26. Tombro Industries is in the process of automating one of itsplants and developing a flexible manufacturing system. The companyis finding it necessary to make many changes in operatingprocedures. Progress has been slow, particularly in trying todevelop new performance measures for the factory.
In an effort to evaluate performance and determine whereimprovements can be made, management has gathered the followingdata relating to activities over the last four months:
| Month |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
Quality control measures: | | | | | | | | |
Number of defects | 204 | | 182 | | 143 | | 98 | |
Number of warranty claims | 65 | | 58 | | 49 | | 46 | |
Number of customer complaints | 121 | | 115 | | 98 | | 77 | |
Material control measures: | | | | | | | | |
Purchase order lead time | 8 days | 7 days | 5 days | 4 days |
Scrap as a percent of total cost | 2 | % | 2 | % | 3 | % | 6 | % |
Machine performance measures: | | | | | | | | |
Machine downtime as a percentage of availability | 5 | % | 6 | % | 6 | % | 10 | % |
Use as a percentage of availability | 94 | % | 91 | % | 88 | % | 84 | % |
Setup time (hours) | 8 | | 10 | | 11 | | 12 | |
Delivery performance measures: | | | | | | | | |
Throughput time | ? | | ? | | ? | | ? | |
Manufacturing cycle efficiency (MCE) | ? | | ? | | ? | | ? | |
Delivery cycle time | ? | | ? | | ? | | ? | |
Percentage of on-time deliveries | 95 | % | 94 | % | 91 | % | 88 | % |
|
The president has read in industry journals that throughputtime, MCE, and delivery cycle time are important measures ofperformance, but no one is sure how they are computed. You havebeen asked to assist the company, and you have gathered thefollowing data relating to these measures:
| Average per Month (in days) |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
Wait time per order before start of production | 9.0 | 10.6 | 12.0 | 14.0 |
Inspection time per unit | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.8 |
Process time per unit | 2.8 | 2.6 | 2.4 | 1.8 |
Queue time per unit | 3.9 | 5.4 | 7.2 | 8.6 |
Move time per unit | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.8 |
|
Required:
1-a. Compute the throughput time for each month.
1-b. Compute the manufacturing cycle efficiency (MCE) for eachmonth.
1-c. Compute the delivery cycle time for each month.
3-a. Refer to the inspection time, process time, and so forth,given for month 4. Assume that in month 5 the inspection time,process time, and so forth, are the same as for month 4, exceptthat the company is able to completely eliminate the queue timeduring production using Lean Production. Compute the new throughputtime and MCE.
3-b. Refer to the inspection time, process time, and so forth,given for month 4. Assume that in month 6 the inspection time,process time, and so forth, are the same as in month 4, except thatthe company is able to eliminate both the queue time duringproduction and the inspection time using Lean Production. Computethe new throughput time and MCE.