Process Design - Assembly Line

#1.) An assembly line is to operate 8 hours per day with a desired output of 240 units pr day. The following table contains information on this product's task, task time, and precedence relationship.

(see attachment)

a.) Design an assembly line that is capable of achieving the desired output rate with the fewest number of work stations (WS). Make sure you state the number of work stations in your assembly line as well as the task(s) to be accomplished at each work station.
b.) For your proposed design, answer the following questions:
- Which WSs dictates the output rate?
- What is the cycle time?
- What are the capacity utilization ratios (CURs) of the WSs in your proposed design?
- Is the WS that dictates the output rate a bottleneck resource?
- Where is the bottleneck?
- If the flow into the system is not controlled, where is inventory likely to accumulate?
c.) Explain how a JIT inventory control system would work (i.e., which WSs would be delayed and how would the inventory be distributed throughout the system).
d.) Explain how a DBR inventory control system would work (i.e., which WSs would be delayed and how would the inventory be distributed throughout the system).

#2.) The desired daily output for an assembly line is 360 units. This assembly line will operate 450 minutes per day. The following table contains information on this product's task, task time and precedence relationship.

(see attachment)

a.) Design an assembly line that is capable of achieving the desired output rate with the fewest number of work stations. Make sure you state the number of work stations in your assembly line as well as the task(s) to be accomplished at each work station.
b.) For your proposed design, answer the following questions:
- Which WSs dictates the output rate?
- What is the cycle time?
- What are the capacity utilization ratios (CURs) of the WSs in your proposed design?
- Is the WS that dictates the output rate a bottleneck resource?
- Where is the bottleneck?
- If the flow into the system is not controlled, where is inventory likely to accumulate?
c.) Explain how a JIT inventory control system would work (i.e., which WSs would be
delayed and how would the inventory be distributed throughout the system).
d.) Explain how a DBR inventory control system would work (i.e., which WSs would be
delayed and how would the inventory be distributed throughout the system).

#3.) The following tasks and the order in which they must be performed according to their assembly requirements are shown in the following table. These are to be combined into work stations to create an assembly line. The assembly line operates 7 ½ hours per day. The output requirement is 1,000 units per day.

(see attachment)

a.) Design an assembly line that is capable of achieving the desired output rate with the fewest number of work stations. Make sure you state the number of work stations in your assembly line as well as the task(s) to be accomplished at each work station.
b.) For your proposed design, answer the following questions:
- Which WSs dictates the output rate?
- What is the cycle time?
- What are the capacity utilization ratios (CURs) of the WSs in your proposed design?
- Is the WS that dictates the output rate a bottleneck resource?
- Where is the bottleneck?
- If the flow into the system is not controlled, where is inventory likely to accumulate?
c.) Explain how a JIT inventory control system would work (i.e., which WSs would be
delayed and how would the inventory be distributed throughout the system).
d.) Explain how a DBR inventory control system would work (i.e., which WSs would be
delayed and how would the inventory be distributed throughout the system).