Question

A steel product is manufactured by starting with raw material (carbon steel wire) and then processing it sequentially through five operations using machines A to E, respectively (see table below). This is the only use that the five machines are put to. The hourly rates for each machine are given in the table. Answer the following questions. Use the original output rates to answer each question (i.e., disregard any changes mentioned in previous questions).

Operation:	1	2	3	4	5
Machine:	A	B	C	D	E
Hourly unit output rate:	80	40	30	110	50

Consider the following questions.

a. What is the maximum output per hour of the steel product?

b. By how much would the output be improved if B was increased to 50?

c. By how much would the output be improved if C was increased to 40?

d. By how much would the output be improved if C was increased to 50?

e. What is the effect on the system if machine A can only manage an output of 20 in one hour?

f. What is the effect on the system if machine C can only manage an output of 20 in one hour?

g. What is the effect on the system if machine B is allowed to drop to an output of 20 in one hour?

Answer 1

In solving the below questions, one logic is very important that the overall production speed is defined by the bottleneck ( slowest operation ) in the entire system.

a. What is the maximum output per hour of the steel product?

The maximum output is depended on the bottleneck operation i.e the slowest operation which is Operation number 3 in this case on machine C which is 30 units per hour, hence the maximum output per hour is 30 units of steel wire per hour.

b. By how much would the output be improved if B was increased to 50?

If B is increased to 50, still the bottleneck operation i.e C will limit the overall output to 30. Hence because of the bottleneck of C=> the maximum output, in this case, will also be 30 units per hour

c. By how much would the output be improved if C was increased to 40?

The maximum output, in this case, would become 40 units per hour as the bottleneck i.e lowest output process would still be C and B with 40 units per hour output but the overall production would increase by 10 units to 40 units per hour due to the improvement in C.

d. By how much would the output be improved if C was increased to 50?

If C was improved to 50 units the overall production would still improve by 10 units to produce 40 units as the now the bottleneck process would be B with the production of 40 units per hour thus limiting the overall production.

e. What is the effect on the system if machine A can only manage an output of 20 in one hour?

It would reduce the overall production to 20 units per hour as A would become the slowest operation now with the production of 20 units per hour i.e A would be the bottleneck process

f. What is the effect on the system if machine C can only manage an output of 20 in one hour?

In this also the overall production would be limited to 20 units per hour as C would become the bottleneck operation.

g. What is the effect on the system if machine B is allowed to drop to an output of 20 in one hour?

In this also the overall production would be limited to 20 units per hour as B would become the bottleneck operation with an output of 20 units per hour.