Case Study Due July 17
Running head: JOHNSTON PRODUCTS 1
Johnston Products
Daisy Duck
Saint Leo University
MGT 417
Dr. XXXXXXXXXX
February 10, 2019
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Running head: JOHNSTON PRODUCTS 2 Johnston Products
Justin Wang, master scheduler for Johnston Products, has tried numerous times to
communicate to his people that there is a production schedule issue. Also, his workers had
consistently tried to “front-load” (Chapman, Arnold, Gatewood, & Clive, 2017, p.162), the
production schedule by attempting to catch up with the production that they had no success in
meeting the requirements for during the first week. Furthermore, this problem was progressing,
occurring every week, and Justin’s only way to attempt to resolve this problem was to revamp
the entire master schedule which occurred about every three weeks.
As explained by (Chapman et al, 2017),
The first week of the month, Justin had scheduled production to 320 standard
hours in the assembly area, which completed only 291 hours that week
due to some equipment maintenance and a few unexpected part shortages. The
assembly supervisor then had the workers complete the remaining
29 hours from week 1 at the start of week 2. Since week 2 already had 330
standard hours scheduled, the additional 29 hours really put them in a
position of attempting to complete 359 hours. The workers actually
completed 302 hours in week 2, leaving 57 hours to front-load into week 3,
and so forth. Usually by the time Justin came to three-week review of the
master schedule, it was not uncommon for the assembly area to be more
than 100 standard hours behind schedule. (pp. 162-163)
There is definitely a problem with the production schedule. Therefore, in order to
pinpoint the cause of the problem, Justin needs to identify the areas that are possibly causing
problems in
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JOHNSTON PRODUCTS 3 the facility, calculate the time required to be within the 320 hours available and access the
results,
and construct a resolution to get the production schedule back under control.
Potential Areas Causing Problems
There are four areas that Justin needs to observe as follows: Job standards, utilization,
the workers, and engineering changes. For job standards, it had been four years since the job
standards were reviewed or updated. Justin didn’t see this as an issue, because he was taught
during his operations course about the value of the learning curve. The concept suggested that
average workers should be permitted to complete more production per hour than implied by job
standards given. In addition, for the utilization aspect, the general manager was keen on the
principle of utilization, he believed it would facilitate in controlling costs, and used it as a sole
mean in his performance metrics.
Customer service was another important element of utilization due to a lack of the
company to maintain their word on order delivery dates, and “equally difficult to deliver the
product on time once the order promise was made” (Chapman et al, 2017, p. 163). Likewise, the
worker’s area was another effort to control costs, as the hourly wages for workers was high, but
the turnover rate was 70% annually because of the overall low paying salary. Despite the fact,
the building was located where replacement workers were easy to find. Once a worker had a
week of training, they were assigned to the production team. Even so, while the hiring
objectives were taking place, the company filled vacant positions with temporary workers who
were brought in by a local temporary work agency.
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JOHNSTON PRODUCTS 4 Regarding the engineering changes, the design of almost all of the products was
improving, with an average product change roughly every two months which resulted in product
improvements. So, this was not perceived as a problem to factor into the equation, and the
equipment had engineering changes, but little process changes took effect as a result. Moreover,
“setup time for these specific batches was 15 minutes, which obliged batch sizes about 50 – 300
units, pending the design. Equipment was old and caused regular maintenance to rise along with
frequent breakdowns. Each equipment item required 3 or more hours of maintenance per week”
(Chapman et al, 2017, p. 163). However, a further assessment was required to validate weekly
calculation.
Calculations
The computer had already computed most of the production calculations prior, but Justin
felt the need to validate these calculations and examine if the computer was the source of the
problem. He proceeded to collect the data to manually calculate the week that had eight
personnel assigned to work the assembly for every eight machines, per one shift a day. The
following chart was the result of what was computed without overtime to enable the 320 hours of
production.
Product Batch Size Standard Assembly Time in mins (per item)
Batch Run Time (including setup) in mins
A174 50 17 850 + 15 = 865 G820 100 9 900 + 15 = 915 H221 50 19.5 975 + 15 = 990 B327 200 11.7 2,340 + 15 = 2,355 C803 100 21.2 2,120 + 15 = 2,135 P932 300 14.1 4,230 + 15 = 4,245 F732 200 15.8 3,160 + 15 = 3,175 J513 150 17.3 2,595 + 15 = 2,610 L683 150 12.8 1,920 + 15 = 1,935 Total Time = 19,225 min = 320.42 hours
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JOHNSTON PRODUCTS 5
Findings
Justin’s research allowed just over 320 production hours as anticipated. So, what’s
causing production problems in the facility? It’s possible that the areas Justin had identified
causing production problems in the facility? It’s possible that the areas Justin had identified
were not as problematic as they seem. These areas included high turnover rates and a broad use of
temp workers, which resulted in continual learning curves and slower production. The four-year-
old company standards were likely developed due to the experienced workforce. But, another
area of interest involved the age of equipment and downtime, due to repair and as needed
replacement parts.
Also, three hours of weekly maintenance per machine totaled a loss of 24-hours of
production time for their eight machines. Additionally, the engineering changes caused a learning
curve. Even for seasoned employees, changes in the process caused a mental mishap on how
items were produced, until the employee became more proficient and confident in creating the
right product. Finally, the last area mentioned was the practice of front-loading the production
schedule in order to catch up with production. This kind of action can have a ripple effect on
efficiency, while causing changes to the master schedule by adding required work hours, but not
counteracting the cause with more manpower or work-load hours.
Solution to be Implemented
A plan on how to deal with the situation and attempt to get the production schedule back
under control, involves a constant scheduling of equipment maintenance (minimum 24 hours per
week) added to the production schedule. As equipment ages, replacement plans should be in
place to resolve or reduce untimely repairs. Also, newer equipment models will cut costs on
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JOHNSTON PRODUCTS 6 maintenance. However, another solution that could be used is to reduce the mass amount of
employees’ turnover rates. This issue can be addressed by increasing the employees’ pay and
enhancing their quality of life with better benefits such as leave time, medical, dental etc.
When an employee’s health and well-being are considered under employment terms with
a company, quality candidates will compete for positions and remain in the hopes of further
development, empowerment, and promotions. Temporary hiring agencies can be utilized to help
locate and hire full-time qualified employees versus temporary hires. The last set of solutions
that can be addressed involves the customer service concerns and meeting their needs of quality
products being delivered on time. Instead of “front-loading” production orders from the previous
week, there should be a buffer of on-hand products readily available for sale, which would omit
lead times and heighten customer service.
Summary
Overall, Johnston Products should consider all viable options to reinforce capacity and its
internal and external customer demands. Reviewing the master schedule revealed that less
prevalent problems were actually viable and detrimental to the company’s health. Looking at the
older equipment and employees’ turnover rates were rightfully addressed, and new ideas should
always be encouraged to maximize overall effectiveness. By working out the problems causing
the “front-loading” issue, production shortages and the many other problems that stemmed from
it, could now be a thing from the past and a hard lesson learned. Lastly, if Johnston’s Control
was more involved with the well-being and quality of life of their employees’, it would
drastically reduce the high turnover rate, and would also establish a working environment similar
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JOHNSTON PRODUCTS 7 to that of Saint Leo University’s that would be based on a “community of mutual trust and
respect” (n.d.).
References
Chapman, S. N., Arnold, J. R., Gatewood, A. K., & Clive, L. M. (2017). Introduction to Materials
Management (8th Ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Saint Leo University. (n.d.). History, Values, and Catholic Roots. Core Values. Retrieved from
https://www.saintleo.edu/history-values-catholic-roots
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