What are economies of scale in a manufacturing plant


Response to the following:

Essay Questions:

There is no set length for answers; students may be as verbose or brief as they feel necessary to cover the question. Use this same exam document for your answers, placing them below each question.

Problem Questions:

Make sure to show all your work to get full credit. The instructor needs to know the formulas and calculations you used to get to your final answer. You can do part of the exam in Excel and Paste your Excel work into this document.

Essay Questions

Question 1: What is operations management? Why is it important? Is a good knowledge of operations management more important in service or manufacturing industries? Explain your answer.

Question 2: Discuss the use of PERT/CPM techniques for managing projects. Describe what PERT/CPM does. Discuss advantages and disadvantages of using it. What other techniques might you choose to manage your project?

Question 3: What are economies of scale in a manufacturing plant? Do they continue forever? What are diseconomies of scale? How might you decide the optimal size of a plant?

Question 4: What, in your opinion, are the three most important issues in supply chain management? Discuss why you think these are the key issues.

Question 5: Discuss why (or if) inventories are necessary. What are the benefits of inventories? What are the disadvantages of holding inventories?

Problem Questions:

Problem 1. Arsenal Electronics is going to construct a new $1.2 billion semiconductor plant and has selected four towns in the Midwest as potential sites. The important location factors and ratings for each town are as follows:

Location Factor

Weight

Abbeton

Bayside

Cane Creek

Dunnville

Work ethics

0.18

80

90

70

75

Quality of life

0.16

75

85

95

90

Labor laws/unionization

0.12

90

60

60

70

Infrastructure

0.10

60

50

60

70

Education

0.08

80

90

85

95

Labor skill and education

0.07

75

65

70

80

Cost of living

0.06

70

80

85

75

Taxes

0.05

65

70

55

60

Incentive package

0.05

90

95

70

80

Government regulations

0.03

40

50

65

55

Environmental regulations

0.03

65

60

70

80

Transportation

0.03

90

80

95

80

Space for expansion

0.02

90

95

90

90

Urban proximity

0.02

60

90

70

80

Recommend a site based on these location factors and ratings.

Problem 2. Sawyer Furniture is one of the few remaining domestic manufacturers of wood furniture. In the current competitive environment, cost containment is the key to its continued survival. Demand for furniture follows a seasonal demand pattern with increased sales in the summer and fall months, culminating with peak demand in November.

The cost of production is $16 per unit for regular production, $24 for overtime, and $33 for subcontracting. Hiring and firing costs are $500 per worker. Inventory holding costs are $20 per unit per month. There is no beginning inventory. Ten workers are currently employed. Each worker can produce 50 pieces of furniture per month. Overtime cannot exceed regular production. Given the following demand data, use Excel Solver to design an aggregate production plan for Sawyer Furniture that will meet demand at the lowest possible cost.

Input:

Beg. Wkrs

10

Regular

$16

Hiring

$500

 

 

Units/wkr

50

Overtime

$24

Firing

$500

 

 

Beg. Inv.

0

Subk

$33

Inventory

$20

 

 

Month

Demand

Reg

OT

Subk

Inv

#Wkrs

#Hired

#Fired

 

Jan

500

500

0

0

0

10

0

0

 

Feb

500

500

0

0

0

10

0

0

 

Mar

1000

1,000

0

0

0

20

10

0

 

Apr

1200

1,000

200

0

0

20

0

0

 

May

2000

1,000

1,000

0

0

20

0

0

 

Jun

400

400

0

0

0

8

0

12

 

Jul

400

400

0

0

0

8

0

0

 

Aug

1000

1,000

0

0

0

20

12

0

 

Sep

1000

1,000

0

0

0

20

0

0

 

Oct

1500

1,500

0

0

0

30

10

0

 

Nov

7000

3,500

3,500

0

0

70

40

0

 

Dec

500

500

0

0

0

10

0

60

 

Total

17,000

12,300

4,700

0

0

246

72

72

Problem 3. Complete the following MRP matrix for Item X. Determine when orders should be released and the size of those orders.

Item: X

LLC: 0

Period

Lot Size: Min 50

LT: 2

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Gross Requirements

 

25

30

56

25

100

40

30

20

Scheduled Receipts

 

 

50

 

 

 

 

 

 

Projected on Hand

30

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Net Requirements

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Planned Order Receipts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Planned Order Releases

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Release orders in periods 1 through 5 for quantities of 50, 50, 56, 50, and 50 respectively.

Problem 4. Fibrous Incorporated makes products from rough tree fibers. Its product line consists of five items processed through one of five machines. The machines are not identical, and some products are better suited to some machines. Given the following production time in minutes per unit, determine an optimal assignment of product to machine:

 

Machine

Product

A

B

C

D

E

1

17

10

15

16

20

2

12

 9

16

 9

14

3

11

16

14

15

12

4

14

10

10

18

17

5

13

12

 9

15

11

Problem 5. The following probabilistic activity time estimates are for a CPM/PERT network.


Time Estimates (days)

 

Time Estimates (days)

Activity

a

m

b

Activity

a

m

b

1

1

2

 6

 7

1

1.5

2

2

1

3

 5

 8

1

3

5

3

3

5

10

 9

1

1

5

4

3

6

14

10

2

4

9

5

2

4

 9

11

1

2

3

6

2

3

 7

12

1

1

1

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