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 75
2. Insert remote control receiver 85
3. Insert chip 90
4. mount front axle 65
5. mount back axle 70
6. install electric mirror 55
7. connect motor to battery unit 80
8. connect motor to rear axle 65
9. 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 line
Step
1

Activity
Mount battery units

Insert remote control

receiver
Insert chip

mount front axle

Se
c
75
85
90
65

Hrs
0.0208
33
0.0236
11
0.025
0.0180
56

Capac
ity
48.0
42.4
40.0
55.4

mount back axle

70

install electric mirror

55

7
8
9

connect motor to battery

unit
connect motor to rear
axle
mount plastic body

80
65
80

0.0194
44
0.0152
78
0.0222
22
0.0180
56
0.0222
22

51.4
65.5
45.0
55.4
45.0

Flowrate = Minimum (48.0, 42.4, 40.0, 55.4, 51.4, 65.5, 45.0, 55.4, 45) = 40
Units/hr
c. 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 = $135
Labor cost per hour/Flowrate = $135/40 units/hr = $3.38 $ per unit
d. 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
unit
Number 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 unit
e. 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 hour
Utilitzation 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 workload
Work
er

Step

3
4

4
5
6
5
7
8
6
9

Activity
Mount battery
units
Insert remote
control receiver
Insert chip
mount front
axle
mount back
axle
install electric
mirror
connect motor
to battery unit
connect motor
to rear axle
mount plastic
body

Sec

Statio
n
Time

75

75

85

85

90

90

0.0208
33
0.0236
11
0.025

135

0.0375

26.7

135

0.0375

26.7

145

0.0402
78

24.8

Hrs

Unit
s
48.0
42.4
40.0

65
70
55
80
65
80

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