HW7

Directions:

Please read the following questions and write the correct answer.

About the Product-Process Matrix

1. According to the process structure and product characteristics, in which intersection should the following processes be located?

1. Oil refinery

2. Automobile assembly

3. Guitar assembly

4. Heavy machinery assembly

Please circle your aswer:

2. Most hospital processes are characterized as high volume and low flexibility. True or false

3. The processes of a petrochemical plant, due to its characteristics, have continuous flow and generate highly customizable products. True or False

4. Which of the following ratios can be used to calculate throughput time or flow time (T) according to the Little's Law (I = R * T)?

a. Value added/Process velocity

b. Work-in-Process/Throughput rate

c. Throughput rate/Process velocity

5. Which of the following clearly defines the Flow Rate (R) of a process?

a. The time taken for a flow unit to go from the beginning to the end of the process

b. The number of flow units in the process at a given moment in time

c. The number of flow units going through the process per unit of time

6. Which of the following clearly defines the Flow Time (T) of a process?

a. The time taken for a flow unit to go from the beginning to the end of the process

b. The number of flow units in the process at a given moment in time

c. The number of flow units going through the process per unit of time

7. Which of the following clearly defines the Inventory (I) of a process?

a. The time taken for a flow unit to go from the beginning to the end of the process

b. The number of flow units in the process at a given moment in time

c. The number of flow units going through the process per unit of time

Processing time

8. What is the processing time p?

a. The time it takes for an activity to process one flow unit

b. The time it takes for a customer order to be fulfilled (from order to shipping)

c. The time it takes for the shortest activity to be done

Resource capacity

9. What is the resource capacity?

a. The average between the maximum and minimum number of flow units that an activity can process per unit of time

b. The minimum number of flow units that an activity can process per unit of time

c. The maximum number of flow units that an activity can process per unit of time

10. What is the bottleneck in a process?

a. The activity with the smallest resource capacity

b. The activity with the largest resource capacity

c. The activity with the average resource capacity

11. What would be the capacity of a process comprised by different sequential activities?

a. The largest resource capacity

b. The capacity of the bottleneck

c. The capacity of the quickest activity

Flow rate

12. An assembly line has a process capacity of 10 units/hour, a demand rate of 8 units/hour, and an input rate of materials of 12 units/hour. What is the flow rate of this assembly line? 

a. 10 units/hour

b. 8 units/hour

c. 12 units/hour

Resource utilization

13. How do we calculate resource utilization in a process? 

a. Resource Utilization = Flow rate * Resource capacity 

b. Resource Utilization = Resource capacity/Flow rate 

c. Resource Utilization = Flow rate/Resource capacity

Case Study

The company R is having trouble delivering the product (RRR) to its customer Z on time. The monthly demand of this customer is 1000 pieces. You are in charge of analyzing the value chain of the current process, for which you performed an analysis of the process finding the following information:

The company R has a shift with 7.5 hours of work available per day, 5 days a week (considering 4 weeks per month).

R sends the finished product by land to Z daily, who in turn, sends R a purchase order each week electronically.

The sole supplier (C) ships the raw material by land on Mondays and Fridays. This provider receives from R a forecast via email for 30 days.

R's production control department sends the printed production plan daily to the five operations that make up the RRR assembly process. It also sends the printed program of shipments of finished products daily to the shipping area.

In the five operations, you know that each one is operated by a person, in addition:

Operation 1 has a cycle time of 14 min and an average change of process time of 60 min.

Operation 2 has a cycle time of 19 min and an average change of process time of 5 min.

Operation 3 has a cycle time of 10 min and no downtime is generated by changing the process.

Operation 4 has a cycle time of 20 min and no downtime is generated by changing the process.

Operation 5 has a cycle time of 7 min and an average change of process time of 80 min.

Regarding the flow of materials, you observed that, in the raw material reception area, there is inventory equivalent to two days of production. Between operation 1 and 2 there are on average 100 pieces waiting to be processed; between operation 2 and 3 there are 50 pieces; between operation 3 and 4 there are 200 pieces; and between operation 4 and 5 there are 25 pieces. Finally, you noticed that in the boarding area there are 300 pieces already finished.

Estimate the Takt time using the following formula:

1. What is the total inventory in the system?

2. What is the Production Lead Time for company R?

3. What is the value-added time that company R has?

4. Create an Actual Value Stream Map for the Company R and its product RRR

5. Indicate three aspects that can be addressed as Kaizen type improvement projects for the R company.

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