ASSIGNMENT CASE SOLUTIONS

Operations Management I

Kristens Cookie Case

Circuit Board Fabricator Case

Case Solutions
Kristens Cookie Case
Q- 1- How long will it take to fulfil a rush order?

Ans -

Activity Cycle Cycle Start Finish

Time Time Time Time
(minutes)
Order Entry E-Mail 0 00:00 00:00
Wash/Mix Kristen 6 00:00 06:00
Spooning Kristen 2 06:00 08:00
Heat Oven Roommate 1 08:00 09:00
Bake Oven 9 09:00 18:00
Remove Roommate 0 18:00 18:00
Cookies
Cool Tray 5 18:00 23:00
Pack Roommate 2 23:00 25:00
Accept Roommate 1 25:00 26:00
Payment

Q-2- How many orders can you fill in a night, assuming you are
open four hours each night?
Ans Till Spooning, 3 dozens of cookies can be processed together,
however the heating and baking is where the bottleneck occurs as only 1
dozen cookies can be baked at one go. The activities that follow takes a
total of 8 minutes which is less than the total baking time (10 mins),
therefore to prepare another batch and sell it would only take an
additional of 10 minutes.

Assumption We have multiple trays. Hence, Spooning will not add to

order completion time of subsequent orders.

Order
Order Completion
Size Time
1 dozen 26 minutes
2 dozen 36 minutes
3 dozen 46 minutes
4 dozen 56 minutes
5 dozen 66 minutes
6 dozen 76 minutes
7 dozen 86 minutes
8 dozen 96 minutes
9 dozen 106 minutes
10 dozen 116 minutes
11 dozen 126 minutes
12 dozen 136 minutes
13 dozen 146 minutes
14 dozen 156 minutes
15 dozen 166 minutes
16 dozen 176 minutes
17 dozen 186 minutes
18 dozen 196 minutes
19 dozen 206 minutes
20 dozen 216 minutes
21 dozen 226 minutes
22 dozen 236 minutes

Operating time = 4 hours = 240 minutes

The first batch will be prepared in 26 minutes with every subsequent
batch taking 10 minutes each.
Let us assume, we can complete n orders in 1 night.
Now, Total Processing time of n orders =
26 + 10(n-1) minutes
This should be less than 240
Therefore the total number of orders that we can fill in one night equals to
22 dozens.

Q 3 How much of your own and your roommates valuable time

will it take to fill each order?
Ans Kristen is involved in the activities of Washing, Mixing and Spooning
which takes 6+2=8 minutes.
His roommate on the other hand is involved in Heating Oven, Removing
Cookies, Packing and Collecting Payment which takes 1+0+2+1=4
minutes

Q-4- Because your baking trays can hold exactly one dozen
cookies, you will produce and sell cookies by the dozen. Should
you give any discount for people who order two or more dozen? If
so, how much? Will it take you any longer to fill a two-dozen order
than a one-dozen order?
Ans As calculated in the above question, the total labour time for an
order of 1 dozen takes 12 minutes (6+2+1+2+1). However, if a customer
orders 2 dozens of cookies in 1 order, the total labour time would be
6+2x(2+1+2)+1 = 17 minutes. Similarly, the total labour time for an
order of 3 dozens would be 6+3x(2+1+2)+1 = 22 minutes.

Labour time per dozen in an order of 1 dozen = 12 minutes

Labour time per dozen in an order of 2 dozen = 8.5 minutes
Labour time per dozen in an order of 3 dozen = 7.33 minutes
Therefore, it would be more cost effective to 2 or more dozens of orders
from each customers and hence, we should be giving them some discount
for such orders.

Let us say that the labour charges are $20 per hour = $0.33 per minute

No. of Labo
dozens of Minut ur Cost per Maximum
Cookies es Cost Dozen Discount
1 dozen 12 $4.00 $4.00 0
2 dozen 17 $5.67 $2.83 $1.17
3 dozen 22 $7.33 $2.44 $1.56

Perhaps a discount of 20% can be offered on a purchase of an order or 2

or more dozens.

Q-5- How many electric mixers and baking trays will you need?
Ans - As the calculations in the previous questions have shown, the electric
mixer is idle for a long time during the heating and baking process, so
only one is needed. The mixing can be done for 3 dozen cookies but at a
time only 1 baking tray can be used since the ovens capacity is 1
dozen/oven. However, we need to have 3 trays where the second and
third tray can be spooned while the first tray is in the oven, since
spooning only takes 2 minutes and, after 3 dozens are spooned, your
mixer is free to mix another batch (3 dozens).

Q-6 - Are there any changes you can make in your production
plans that will allow you to make better cookies or more cookies
in less time or at lower cost? For example, is there a bottleneck
operation in your production process that you can expand
cheaply? What is the effect of adding another oven? How much
would you be willing to pay to rent an additional oven?
Ans The throughput time for the processes are

Washing, Mixing and Spooning = 8 minutes for 3 dozens (Hourly Capacity

= 60/8 = 7.5 * 3 = 22.5 dozens/hour)
Heating Oven and Baking = 10 minutes (Hourly Capacity = 60/10 = 6
dozens/hour)
Cooling Cookies = 5 minutes (Hourly Capacity = 60/5 = 12 dozens/hour)
Removing cookies, Packing and Accepting Payment = 3 minutes (Hourly
Capacity = 60/3 = 20 dozens/hour)

As we can clearly see that heating oven and Baking is the bottleneck
process. Hence, we can buy another oven thereby increasing the heating
oven and baking hourly capacity to 12 dozens per hour.

Assuming, we are getting orders which requires 100% capacity utilization

and also we get $5 revenue per dozen, we can increase our revenues from
6*5=$30 per hour to 12 * 5 = $60 per hour, so I will be willing to pay a
rent of upto $30 per hour for the additional oven.

Circuitboard Fabricator Case

Q1.What type of process flow structure is CBF using?
Job shop process
Production of small batches of a large number of different products
Flexible operation
Several activities through which work can pass
Q2. Diagram the process in a manner similar to Exhibit 6.9
Operatio Rate(Minutes per
Process/Machine Setup
n part)
1 Order Acceptance
NC Machine
2
Programming
3 Board Fabrication
a. Load 5 0.33
b. Clean 0.5
c. Coat 0.5
d. Unload 0.33
e. Expose 15 1.72
f. Load 5 0.33
g. Develop 0.33
h. Inspect 0.5
i. Bake 0.33
j. Unload 0.33
k. Drilling 15 1.5
l. Copper 5 0.2
m. Final Test 15 2.69
4 Shipping

Q3. Analyze the capacity of the process?

Following are the key points regarding capacity of process
lot of time to load and unload circuit boards
Manual labour used instead of automated machine process
6 employees on 6 machines for the final inspection
Insights

End of process takes lot of time

Capacity of flow process is not balanced
Process is prone to human errors

Q4. What is the impact of losses in the process in Inspection and

Final Test?
15% of the board are rejected during early inspection
5% rejected during the final testing
As a result, the total production volumes go up by 25%
This also results in the increased cost of production at the very beginning.

Q5. What recommendations would you make for a short-term

solution to CBFs problems?
Recommendations

With 7.5 working hours and any job takes total 1 hour to be
processed so out of 7.5 hrs .5 is wasted
Five working days of 8 hours each could be short term solution
This will result in 40 hrs of work per week

Q6. What long-term recommendations would you make?

Before inspection
Bottleneck operation time = .5
Bottleneck operation time to process 1240 parts in 7.5 hrs per part = .362
mins
Increasing machines to 2
Bottleneck operation time to process 1240 parts in 7.5 hrs per part = .25
mins
Human process can be automated to decrease human error and
increasing the productivity