Module 2 - Capacity Planning Practice Problems

Module 2 – Capacity Planning
Practice problems
1 Ram runs a small eatery where he sells a single variety of Indian bread (known as Roti).
People can order over phone and come and collect the bread. Orders are taken for a standard
pack of 5 rotis. The entire process is done in batch of 5 rotis only. Roti making and delivery
has five steps and the details of times per batch of Roti is as follows. Preparing the dough
(3 minutes), Rolling (5 minutes), Heating (4 minutes), Packing (2 minutes), Billing & Cash
(1 minute). Assume there is a single unit of the required resource available at each stage of
the process. Given this information, answer the following:
(a) What is the throughput time for the process?

(b) What is the maximum hourly production of Rotis possible?
(c) Which stage of the process is the bottleneck in the process?
(d) If Ram keeps his shop open for 4 hours and keeps making Rotis (standard single
variety) since he feels he will sell all of them in any case, how many Roti’s can he
hope to make?
2 A factory working in 2 shifts each of 8 hours produces 24,000 electric bulbs using a set of
workstations. There are 8 tasks required to manufacture the bulb. The sum of all task times
is equal to 12 seconds. Using this information, answer the following:
(a) What is the actual actual cycle time of the plant?

(b) How many workstations are required to maintain this level of production assuming
that combining of tasks into those workstations is a feasible alternative?
3 A manufacturer of spark plugs for the mass market would like to design the final assembly
shop and requires certain data for the process. The factory works for two shifts and the total
available time is 15 hours per day. There are five tasks involved in the final assembly and
the task times (in seconds) are 3.5, 4.5, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0. The daily production needs to be
4,000 spark plugs.
(a) What are the minimum and the maximum outputs possible from the factory?
(b) What should be the cycle time of the operations at the assembly shop?
(c) If the firm wants to use three workstations by the best combination of the tasks,
what will be the best output possible?
(d) By how much will the output increase if it adds one more workstation?
Answers to the Problems
1a. Throughput time for the process = addition of all times = 15 minutes
1b. Once the process is ON, generally for every 5 minutes a batch will be completed. Hence 12
batches (of 5 rotis) is the maximum possible hourly production.
1c. Bottleneck = Rolling
1d. 46 batches of Rotis. 48 batches for four hours. However, the first three minutes will be lost
from start-up to reach the bottleneck and the last 7 minutes on shutdown after stopping the
bottleneck. Losing ten minutes means 2 batches. Therefore the daily production will be 46
batches of Rotis.
2a. Cycle time = Available time (16*60*60)/Target 24,000 = 2.4 sec
2b. Number of workstations = sum of task time / cycle time = 12/2.4 = 5
3a. Minimum output is when you combine all tasks into a single station. Therefore, the cycle time will
be simply sum of all task times. In this case it is 17 seconds.
So daily production is ration of 15 hours to 17 seconds = (15*60*60)/17 = 3176.47
Maximum output will be when all the tasks are assigned to separate workstations. In this case the
maximum time (4.5 seconds) will become the cycle time. Therefore output will be (15*60*60/4.5) =
12,000
3b. What should be the cycle time of the operations at the assembly shop? Cycle time =
(15*60*60)/4000 = 13.5 seconds
3c. The best combination for three workstations is:
Station 1 (task 1 Time = 3.5 seconds)
Station 2 (task 2, 3 Time = 6.5 seconds)
Station 3 (tasks 4, 5, Time = 7.0 seconds)
Therefore output will be (15*60*60/7) = 7714.29
3d. If we have 4 work stations, then the tasks can be grouped as follows:
Station 1 (task 1, Time = 3.5 seconds)
Station 2 (task 2, Time = 4.5 seconds)
Station 3 (task 3, 4 Time = 5 seconds)

Station 4 (task 5, Time = 4 seconds)
The revised output will be (15*60*60/5) = 10,800
Therefore the increased output will be 10,800 – 7714.29 = 3,085.71

Module 2 - Capacity Planning Practice Problems

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Module 2 - Capacity Planning Practice Problems

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Module 2 – Capacity Planning

(a) What is the throughput time for the process?

(a) What is the actual actual cycle time of the plant?

1c. Bottleneck = Rolling

2a. Cycle time = Available time (166060)/Target 24,000 = 2.4 sec

2b. Number of workstations = sum of task time / cycle time = 12/2.4 = 5

3c. The best combination for three workstations is:

Station 1 (task 1 Time = 3.5 seconds)

Station 2 (task 2, 3 Time = 6.5 seconds)

Station 3 (tasks 4, 5, Time = 7.0 seconds)

Therefore output will be (156060/7) = 7714.29

Station 1 (task 1, Time = 3.5 seconds)

Station 2 (task 2, Time = 4.5 seconds)

Station 3 (task 3, 4 Time = 5 seconds)

The revised output will be (156060/5) = 10,800

Therefore the increased output will be 10,800 – 7714.29 = 3,085.71

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