In: Operations Management
The three-station work cell illustrated in Figure S7.7, has a product that must go through one of the two machines at station 1 (they are parallel) before proceeding to station 2.
Station 1 Machine A Capacity: 30 units/hr
Station 1 Machine B Capacity: 30units/hr
Station 2 Capacity: 10 units/hr
Station 3 Capacity: 2 units/hr
a) what is the bottleneck time of the system?
b) what is the bottleneck station of this work cell?
c) what is the throughput time?
d) if the firm operates 12 hrs per day, 5 days per week, what is the weekly capacity of this work cell?
a) The bottleneck time of the system = 1/2 hour per unit i.e 30 minutes
b) Bottleneck station of this work cell = station 3 with lowest capacity
c) Throughput time = (60/30 + 60/10 + 60/2) minutes = (2 + 6 + 30) minutes = 38 minutes
d) Capacity per hour of the system = 2 units
Hence, weekly capacity of this work cell = (2 * 12 * 5) units = 120 units