Question

DataSpan, Inc., automated its plant at the start of the current year and installed a flexible manufacturing system. The company is also evaluating its suppliers and moving toward Lean Production. Many adjustment problems have been encountered, including problems relating to performance measurement. After much study, the company has decided to use the performance measures below, and it has gathered data relating to these measures for the first four months of operations.

	Month
	1	2	3	4
Throughput time (days)	?	?	?	?
Delivery cycle time (days)	?	?	?	?
Manufacturing cycle efficiency (MCE)	?	?	?	?
Percentage of on-time deliveries	82%	77%	74%	71%
Total sales (units)	3830	3667	3479	3347

Management would like to know the company's throughput time, manufacturing cycle efficiency, and delivery cycle time. The data to compute these measures have been gathered and appear below:

	Average per Month (in days)
	1		2		3		4
Move time per unit	0.8		0.5		0.6		0.6
Process time per unit	2.3		2.2		2.1		2.0
Wait time per order before start of production	24.		26.3		29.0		31.4
Queue time per unit	4.4		5.0		5.7		6.5
Inspection time per unit	0.9		1.1		1.1		0.9

Requirement 1:
(a)	Compute the throughput time for each month. (Round your answers to 1 decimal place.)

	1	2	3	4
Total throughput time	_________	_________	_________	_________

(b)	Compute the manufacturing cycle efficiency (MCE) for each month. (Round your answers to 1 decimal place. Omit the "%" sign in your response.)

	1	2	3	4
Manufacturing cycle efficiency (MCE)	_________%	_________%	_________%	_________%

(c)	Compute the delivery cycle time for each month. (Round your answers to 1 decimal place.)

	1	2	3	4
Total delivery cycle time	_________	_________	_________	_________

Requirement 2:

Refer to the move time, process time, and so forth, given above for month 4.

(a)

Assume that in month 5 the move time, process time, and so forth, are the same as in month 4, except that through the use of Lean Production the company is able to completely eliminate the queue time during production. Compute the new throughput time and MCE. (Round your answers to 1 decimal place. Omit the "%" sign in your response.)

Total throughput time                      _________
Manufacturing cycle efficiency (MCE) _________%

(b)

Assume in month 6 that the move time, process time, and so forth, are again the same as in month 4, except that the company is able to completely eliminate both the queue time during production and the inspection time. Compute the new throughput time and MCE. (Round your answers to 1 decimal place. Omit the "%" sign in your response.)

Total throughput time        _________
Manufacturing cycle efficiency (MCE)     _________%

requirement 3

3-a. (Month 5) Refer to the move time, process time, and so forth, given for month 4. Assume that in month 5 the move time, process time, and so forth, are the same as in month 4, except that through the use of Lean Production the company is able to completely eliminate the queue time during production. Compute the new throughput time and MCE.

3-b. (Month 6) Refer to the move time, process time, and so forth, given for month 4. Assume in month 6 that the move time, process time, and so forth, are again the same as in month 4, except that the company is able to completely eliminate both the queue time during production and the inspection time. Compute the new throughput time and MCE.

(Round your answers to 1 decimal place.)

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	Month 5 Month 6 Throughput time days days Manufacturing cycle efficiency (MCE) % %

Answer 1

Ans. 3		Month 5	Month 6
	Throughput time	3.5 days	2.6 days
	Manufacturing cycle efficiency (MCE)	57.14%	76.92%
	*Calculations:
Ans. 3 a	Month 5 :
	Throughput time:
	Move time per unit	0.6
	Process time per unit	2
	Inspection time per unit	0.9
	Total	3.5	days
	MCE (manufacturing cycle efficiency) = Process time / Throughput time * 100
		2 / 3.5 * 100
		57.14%
Ans. 3 b	Month 6 :
	Throughput time:
	Move time per unit	0.6
	Process time per unit	2
	Total	2.6	days
	MCE (manufacturing cycle efficiency) = Process time / Throughput time * 100
		2 / 2.6 * 100
		76.92%