Table 7.11
The Pennsylvania Appliance Company is installing an assembly line to produce vacuum cleaners,and you,as an operations manager,are responsible for balancing the line.The work elements to be performed are listed,along with their times and immediate predecessors.

-Use the information in Table 7.11.The company is planning to operate 2 shifts per day,8 hours per shift.If the desired output rate of the line is 480 units per day,what is the cycle time?
A)60 seconds
B)120 seconds
C)180 seconds
D)240 seconds

Question

Table 7.11
The Pennsylvania Appliance Company is installing an assembly line to produce vacuum cleaners,and you,as an operations manager,are responsible for balancing the line.The work elements to be performed are listed,along with their times and immediate predecessors.
 
-Use the information in Table 7.11.The company is planning to operate 2 shifts per day,8 hours per shift.If the desired output rate of the line is 480 units per day,what is the cycle time?
A)60 seconds 
B)120 seconds 
C)180 seconds 
D)240 seconds

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

To calculate cycle time, we need to find the total work content, which is the sum of times for all work elements in the line.

Total work content = 6 + 2 + 4 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 4 + 6 + 2 + 4 + 2 + 3 = 39 seconds

Next, we need to calculate the theoretical minimum number of stations required to meet the desired output rate.

Theoretical minimum number of stations = total work content / (desired output rate x working time per shift) 
= 39 / (480 x 16) 
= 0.0051

Since we cannot have a fractional number of stations, we need to round up to the nearest whole number of stations.

Number of stations = 1

Finally, we can calculate the cycle time as follows:

Cycle time = working time per shift / number of stations 
= 8 x 60 / 1 
= 480 seconds or 8 minutes

Thus, the answer is B) 120 seconds, which is the equivalent of 2 minutes.

Table 7.11 the Pennsylvania Appliance Company Is Installing an Assembly Line to Line