Uphillmakes bikes to order, receiving customer orders via a network of retailers. Once a customer picks a configuration, the retailer emails the order to Uphill. The most popular model is the Alpinewhich Uphillmanufactures with the following process. First, Greg checks the order for consistency and prepares instructions for the subsequent operations. When the process operates at capacity, Greg's utilization is 40%. Once Greg is done, the order moves to both Eddy and Lance who can work on their respective tasks in parallel. Eddy picks the correctframefrominventoryandspraypaints theframeusingUphill'sInstant Dry®technology.Whentheprocess operates at capacity, Eddy's utilization is 100%. When the frame is ready, Eddy passes it on to final assembly and testing (FAT).
Lance is in charge of wheel building and brake sub assembly. Lance selects and mounts tires and diskbrakerotorsonthewheels toorderbased onthecustomer'sweight.Whentheprocess operatesatcapacity, he is busy 60% of the time. Once the wheels are ready, Lance passes them on to Miguel whose tasks include assemblingtheshockabsorbersandtestingthemtogetherwiththewheelsonspecial equipment.Miguelrequires 20 minutes for these tasks and his utilization is 50% when the process operates at capacity. When done Miguel passes the tested wheels and shocks on to final assembly and testing. At final assembly and test, there are four equallycompetentworkers, Tyler,Jan,Bernard, andLaurent.Whentheframe, wheels,andshocks foracustomer order are all complete, one of these four workers takes these components and assembles them with other parts (handle bar, saddle, etc) into the finished bike. (That is, only one employee works on a given bike at FAT.) When the process operates at capacity, the FAT resource pool's utilization is 80%.
a) Draw the processflowchart
b) What is the theoretical capacity of the Alpine production process in bikes perhour?
c) What are the activity times for all the activities of the Alpineproduction process? (in minutes/bike)
d) (4) What is the theoretical flow time for an Alpinebike?
e) Lance and Greg have the following argument. Lance claims that it is possible to simultaneously increase the capacity andreduce the theoretical flow time of the Alpinebike production process, simply by reducing the activity time of a single(carefully selected) activity while keeping the process otherwise unchanged. Greg, however, claims that this is not possible. Who is right andwhy?
f) Suppose that Jan (one of the people doing the final assembly and testing) quits his job and no one replaces him. What impact does this have on the theoretical flow time and the theoreticalcapacity?