Mount battery units 752. Insert remote control receiver 853. Insert chip 904. mount front axle 655. mount back axle 706. install electric mirror 557. connect motor to battery unit 808. connect motor to rear axle 659. mount plastic body 80

a. What is the bottleneck in this process?The bottleneck in the process is the step with the maximum time out of all the 9 steps, Step 3 Insert Chip (90 Seconds)b. What is the capacity, in toy trucks per hour, of the assembly lineStepActivitySecHrsCapacity

1 Mount battery units750.02083348.0

2 Insert remote control receiver850.02361142.4

3 Insert chip900.02540.0

4 mount front axle650.01805655.4

5 mount back axle700.01944451.4

6 install electric mirror550.01527865.5

7 connect motor to battery unit800.02222245.0

8 connect motor to rear axle650.01805655.4

9 mount plastic body800.02222245.0

Flowrate = Minimum (48.0, 42.4, 40.0, 55.4, 51.4, 65.5, 45.0, 55.4, 45) = 40 Units/hrc. What is the direct labor cost for the toy truck with the current process if each worker receives $15/hour, expressed in dollars per toy truck?Total hourly Labor cost for 9 workers = 9*$15 = $135Labor cost per hour/Flowrate = $135/40 units/hr = $3.38 $ per unitd. What would be the direct labor cost for the toy truck if work would be organized in a work cell, that is, one worker performs all tasks? Assume that the processing times would remain unchanged (ie, there are no specialization gains).Labor Content = Sum (75, 85, 90, 65, 70, 55, 80, 65, 80) = 665 seconds per unitNumber of units in an hour = 3600/665 = 5.4135 units an hour@ $15 an hour the Labor cost = $15*1(# of workers)/5.4135 units = 2.77$ per unite. What is the utilization of the worker in station 2?Flow rate for the whole line is 40 units per hour from (b)Capacity at Station 2 from the table above is 42.4 units per hourUtilitzation of the worker = 40/42.4 * 100 = 94.3396%

Because of a drastically reduced forecast, the plant management has decided to cut staffing from nine to six workers per shift. Assume that (i) the nine tasks in the preceding table cannot be divided; (ii) the nine tasks are assigned to the six workers in the most efficient way possible; and (iii) if one worker is in charge of two tasks, the tasks have to be adjacent (i.e., one worker cannot work on tasks 1 and 3).

f. How would you assign the nine tasks to the six workers?Workers are allocated based on the lowest adjacent activity time to balance the workloadWorkerStepActivitySecStation TimeHrsUnits

11 Mount battery units75750.02083348.0

22 Insert remote control receiver85850.02361142.4

33 Insert chip90900.02540.0

44 mount front axle651350.037526.7

5 mount back axle70

56 install electric mirror551350.037526.7

7 connect motor to battery unit80

68 connect motor to rear axle651450.04027824.8

9 mount plastic body80

g. What is the new capacity of the line (in toy trucks per hour)?Flowrate = Minimum (48.0, 42.4, 40.0, 26.7, 26.7, 24.8) = 24.8 Units/hr