How to Improve the Current Work Flow at the Shanghai Production Facility

Memorandum

To: Alistair Wu

From: Operational Consultant

Date: June 9, 2013

Re: How to improve the current work flow at the Shanghai production facility

In order for an efficient operating environment to exist, management must take into consideration the facility layout when making strategic decision. An organization that has an effective layout strategy will be able to be more competitive, save cost as well as create a better working environment for its worker. When implementing a layout design one must take into consideration; how the design will make use of the space available, the equipment and the employees. Also the design will create a better flow of information, materials and employees. Finally the design should be flexible enough to facilitate change as the environment changes. (Heizer & Render, 2011). It is also important to determine the length of time it takes to complete a particular task and the sequence in which the task is performed. The diagram below shows the work flow in the work boots assembly line and the time it takes to complete a particular task.

Work boot Assembly Schedule

Task Performance Time

(Minutes) Predecessors

A 10 None

B 6 A

C 3 A

D 8 B,C

E 3 D

F 4 D

G 3 E,F

H 9 G

Total time 46

Currently the work flow is designed so that they are eight tasks are completed in 46 minutes. The assembly line should be rearranged so that there are 5 work satiations. Work station 1 will consist of A which takes 10 minutes to assemble. Work station 2 will consist of B and C where the work will be grouped so that task can be done simultaneously thereby reducing performance time by 3 minutes thus resulting in cost savings. By combining the production process in work station 2, managers will need to cross train the workers. Work station 3 contain task D which takes 8 minutes to complete and work station 4 consist of E,F and G. Again by grouping or combing these take the production process will be reduce, if E and F are done simultaneously then the process will be reduced by 3 minutes which will result in the production process being 7 minutes instead of 10 minutes. The final work station will be work station 5 which consist of G which takes 9 minutes to complete. Therefore by restructuring the work flow the production process will be 40 minutes.

In order to determine the number of work stations on the assembly line one has to first find the cycle time. The cycle time is the maximum time that a product is allowed at the work station. Therefore the cycle time can be calculated as follows:

Cycle time= Production time available per day

Units required per day

Thus the cycle time will be (8 hours*60minutes per hour) 480 minutes/ (6*8)48 units= 10 minutes per cycle. By determining the cycle time we can now fin the number of work stations. The number of work stations is calculated as follows:

Minimum number of work stations = Total task time (Ʃti)/cycle time.

The total task time as we can see from the information above is 46 minutes and the cycle time was 10 minutes. Therefore the minimum number of work station will be 46/10=4.6 or 5 stations.

With the reorganized work flow/ layout it can be seen in the diagram below that there are five different work stations. However based on the calculated cycle time it is expected that the production process takes 50 minutes. This is calculated by multiplying the cycle time by the number of work stations (5*10). The assembly time now takes 46 minutes to complete instead of 50 minutes so basically there is 4 minutes of idle time. The diagram below show that there is no idle time at work station 1 and the entire 10 minutes is utilized. However at work station 2 the process takes 9 minutes instead of 10 minutes, so there is 1 minute of idle time. At works station 3 there is 2 minutes of idle time as the process takes 8 minutes instead of 10 minutes. There is no idle time at work station 4 as the entire 10 minutes is utilized. However there is 1 minute of idle time at work station 5 as only 9 minutes is used.

Reorganized Layout at Shanghai production facility

Management must ensure that there is a good balance between work stations. This can be done by comparing the levels of efficiency at the work stations and thus make changes accordingly. According to Heizer and Render (2011) efficiency of a line balance can be calculate by "dividing the total task time by the product of the number of work stations required times the assigned (actual) cycle time for the longest work station."

Efficiency = Total task time/(Actual number of Workstations) × (Largest assigned cycle time) = 46/(5×10) = 92%, therefore operating with 5 work station is very efficient.

In order to promote efficiency in the assembly line, management will need to balance the assembly line. By balancing the assembly line management will be able to eliminate imbalance between the various task performed by employee as well as machinery. They will need to determine a specific time each task takes to complete and know what tools and equipment is needed to perform the job. It is also important to know the sequence of the task to be completed. (Heizer & Render, 2011). The insert below shows how the assembly line was can be balanced as well as the idle time from the various work stations.

There are several computer programs available to assist with assigning work stations on the assembly line for example ASYBL. These programs aid efficiency and save time and money as it eliminates manual combination of work stations.

The decision analysis tool that was utilized to increase efficiency and reduce production cost was the assembly line balancing technique. This tool was selected because it helps management to determine the sequence of tasks to be performed and the amount of time it takes to complete a task. The tools also help management to calculate the number of work station needed and how they can be arrange to utilize floor space. It shows them what task can be combined thus increasing efficiency