Question

You are designing a process for the assembly of a consumer electronics product with a labor content of nine minutes. You are trying to decide whether to use (1) a single machine-paced line with eight workers or (2) eight separate single-worker “cells”. Each of the eight single-operator “cells” would perform exactly the same collection of assembly tasks as the single line, using the same tools, technologies and equipment. On the assembly line, each worker would be assigned to a single assembly task.

A. Which approach would typically require a higher level of worker skill?

a. The single line.

b. The eight cells.

c. No difference in skill requirements between the single line and the eight cells.

d. Can’t determine without additional information.

B. Which approach would typically achieve higher worker utilization?

a. The single line.

b. The eight cells.

c. No difference in skill requirements between the single line and the eight cells.

d. Can’t determine without additional information.

C. Which approach would typically achieve higher machine utilization?

a. The single line.

b. The eight cells.

c. No difference in skill requirements between the single line and the eight cells.

d. Can’t determine without additional information.

D. Which approach would produce the greater output?

a. The single line.

b. The eight cells.

c. No difference in skill requirements between the single line and the eight cells.

d. Can’t determine without additional information.

Answer 1

A.

b. The eight cells

Reason - One worker will need to perform several tasks which means each operator should be multi-skilled in case of the eight cells. For the single line, the workers at a given station should be expert in that station only.

B.

b. The eight cells

Reason - for a single line, the rate of production will be based on the bottleneck rate leading to the idle moments for the non-bottlenecks. This is not the case for the cells, For the cells, given that there is no layout constraint, the worker never waits for the next job to come. Once one job is processed, immediately, the second one is picked.

C.

a. The single line

Reason - For the cellular layout, we will have the same type of machines in every cell while the single line will have only one machine per station.

D.

a. The single line

Reason - Due to higher variability (variability of each cell will add up), each cell will generally produce less output compared to a single line.