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Deck 6: Production Activity Control
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Amalgamated Skyhooks, Inc., has an order for 200 Model SKY3 Skyhooks for delivery on day 200. The Skyhook consists of three parts. Components B and C form subassembly A. Subassembly A and component D form the final assembly. Following are the work centers and times for each operation. Using a piece of graph paper, draw a backward schedule based on the following. When must component C be started to meet the delivery date?
a. Only one machine is assigned to each operation.
b. The factory works one 8-hour shift 5 days a week.
c. All parts move in one lot of 200.
a. Only one machine is assigned to each operation.
b. The factory works one 8-hour shift 5 days a week.
c. All parts move in one lot of 200.
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International Door Slammers has an order to deliver 500 door slammers on day 130. Draw up a backward schedule under the following conditions:
a. Only one machine is assigned to each operation.
b. Schedule one 8-hour shift per day for 5 days per week.
c. All parts are to move in one lot of 500 pieces.
d. Allow 8 hours between operations for queue and move times.
A slammer consists of three parts. Purchased components C and D form subassembly A. Subassembly A and component B form the final assembly. Part B is machined in three operations. No special tooling is required except for part B, operation 20. It takes 24 hours to make the tooling. Material is available for all parts. Standard times for the lot of 500 are as follows:
a. Only one machine is assigned to each operation.
b. Schedule one 8-hour shift per day for 5 days per week.
c. All parts are to move in one lot of 500 pieces.
d. Allow 8 hours between operations for queue and move times.
A slammer consists of three parts. Purchased components C and D form subassembly A. Subassembly A and component B form the final assembly. Part B is machined in three operations. No special tooling is required except for part B, operation 20. It takes 24 hours to make the tooling. Material is available for all parts. Standard times for the lot of 500 are as follows:
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An order for 250 bell ringers is processed on work centers 10 and 20. The setup and run times are as follows. It is decided to overlap the lot on the two work centers and to split the lot into two lots of 100 and 150. Move time between operations is 30 minutes. Work center 20 cannot be set up until the first lot arrives. Calculate the saving in manufacturing lead time. 
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Complete the following input/output report. What are the planned and actual backlogs at the end of period 4? 
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Complete the following input/output report. What is the actual backlog at the end of period 5? 
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Complete the following table to determine the run sequence for each of the sequencing rules. 
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Jobs A, B, and C are in queue at work center 10 before being completed on work center 20. The following information pertains to the jobs and the work centers. For this problem, there is no move time. Today is day 1. If the jobs are scheduled by the earliest due date, can they be completed on time? 
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Calculate the critical ratios for the following orders and establish in what order they should be run. Today's date is 75. 
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Crofts Printing Company
John Burton was not a happy man. He was a supervisor for the Crofts Printing Company, having been recently promoted from lead printer. While he felt very comfortable with his knowledge and success in the printing business, this managerial position was starting to wear on him. He was determined not to let it get him down, however, as he felt he surely had the knowledge, experience, and respect of the workers. He had been asking Jason Crofts for months for a chance at management, and he certainly wasn't about to let it get the better of him. His current problem had to do with scheduling. Since he had become supervisor the sales people always asked him about an order before they promised delivery to a customer. He thought that would be quite simple; after all, who knew more about the printing business than he did? Based on his knowledge of the processes and what was already in progress, he gave what he thought were reasonable, even conservative, estimates of promise dates. Unfortunately, his track record was not too good. There had been many late deliveries since his managerial appointment, and nobody in the organization was too happy about it. At first he thought it must be the other workers. "They're just jealous about my selection as supervisor and want to make me look bad" was his initial reaction. Henry Hurley, another long-time machine operator, was John's best friend. One afternoon over a beer, John asked Henry about the problem in a confidential discussion. Henry said he was sure that John had been trying to get it right but somehow it didn't seem to be going well. Henry assured John that the workers were trying their best. In fact, according to Henry, the workers had been putting in extra effort. They viewed John's promotion as a positive sign that there was a possible future for them in management as well. John's failure would have been, in fact, greatly discouraging to most of the workers. John then thought he might be the problem when it came to giving estimates. The sales people would almost always contact him about a possible job to ask him when it should be promised to the customer. His great knowledge of the printing business allowed him, he thought, to quickly come to a good estimate. Perhaps he was not as good at estimating as he thought. To check this out, he looked at most of the jobs done during the last couple of weeks. In almost every case, the work recorded against a job was almost exactly what he had estimated. What little error existed was certainly not large enough to cause the problem. John trusted Henry and believed his account of the situation, and his analysis of the estimates convinced him the problem wasn't there. If it wasn't the workers and wasn't the estimates then what could it be? He must do something. Jason Crofts was a patient man, but there was a limit. He was worried about alienating his best customers, and at the same time knew he must be concerned about efficiency as a way to control cost. John decided there was a need to take drastic action to ease the situation, or at least to find out what the cause was. On a Friday he scheduled overtime for Saturday to finish all jobs in progress. On Monday, therefore, he could start with a clean slate. There were several jobs already promised, but not yet started. He figured that on Monday he could start with all new jobs and really figure out the source of his problem. The jobs were all promised within four days, but he figured there should be no problem. He had three operations, and most of the jobs went through all three, but not all jobs needed all operations. He had one worker assigned to each operation. Over the next four days that represented 96 hours of available work time
per day), he had eight jobs promised. The total estimated time for all eight jobs was only 88 hours, giving him a buffer of 8 hours over the next four days. To make sure there would be no problem, he decided there would be no new jobs even scheduled to start during those four days, with the only exception being if any operation completed all the necessary work for all eight jobs before the end of the four days, they could start another. In any case, he wanted to make sure that if necessary, all 96 hours would be reserved for just the 88 hours of scheduled work. John had learned that a good priority rule to use was the critical ratio rule, primarily because it took into account both the customer due date and the amount of processing time for a job. He therefore used that rule to prioritize the jobs. The following table shows the eight jobs, together with processing time estimates and due dates. All due dates are at the end of the day indicated. Processing times for all jobs at all three operations are in hours. 
Assignment
Using the critical ratio rule, establish the priority for the eight jobs.
John Burton was not a happy man. He was a supervisor for the Crofts Printing Company, having been recently promoted from lead printer. While he felt very comfortable with his knowledge and success in the printing business, this managerial position was starting to wear on him. He was determined not to let it get him down, however, as he felt he surely had the knowledge, experience, and respect of the workers. He had been asking Jason Crofts for months for a chance at management, and he certainly wasn't about to let it get the better of him. His current problem had to do with scheduling. Since he had become supervisor the sales people always asked him about an order before they promised delivery to a customer. He thought that would be quite simple; after all, who knew more about the printing business than he did? Based on his knowledge of the processes and what was already in progress, he gave what he thought were reasonable, even conservative, estimates of promise dates. Unfortunately, his track record was not too good. There had been many late deliveries since his managerial appointment, and nobody in the organization was too happy about it. At first he thought it must be the other workers. "They're just jealous about my selection as supervisor and want to make me look bad" was his initial reaction. Henry Hurley, another long-time machine operator, was John's best friend. One afternoon over a beer, John asked Henry about the problem in a confidential discussion. Henry said he was sure that John had been trying to get it right but somehow it didn't seem to be going well. Henry assured John that the workers were trying their best. In fact, according to Henry, the workers had been putting in extra effort. They viewed John's promotion as a positive sign that there was a possible future for them in management as well. John's failure would have been, in fact, greatly discouraging to most of the workers. John then thought he might be the problem when it came to giving estimates. The sales people would almost always contact him about a possible job to ask him when it should be promised to the customer. His great knowledge of the printing business allowed him, he thought, to quickly come to a good estimate. Perhaps he was not as good at estimating as he thought. To check this out, he looked at most of the jobs done during the last couple of weeks. In almost every case, the work recorded against a job was almost exactly what he had estimated. What little error existed was certainly not large enough to cause the problem. John trusted Henry and believed his account of the situation, and his analysis of the estimates convinced him the problem wasn't there. If it wasn't the workers and wasn't the estimates then what could it be? He must do something. Jason Crofts was a patient man, but there was a limit. He was worried about alienating his best customers, and at the same time knew he must be concerned about efficiency as a way to control cost. John decided there was a need to take drastic action to ease the situation, or at least to find out what the cause was. On a Friday he scheduled overtime for Saturday to finish all jobs in progress. On Monday, therefore, he could start with a clean slate. There were several jobs already promised, but not yet started. He figured that on Monday he could start with all new jobs and really figure out the source of his problem. The jobs were all promised within four days, but he figured there should be no problem. He had three operations, and most of the jobs went through all three, but not all jobs needed all operations. He had one worker assigned to each operation. Over the next four days that represented 96 hours of available work time
per day), he had eight jobs promised. The total estimated time for all eight jobs was only 88 hours, giving him a buffer of 8 hours over the next four days. To make sure there would be no problem, he decided there would be no new jobs even scheduled to start during those four days, with the only exception being if any operation completed all the necessary work for all eight jobs before the end of the four days, they could start another. In any case, he wanted to make sure that if necessary, all 96 hours would be reserved for just the 88 hours of scheduled work. John had learned that a good priority rule to use was the critical ratio rule, primarily because it took into account both the customer due date and the amount of processing time for a job. He therefore used that rule to prioritize the jobs. The following table shows the eight jobs, together with processing time estimates and due dates. All due dates are at the end of the day indicated. Processing times for all jobs at all three operations are in hours. Assignment
Using the critical ratio rule, establish the priority for the eight jobs.
Question
Crofts Printing Company
John Burton was not a happy man. He was a supervisor for the Crofts Printing Company, having been recently promoted from lead printer. While he felt very comfortable with his knowledge and success in the printing business, this managerial position was starting to wear on him. He was determined not to let it get him down, however, as he felt he surely had the knowledge, experience, and respect of the workers. He had been asking Jason Crofts for months for a chance at management, and he certainly wasn't about to let it get the better of him. His current problem had to do with scheduling. Since he had become supervisor the sales people always asked him about an order before they promised delivery to a customer. He thought that would be quite simple; after all, who knew more about the printing business than he did? Based on his knowledge of the processes and what was already in progress, he gave what he thought were reasonable, even conservative, estimates of promise dates. Unfortunately, his track record was not too good. There had been many late deliveries since his managerial appointment, and nobody in the organization was too happy about it. At first he thought it must be the other workers. "They're just jealous about my selection as supervisor and want to make me look bad" was his initial reaction. Henry Hurley, another long-time machine operator, was John's best friend. One afternoon over a beer, John asked Henry about the problem in a confidential discussion. Henry said he was sure that John had been trying to get it right but somehow it didn't seem to be going well. Henry assured John that the workers were trying their best. In fact, according to Henry, the workers had been putting in extra effort. They viewed John's promotion as a positive sign that there was a possible future for them in management as well. John's failure would have been, in fact, greatly discouraging to most of the workers. John then thought he might be the problem when it came to giving estimates. The sales people would almost always contact him about a possible job to ask him when it should be promised to the customer. His great knowledge of the printing business allowed him, he thought, to quickly come to a good estimate. Perhaps he was not as good at estimating as he thought. To check this out, he looked at most of the jobs done during the last couple of weeks. In almost every case, the work recorded against a job was almost exactly what he had estimated. What little error existed was certainly not large enough to cause the problem. John trusted Henry and believed his account of the situation, and his analysis of the estimates convinced him the problem wasn't there. If it wasn't the workers and wasn't the estimates then what could it be? He must do something. Jason Crofts was a patient man, but there was a limit. He was worried about alienating his best customers, and at the same time knew he must be concerned about efficiency as a way to control cost. John decided there was a need to take drastic action to ease the situation, or at least to find out what the cause was. On a Friday he scheduled overtime for Saturday to finish all jobs in progress. On Monday, therefore, he could start with a clean slate. There were several jobs already promised, but not yet started. He figured that on Monday he could start with all new jobs and really figure out the source of his problem. The jobs were all promised within four days, but he figured there should be no problem. He had three operations, and most of the jobs went through all three, but not all jobs needed all operations. He had one worker assigned to each operation. Over the next four days that represented 96 hours of available work time
per day), he had eight jobs promised. The total estimated time for all eight jobs was only 88 hours, giving him a buffer of 8 hours over the next four days. To make sure there would be no problem, he decided there would be no new jobs even scheduled to start during those four days, with the only exception being if any operation completed all the necessary work for all eight jobs before the end of the four days, they could start another. In any case, he wanted to make sure that if necessary, all 96 hours would be reserved for just the 88 hours of scheduled work. John had learned that a good priority rule to use was the critical ratio rule, primarily because it took into account both the customer due date and the amount of processing time for a job. He therefore used that rule to prioritize the jobs. The following table shows the eight jobs, together with processing time estimates and due dates. All due dates are at the end of the day indicated. Processing times for all jobs at all three operations are in hours. 
Assignment
Use a chart to load the operation according to the priority rule established. In other words, load the most important job in all three work centers, then the next most important, and so forth. This is the method that John used.
John Burton was not a happy man. He was a supervisor for the Crofts Printing Company, having been recently promoted from lead printer. While he felt very comfortable with his knowledge and success in the printing business, this managerial position was starting to wear on him. He was determined not to let it get him down, however, as he felt he surely had the knowledge, experience, and respect of the workers. He had been asking Jason Crofts for months for a chance at management, and he certainly wasn't about to let it get the better of him. His current problem had to do with scheduling. Since he had become supervisor the sales people always asked him about an order before they promised delivery to a customer. He thought that would be quite simple; after all, who knew more about the printing business than he did? Based on his knowledge of the processes and what was already in progress, he gave what he thought were reasonable, even conservative, estimates of promise dates. Unfortunately, his track record was not too good. There had been many late deliveries since his managerial appointment, and nobody in the organization was too happy about it. At first he thought it must be the other workers. "They're just jealous about my selection as supervisor and want to make me look bad" was his initial reaction. Henry Hurley, another long-time machine operator, was John's best friend. One afternoon over a beer, John asked Henry about the problem in a confidential discussion. Henry said he was sure that John had been trying to get it right but somehow it didn't seem to be going well. Henry assured John that the workers were trying their best. In fact, according to Henry, the workers had been putting in extra effort. They viewed John's promotion as a positive sign that there was a possible future for them in management as well. John's failure would have been, in fact, greatly discouraging to most of the workers. John then thought he might be the problem when it came to giving estimates. The sales people would almost always contact him about a possible job to ask him when it should be promised to the customer. His great knowledge of the printing business allowed him, he thought, to quickly come to a good estimate. Perhaps he was not as good at estimating as he thought. To check this out, he looked at most of the jobs done during the last couple of weeks. In almost every case, the work recorded against a job was almost exactly what he had estimated. What little error existed was certainly not large enough to cause the problem. John trusted Henry and believed his account of the situation, and his analysis of the estimates convinced him the problem wasn't there. If it wasn't the workers and wasn't the estimates then what could it be? He must do something. Jason Crofts was a patient man, but there was a limit. He was worried about alienating his best customers, and at the same time knew he must be concerned about efficiency as a way to control cost. John decided there was a need to take drastic action to ease the situation, or at least to find out what the cause was. On a Friday he scheduled overtime for Saturday to finish all jobs in progress. On Monday, therefore, he could start with a clean slate. There were several jobs already promised, but not yet started. He figured that on Monday he could start with all new jobs and really figure out the source of his problem. The jobs were all promised within four days, but he figured there should be no problem. He had three operations, and most of the jobs went through all three, but not all jobs needed all operations. He had one worker assigned to each operation. Over the next four days that represented 96 hours of available work time
per day), he had eight jobs promised. The total estimated time for all eight jobs was only 88 hours, giving him a buffer of 8 hours over the next four days. To make sure there would be no problem, he decided there would be no new jobs even scheduled to start during those four days, with the only exception being if any operation completed all the necessary work for all eight jobs before the end of the four days, they could start another. In any case, he wanted to make sure that if necessary, all 96 hours would be reserved for just the 88 hours of scheduled work. John had learned that a good priority rule to use was the critical ratio rule, primarily because it took into account both the customer due date and the amount of processing time for a job. He therefore used that rule to prioritize the jobs. The following table shows the eight jobs, together with processing time estimates and due dates. All due dates are at the end of the day indicated. Processing times for all jobs at all three operations are in hours. Assignment
Use a chart to load the operation according to the priority rule established. In other words, load the most important job in all three work centers, then the next most important, and so forth. This is the method that John used.
Question
Crofts Printing Company
John Burton was not a happy man. He was a supervisor for the Crofts Printing Company, having been recently promoted from lead printer. While he felt very comfortable with his knowledge and success in the printing business, this managerial position was starting to wear on him. He was determined not to let it get him down, however, as he felt he surely had the knowledge, experience, and respect of the workers. He had been asking Jason Crofts for months for a chance at management, and he certainly wasn't about to let it get the better of him. His current problem had to do with scheduling. Since he had become supervisor the sales people always asked him about an order before they promised delivery to a customer. He thought that would be quite simple; after all, who knew more about the printing business than he did? Based on his knowledge of the processes and what was already in progress, he gave what he thought were reasonable, even conservative, estimates of promise dates. Unfortunately, his track record was not too good. There had been many late deliveries since his managerial appointment, and nobody in the organization was too happy about it. At first he thought it must be the other workers. "They're just jealous about my selection as supervisor and want to make me look bad" was his initial reaction. Henry Hurley, another long-time machine operator, was John's best friend. One afternoon over a beer, John asked Henry about the problem in a confidential discussion. Henry said he was sure that John had been trying to get it right but somehow it didn't seem to be going well. Henry assured John that the workers were trying their best. In fact, according to Henry, the workers had been putting in extra effort. They viewed John's promotion as a positive sign that there was a possible future for them in management as well. John's failure would have been, in fact, greatly discouraging to most of the workers. John then thought he might be the problem when it came to giving estimates. The sales people would almost always contact him about a possible job to ask him when it should be promised to the customer. His great knowledge of the printing business allowed him, he thought, to quickly come to a good estimate. Perhaps he was not as good at estimating as he thought. To check this out, he looked at most of the jobs done during the last couple of weeks. In almost every case, the work recorded against a job was almost exactly what he had estimated. What little error existed was certainly not large enough to cause the problem. John trusted Henry and believed his account of the situation, and his analysis of the estimates convinced him the problem wasn't there. If it wasn't the workers and wasn't the estimates then what could it be? He must do something. Jason Crofts was a patient man, but there was a limit. He was worried about alienating his best customers, and at the same time knew he must be concerned about efficiency as a way to control cost. John decided there was a need to take drastic action to ease the situation, or at least to find out what the cause was. On a Friday he scheduled overtime for Saturday to finish all jobs in progress. On Monday, therefore, he could start with a clean slate. There were several jobs already promised, but not yet started. He figured that on Monday he could start with all new jobs and really figure out the source of his problem. The jobs were all promised within four days, but he figured there should be no problem. He had three operations, and most of the jobs went through all three, but not all jobs needed all operations. He had one worker assigned to each operation. Over the next four days that represented 96 hours of available work time
per day), he had eight jobs promised. The total estimated time for all eight jobs was only 88 hours, giving him a buffer of 8 hours over the next four days. To make sure there would be no problem, he decided there would be no new jobs even scheduled to start during those four days, with the only exception being if any operation completed all the necessary work for all eight jobs before the end of the four days, they could start another. In any case, he wanted to make sure that if necessary, all 96 hours would be reserved for just the 88 hours of scheduled work. John had learned that a good priority rule to use was the critical ratio rule, primarily because it took into account both the customer due date and the amount of processing time for a job. He therefore used that rule to prioritize the jobs. The following table shows the eight jobs, together with processing time estimates and due dates. All due dates are at the end of the day indicated. Processing times for all jobs at all three operations are in hours. 
Assignment
Analyze John's approach and try to determine if he has a problem, and if he does determine the source of the problem.
John Burton was not a happy man. He was a supervisor for the Crofts Printing Company, having been recently promoted from lead printer. While he felt very comfortable with his knowledge and success in the printing business, this managerial position was starting to wear on him. He was determined not to let it get him down, however, as he felt he surely had the knowledge, experience, and respect of the workers. He had been asking Jason Crofts for months for a chance at management, and he certainly wasn't about to let it get the better of him. His current problem had to do with scheduling. Since he had become supervisor the sales people always asked him about an order before they promised delivery to a customer. He thought that would be quite simple; after all, who knew more about the printing business than he did? Based on his knowledge of the processes and what was already in progress, he gave what he thought were reasonable, even conservative, estimates of promise dates. Unfortunately, his track record was not too good. There had been many late deliveries since his managerial appointment, and nobody in the organization was too happy about it. At first he thought it must be the other workers. "They're just jealous about my selection as supervisor and want to make me look bad" was his initial reaction. Henry Hurley, another long-time machine operator, was John's best friend. One afternoon over a beer, John asked Henry about the problem in a confidential discussion. Henry said he was sure that John had been trying to get it right but somehow it didn't seem to be going well. Henry assured John that the workers were trying their best. In fact, according to Henry, the workers had been putting in extra effort. They viewed John's promotion as a positive sign that there was a possible future for them in management as well. John's failure would have been, in fact, greatly discouraging to most of the workers. John then thought he might be the problem when it came to giving estimates. The sales people would almost always contact him about a possible job to ask him when it should be promised to the customer. His great knowledge of the printing business allowed him, he thought, to quickly come to a good estimate. Perhaps he was not as good at estimating as he thought. To check this out, he looked at most of the jobs done during the last couple of weeks. In almost every case, the work recorded against a job was almost exactly what he had estimated. What little error existed was certainly not large enough to cause the problem. John trusted Henry and believed his account of the situation, and his analysis of the estimates convinced him the problem wasn't there. If it wasn't the workers and wasn't the estimates then what could it be? He must do something. Jason Crofts was a patient man, but there was a limit. He was worried about alienating his best customers, and at the same time knew he must be concerned about efficiency as a way to control cost. John decided there was a need to take drastic action to ease the situation, or at least to find out what the cause was. On a Friday he scheduled overtime for Saturday to finish all jobs in progress. On Monday, therefore, he could start with a clean slate. There were several jobs already promised, but not yet started. He figured that on Monday he could start with all new jobs and really figure out the source of his problem. The jobs were all promised within four days, but he figured there should be no problem. He had three operations, and most of the jobs went through all three, but not all jobs needed all operations. He had one worker assigned to each operation. Over the next four days that represented 96 hours of available work time
per day), he had eight jobs promised. The total estimated time for all eight jobs was only 88 hours, giving him a buffer of 8 hours over the next four days. To make sure there would be no problem, he decided there would be no new jobs even scheduled to start during those four days, with the only exception being if any operation completed all the necessary work for all eight jobs before the end of the four days, they could start another. In any case, he wanted to make sure that if necessary, all 96 hours would be reserved for just the 88 hours of scheduled work. John had learned that a good priority rule to use was the critical ratio rule, primarily because it took into account both the customer due date and the amount of processing time for a job. He therefore used that rule to prioritize the jobs. The following table shows the eight jobs, together with processing time estimates and due dates. All due dates are at the end of the day indicated. Processing times for all jobs at all three operations are in hours. Assignment
Analyze John's approach and try to determine if he has a problem, and if he does determine the source of the problem.
Question
Crofts Printing Company
John Burton was not a happy man. He was a supervisor for the Crofts Printing Company, having been recently promoted from lead printer. While he felt very comfortable with his knowledge and success in the printing business, this managerial position was starting to wear on him. He was determined not to let it get him down, however, as he felt he surely had the knowledge, experience, and respect of the workers. He had been asking Jason Crofts for months for a chance at management, and he certainly wasn't about to let it get the better of him. His current problem had to do with scheduling. Since he had become supervisor the sales people always asked him about an order before they promised delivery to a customer. He thought that would be quite simple; after all, who knew more about the printing business than he did? Based on his knowledge of the processes and what was already in progress, he gave what he thought were reasonable, even conservative, estimates of promise dates. Unfortunately, his track record was not too good. There had been many late deliveries since his managerial appointment, and nobody in the organization was too happy about it. At first he thought it must be the other workers. "They're just jealous about my selection as supervisor and want to make me look bad" was his initial reaction. Henry Hurley, another long-time machine operator, was John's best friend. One afternoon over a beer, John asked Henry about the problem in a confidential discussion. Henry said he was sure that John had been trying to get it right but somehow it didn't seem to be going well. Henry assured John that the workers were trying their best. In fact, according to Henry, the workers had been putting in extra effort. They viewed John's promotion as a positive sign that there was a possible future for them in management as well. John's failure would have been, in fact, greatly discouraging to most of the workers. John then thought he might be the problem when it came to giving estimates. The sales people would almost always contact him about a possible job to ask him when it should be promised to the customer. His great knowledge of the printing business allowed him, he thought, to quickly come to a good estimate. Perhaps he was not as good at estimating as he thought. To check this out, he looked at most of the jobs done during the last couple of weeks. In almost every case, the work recorded against a job was almost exactly what he had estimated. What little error existed was certainly not large enough to cause the problem. John trusted Henry and believed his account of the situation, and his analysis of the estimates convinced him the problem wasn't there. If it wasn't the workers and wasn't the estimates then what could it be? He must do something. Jason Crofts was a patient man, but there was a limit. He was worried about alienating his best customers, and at the same time knew he must be concerned about efficiency as a way to control cost. John decided there was a need to take drastic action to ease the situation, or at least to find out what the cause was. On a Friday he scheduled overtime for Saturday to finish all jobs in progress. On Monday, therefore, he could start with a clean slate. There were several jobs already promised, but not yet started. He figured that on Monday he could start with all new jobs and really figure out the source of his problem. The jobs were all promised within four days, but he figured there should be no problem. He had three operations, and most of the jobs went through all three, but not all jobs needed all operations. He had one worker assigned to each operation. Over the next four days that represented 96 hours of available work time
per day), he had eight jobs promised. The total estimated time for all eight jobs was only 88 hours, giving him a buffer of 8 hours over the next four days. To make sure there would be no problem, he decided there would be no new jobs even scheduled to start during those four days, with the only exception being if any operation completed all the necessary work for all eight jobs before the end of the four days, they could start another. In any case, he wanted to make sure that if necessary, all 96 hours would be reserved for just the 88 hours of scheduled work. John had learned that a good priority rule to use was the critical ratio rule, primarily because it took into account both the customer due date and the amount of processing time for a job. He therefore used that rule to prioritize the jobs. The following table shows the eight jobs, together with processing time estimates and due dates. All due dates are at the end of the day indicated. Processing times for all jobs at all three operations are in hours. 
Assignment
Try to provide a solution to John that will ease the problem, and perhaps eliminate it.
John Burton was not a happy man. He was a supervisor for the Crofts Printing Company, having been recently promoted from lead printer. While he felt very comfortable with his knowledge and success in the printing business, this managerial position was starting to wear on him. He was determined not to let it get him down, however, as he felt he surely had the knowledge, experience, and respect of the workers. He had been asking Jason Crofts for months for a chance at management, and he certainly wasn't about to let it get the better of him. His current problem had to do with scheduling. Since he had become supervisor the sales people always asked him about an order before they promised delivery to a customer. He thought that would be quite simple; after all, who knew more about the printing business than he did? Based on his knowledge of the processes and what was already in progress, he gave what he thought were reasonable, even conservative, estimates of promise dates. Unfortunately, his track record was not too good. There had been many late deliveries since his managerial appointment, and nobody in the organization was too happy about it. At first he thought it must be the other workers. "They're just jealous about my selection as supervisor and want to make me look bad" was his initial reaction. Henry Hurley, another long-time machine operator, was John's best friend. One afternoon over a beer, John asked Henry about the problem in a confidential discussion. Henry said he was sure that John had been trying to get it right but somehow it didn't seem to be going well. Henry assured John that the workers were trying their best. In fact, according to Henry, the workers had been putting in extra effort. They viewed John's promotion as a positive sign that there was a possible future for them in management as well. John's failure would have been, in fact, greatly discouraging to most of the workers. John then thought he might be the problem when it came to giving estimates. The sales people would almost always contact him about a possible job to ask him when it should be promised to the customer. His great knowledge of the printing business allowed him, he thought, to quickly come to a good estimate. Perhaps he was not as good at estimating as he thought. To check this out, he looked at most of the jobs done during the last couple of weeks. In almost every case, the work recorded against a job was almost exactly what he had estimated. What little error existed was certainly not large enough to cause the problem. John trusted Henry and believed his account of the situation, and his analysis of the estimates convinced him the problem wasn't there. If it wasn't the workers and wasn't the estimates then what could it be? He must do something. Jason Crofts was a patient man, but there was a limit. He was worried about alienating his best customers, and at the same time knew he must be concerned about efficiency as a way to control cost. John decided there was a need to take drastic action to ease the situation, or at least to find out what the cause was. On a Friday he scheduled overtime for Saturday to finish all jobs in progress. On Monday, therefore, he could start with a clean slate. There were several jobs already promised, but not yet started. He figured that on Monday he could start with all new jobs and really figure out the source of his problem. The jobs were all promised within four days, but he figured there should be no problem. He had three operations, and most of the jobs went through all three, but not all jobs needed all operations. He had one worker assigned to each operation. Over the next four days that represented 96 hours of available work time
per day), he had eight jobs promised. The total estimated time for all eight jobs was only 88 hours, giving him a buffer of 8 hours over the next four days. To make sure there would be no problem, he decided there would be no new jobs even scheduled to start during those four days, with the only exception being if any operation completed all the necessary work for all eight jobs before the end of the four days, they could start another. In any case, he wanted to make sure that if necessary, all 96 hours would be reserved for just the 88 hours of scheduled work. John had learned that a good priority rule to use was the critical ratio rule, primarily because it took into account both the customer due date and the amount of processing time for a job. He therefore used that rule to prioritize the jobs. The following table shows the eight jobs, together with processing time estimates and due dates. All due dates are at the end of the day indicated. Processing times for all jobs at all three operations are in hours. Assignment
Try to provide a solution to John that will ease the problem, and perhaps eliminate it.
Question
Melrose Products
Jim Hartough was not in a good mood. He worked his way through the ranks when supervisors did supervision and workers did what they were told. He was now faced with the fact that the new president of Melrose products was one of these "touchy-feely" types that was pushing for self-directed work teams. As the manufacturing manager, Jim was ultimately responsible to not only meet production needs, but also to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. To him, that meant specific allocation of work. It had always worked that way and he saw nothing new to tell him it shouldn't continue to do so. Part of the problem, Jim realized, was that the business environment was changing. Changes in the product design were becoming more frequent and the customers were expecting more service. While they were still sensitive to price (the competition had not disappeared), they wanted quick delivery, high quality, and the product designed more specifically to their need. To Jim, that meant putting more pressure on those "lazy, pampered engineers" to make better designs as well as additional pressure on those "bums on the factory floor" to meet production needs. With better designs, he could more easily allocate the work to his workforce to meet the customer demands. He felt he had truly kept up with the times-the customer was king. The fact that the customer expected more meant little more than how to get them what they wanted from production. It was merely a case of making sure everyone delivered on the job the way they were supposed to. While Mr. Melrose had avoided the need to become a public company and had managed to keep unions out, he had still apparently gone soft, at least according to Jim. He had recently appointed Cindy Lopez as the new president, passing over Jim. She not only had an MBA (Jim had always thought the real business learning was done "on the firing line"), but also had never even been a supervisor. She had come from, of all places, the human resources department! That department had never done anything for him other than send him a bunch of worthless people. Some of those people had, in his mind, no chance of ever becoming useful. As far as he was concerned, the only real value of a human resources department was to keep the government idiotic bureaucrats off their backs. So, now Jim was in the position to try to "change with the times," as Cindy had said. She wanted to gradually move the company toward flexible self-directed work teams. Jim, of course, felt that all the workers really wanted was to get their paycheck and party on Friday and Saturday nights, and could care less about having any say in the product or the customer. How was he ever going to get anything done with someone so naive in charge? the Current situation Cindy had suggested that Jim start the process of changing to teams by looking at the K-line. The K-line of product was a fairly standard product that had recently undergone heavy competitive pressure in the form of delivery speed and design enhancements. Melrose had been gradually losing market share in the K-line. Jim had responded, before the naming of Cindy as president, by putting additional pressure on workers to be more efficient and reducing their task times. As Jim said, "there's always some slack time we can squeeze out of any process if we really put our minds to it." They are using carefully developed time standards, much as Jim learned in his Industrial Engineering courses. He feels they are quite good, including a liberal 10% allowance. Since the K-line is a fairly standard product, Jim not only uses the time standard to develop cost figures for labor, but also uses those cost figures to allocate overhead. There are currently seven labor tasks to make one of the K-line products.
The overhead allocation is currently at 230% of direct labor. Material costs are $9.35 per unit. They currently have enough labor to produce 20 of the K-line per shift. Each shift has one supervisor costing about $24 per hour, accounted for in the overhead account. From this information, Jim was being asked to develop teams, and without direct supervision. From his standpoint, the effort was doomed to failure. Jim, however, always considered himself a "company man" and would do what he could to make it happen.
Assignment
What is the standard cost of the K-line product?
Jim Hartough was not in a good mood. He worked his way through the ranks when supervisors did supervision and workers did what they were told. He was now faced with the fact that the new president of Melrose products was one of these "touchy-feely" types that was pushing for self-directed work teams. As the manufacturing manager, Jim was ultimately responsible to not only meet production needs, but also to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. To him, that meant specific allocation of work. It had always worked that way and he saw nothing new to tell him it shouldn't continue to do so. Part of the problem, Jim realized, was that the business environment was changing. Changes in the product design were becoming more frequent and the customers were expecting more service. While they were still sensitive to price (the competition had not disappeared), they wanted quick delivery, high quality, and the product designed more specifically to their need. To Jim, that meant putting more pressure on those "lazy, pampered engineers" to make better designs as well as additional pressure on those "bums on the factory floor" to meet production needs. With better designs, he could more easily allocate the work to his workforce to meet the customer demands. He felt he had truly kept up with the times-the customer was king. The fact that the customer expected more meant little more than how to get them what they wanted from production. It was merely a case of making sure everyone delivered on the job the way they were supposed to. While Mr. Melrose had avoided the need to become a public company and had managed to keep unions out, he had still apparently gone soft, at least according to Jim. He had recently appointed Cindy Lopez as the new president, passing over Jim. She not only had an MBA (Jim had always thought the real business learning was done "on the firing line"), but also had never even been a supervisor. She had come from, of all places, the human resources department! That department had never done anything for him other than send him a bunch of worthless people. Some of those people had, in his mind, no chance of ever becoming useful. As far as he was concerned, the only real value of a human resources department was to keep the government idiotic bureaucrats off their backs. So, now Jim was in the position to try to "change with the times," as Cindy had said. She wanted to gradually move the company toward flexible self-directed work teams. Jim, of course, felt that all the workers really wanted was to get their paycheck and party on Friday and Saturday nights, and could care less about having any say in the product or the customer. How was he ever going to get anything done with someone so naive in charge? the Current situation Cindy had suggested that Jim start the process of changing to teams by looking at the K-line. The K-line of product was a fairly standard product that had recently undergone heavy competitive pressure in the form of delivery speed and design enhancements. Melrose had been gradually losing market share in the K-line. Jim had responded, before the naming of Cindy as president, by putting additional pressure on workers to be more efficient and reducing their task times. As Jim said, "there's always some slack time we can squeeze out of any process if we really put our minds to it." They are using carefully developed time standards, much as Jim learned in his Industrial Engineering courses. He feels they are quite good, including a liberal 10% allowance. Since the K-line is a fairly standard product, Jim not only uses the time standard to develop cost figures for labor, but also uses those cost figures to allocate overhead. There are currently seven labor tasks to make one of the K-line products.
The overhead allocation is currently at 230% of direct labor. Material costs are $9.35 per unit. They currently have enough labor to produce 20 of the K-line per shift. Each shift has one supervisor costing about $24 per hour, accounted for in the overhead account. From this information, Jim was being asked to develop teams, and without direct supervision. From his standpoint, the effort was doomed to failure. Jim, however, always considered himself a "company man" and would do what he could to make it happen.
Assignment
What is the standard cost of the K-line product?
Question
Melrose Products
Jim Hartough was not in a good mood. He worked his way through the ranks when supervisors did supervision and workers did what they were told. He was now faced with the fact that the new president of Melrose products was one of these "touchy-feely" types that was pushing for self-directed work teams. As the manufacturing manager, Jim was ultimately responsible to not only meet production needs, but also to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. To him, that meant specific allocation of work. It had always worked that way and he saw nothing new to tell him it shouldn't continue to do so. Part of the problem, Jim realized, was that the business environment was changing. Changes in the product design were becoming more frequent and the customers were expecting more service. While they were still sensitive to price (the competition had not disappeared), they wanted quick delivery, high quality, and the product designed more specifically to their need. To Jim, that meant putting more pressure on those "lazy, pampered engineers" to make better designs as well as additional pressure on those "bums on the factory floor" to meet production needs. With better designs, he could more easily allocate the work to his workforce to meet the customer demands. He felt he had truly kept up with the times-the customer was king. The fact that the customer expected more meant little more than how to get them what they wanted from production. It was merely a case of making sure everyone delivered on the job the way they were supposed to. While Mr. Melrose had avoided the need to become a public company and had managed to keep unions out, he had still apparently gone soft, at least according to Jim. He had recently appointed Cindy Lopez as the new president, passing over Jim. She not only had an MBA (Jim had always thought the real business learning was done "on the firing line"), but also had never even been a supervisor. She had come from, of all places, the human resources department! That department had never done anything for him other than send him a bunch of worthless people. Some of those people had, in his mind, no chance of ever becoming useful. As far as he was concerned, the only real value of a human resources department was to keep the government idiotic bureaucrats off their backs. So, now Jim was in the position to try to "change with the times," as Cindy had said. She wanted to gradually move the company toward flexible self-directed work teams. Jim, of course, felt that all the workers really wanted was to get their paycheck and party on Friday and Saturday nights, and could care less about having any say in the product or the customer. How was he ever going to get anything done with someone so naive in charge? the Current situation Cindy had suggested that Jim start the process of changing to teams by looking at the K-line. The K-line of product was a fairly standard product that had recently undergone heavy competitive pressure in the form of delivery speed and design enhancements. Melrose had been gradually losing market share in the K-line. Jim had responded, before the naming of Cindy as president, by putting additional pressure on workers to be more efficient and reducing their task times. As Jim said, "there's always some slack time we can squeeze out of any process if we really put our minds to it." They are using carefully developed time standards, much as Jim learned in his Industrial Engineering courses. He feels they are quite good, including a liberal 10% allowance. Since the K-line is a fairly standard product, Jim not only uses the time standard to develop cost figures for labor, but also uses those cost figures to allocate overhead. There are currently seven labor tasks to make one of the K-line products.
The overhead allocation is currently at 230% of direct labor. Material costs are $9.35 per unit. They currently have enough labor to produce 20 of the K-line per shift. Each shift has one supervisor costing about $24 per hour, accounted for in the overhead account. From this information, Jim was being asked to develop teams, and without direct supervision. From his standpoint, the effort was doomed to failure. Jim, however, always considered himself a "company man" and would do what he could to make it happen.
Assignment
What specific steps would you undertake to make the self-directed teams? How, specifically, would you deal with the cost and time standard issues?
Jim Hartough was not in a good mood. He worked his way through the ranks when supervisors did supervision and workers did what they were told. He was now faced with the fact that the new president of Melrose products was one of these "touchy-feely" types that was pushing for self-directed work teams. As the manufacturing manager, Jim was ultimately responsible to not only meet production needs, but also to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. To him, that meant specific allocation of work. It had always worked that way and he saw nothing new to tell him it shouldn't continue to do so. Part of the problem, Jim realized, was that the business environment was changing. Changes in the product design were becoming more frequent and the customers were expecting more service. While they were still sensitive to price (the competition had not disappeared), they wanted quick delivery, high quality, and the product designed more specifically to their need. To Jim, that meant putting more pressure on those "lazy, pampered engineers" to make better designs as well as additional pressure on those "bums on the factory floor" to meet production needs. With better designs, he could more easily allocate the work to his workforce to meet the customer demands. He felt he had truly kept up with the times-the customer was king. The fact that the customer expected more meant little more than how to get them what they wanted from production. It was merely a case of making sure everyone delivered on the job the way they were supposed to. While Mr. Melrose had avoided the need to become a public company and had managed to keep unions out, he had still apparently gone soft, at least according to Jim. He had recently appointed Cindy Lopez as the new president, passing over Jim. She not only had an MBA (Jim had always thought the real business learning was done "on the firing line"), but also had never even been a supervisor. She had come from, of all places, the human resources department! That department had never done anything for him other than send him a bunch of worthless people. Some of those people had, in his mind, no chance of ever becoming useful. As far as he was concerned, the only real value of a human resources department was to keep the government idiotic bureaucrats off their backs. So, now Jim was in the position to try to "change with the times," as Cindy had said. She wanted to gradually move the company toward flexible self-directed work teams. Jim, of course, felt that all the workers really wanted was to get their paycheck and party on Friday and Saturday nights, and could care less about having any say in the product or the customer. How was he ever going to get anything done with someone so naive in charge? the Current situation Cindy had suggested that Jim start the process of changing to teams by looking at the K-line. The K-line of product was a fairly standard product that had recently undergone heavy competitive pressure in the form of delivery speed and design enhancements. Melrose had been gradually losing market share in the K-line. Jim had responded, before the naming of Cindy as president, by putting additional pressure on workers to be more efficient and reducing their task times. As Jim said, "there's always some slack time we can squeeze out of any process if we really put our minds to it." They are using carefully developed time standards, much as Jim learned in his Industrial Engineering courses. He feels they are quite good, including a liberal 10% allowance. Since the K-line is a fairly standard product, Jim not only uses the time standard to develop cost figures for labor, but also uses those cost figures to allocate overhead. There are currently seven labor tasks to make one of the K-line products.
The overhead allocation is currently at 230% of direct labor. Material costs are $9.35 per unit. They currently have enough labor to produce 20 of the K-line per shift. Each shift has one supervisor costing about $24 per hour, accounted for in the overhead account. From this information, Jim was being asked to develop teams, and without direct supervision. From his standpoint, the effort was doomed to failure. Jim, however, always considered himself a "company man" and would do what he could to make it happen.
Assignment
What specific steps would you undertake to make the self-directed teams? How, specifically, would you deal with the cost and time standard issues?
Question
Melrose Products
Jim Hartough was not in a good mood. He worked his way through the ranks when supervisors did supervision and workers did what they were told. He was now faced with the fact that the new president of Melrose products was one of these "touchy-feely" types that was pushing for self-directed work teams. As the manufacturing manager, Jim was ultimately responsible to not only meet production needs, but also to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. To him, that meant specific allocation of work. It had always worked that way and he saw nothing new to tell him it shouldn't continue to do so. Part of the problem, Jim realized, was that the business environment was changing. Changes in the product design were becoming more frequent and the customers were expecting more service. While they were still sensitive to price (the competition had not disappeared), they wanted quick delivery, high quality, and the product designed more specifically to their need. To Jim, that meant putting more pressure on those "lazy, pampered engineers" to make better designs as well as additional pressure on those "bums on the factory floor" to meet production needs. With better designs, he could more easily allocate the work to his workforce to meet the customer demands. He felt he had truly kept up with the times-the customer was king. The fact that the customer expected more meant little more than how to get them what they wanted from production. It was merely a case of making sure everyone delivered on the job the way they were supposed to. While Mr. Melrose had avoided the need to become a public company and had managed to keep unions out, he had still apparently gone soft, at least according to Jim. He had recently appointed Cindy Lopez as the new president, passing over Jim. She not only had an MBA (Jim had always thought the real business learning was done "on the firing line"), but also had never even been a supervisor. She had come from, of all places, the human resources department! That department had never done anything for him other than send him a bunch of worthless people. Some of those people had, in his mind, no chance of ever becoming useful. As far as he was concerned, the only real value of a human resources department was to keep the government idiotic bureaucrats off their backs. So, now Jim was in the position to try to "change with the times," as Cindy had said. She wanted to gradually move the company toward flexible self-directed work teams. Jim, of course, felt that all the workers really wanted was to get their paycheck and party on Friday and Saturday nights, and could care less about having any say in the product or the customer. How was he ever going to get anything done with someone so naive in charge? the Current situation Cindy had suggested that Jim start the process of changing to teams by looking at the K-line. The K-line of product was a fairly standard product that had recently undergone heavy competitive pressure in the form of delivery speed and design enhancements. Melrose had been gradually losing market share in the K-line. Jim had responded, before the naming of Cindy as president, by putting additional pressure on workers to be more efficient and reducing their task times. As Jim said, "there's always some slack time we can squeeze out of any process if we really put our minds to it." They are using carefully developed time standards, much as Jim learned in his Industrial Engineering courses. He feels they are quite good, including a liberal 10% allowance. Since the K-line is a fairly standard product, Jim not only uses the time standard to develop cost figures for labor, but also uses those cost figures to allocate overhead. There are currently seven labor tasks to make one of the K-line products.
The overhead allocation is currently at 230% of direct labor. Material costs are $9.35 per unit. They currently have enough labor to produce 20 of the K-line per shift. Each shift has one supervisor costing about $24 per hour, accounted for in the overhead account. From this information, Jim was being asked to develop teams, and without direct supervision. From his standpoint, the effort was doomed to failure. Jim, however, always considered himself a "company man" and would do what he could to make it happen.
Assignment
Do you agree with Cindy? Do you agree with Jim? Is there some other alternative approach that might be better in this situation? Explain.
Jim Hartough was not in a good mood. He worked his way through the ranks when supervisors did supervision and workers did what they were told. He was now faced with the fact that the new president of Melrose products was one of these "touchy-feely" types that was pushing for self-directed work teams. As the manufacturing manager, Jim was ultimately responsible to not only meet production needs, but also to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. To him, that meant specific allocation of work. It had always worked that way and he saw nothing new to tell him it shouldn't continue to do so. Part of the problem, Jim realized, was that the business environment was changing. Changes in the product design were becoming more frequent and the customers were expecting more service. While they were still sensitive to price (the competition had not disappeared), they wanted quick delivery, high quality, and the product designed more specifically to their need. To Jim, that meant putting more pressure on those "lazy, pampered engineers" to make better designs as well as additional pressure on those "bums on the factory floor" to meet production needs. With better designs, he could more easily allocate the work to his workforce to meet the customer demands. He felt he had truly kept up with the times-the customer was king. The fact that the customer expected more meant little more than how to get them what they wanted from production. It was merely a case of making sure everyone delivered on the job the way they were supposed to. While Mr. Melrose had avoided the need to become a public company and had managed to keep unions out, he had still apparently gone soft, at least according to Jim. He had recently appointed Cindy Lopez as the new president, passing over Jim. She not only had an MBA (Jim had always thought the real business learning was done "on the firing line"), but also had never even been a supervisor. She had come from, of all places, the human resources department! That department had never done anything for him other than send him a bunch of worthless people. Some of those people had, in his mind, no chance of ever becoming useful. As far as he was concerned, the only real value of a human resources department was to keep the government idiotic bureaucrats off their backs. So, now Jim was in the position to try to "change with the times," as Cindy had said. She wanted to gradually move the company toward flexible self-directed work teams. Jim, of course, felt that all the workers really wanted was to get their paycheck and party on Friday and Saturday nights, and could care less about having any say in the product or the customer. How was he ever going to get anything done with someone so naive in charge? the Current situation Cindy had suggested that Jim start the process of changing to teams by looking at the K-line. The K-line of product was a fairly standard product that had recently undergone heavy competitive pressure in the form of delivery speed and design enhancements. Melrose had been gradually losing market share in the K-line. Jim had responded, before the naming of Cindy as president, by putting additional pressure on workers to be more efficient and reducing their task times. As Jim said, "there's always some slack time we can squeeze out of any process if we really put our minds to it." They are using carefully developed time standards, much as Jim learned in his Industrial Engineering courses. He feels they are quite good, including a liberal 10% allowance. Since the K-line is a fairly standard product, Jim not only uses the time standard to develop cost figures for labor, but also uses those cost figures to allocate overhead. There are currently seven labor tasks to make one of the K-line products.
The overhead allocation is currently at 230% of direct labor. Material costs are $9.35 per unit. They currently have enough labor to produce 20 of the K-line per shift. Each shift has one supervisor costing about $24 per hour, accounted for in the overhead account. From this information, Jim was being asked to develop teams, and without direct supervision. From his standpoint, the effort was doomed to failure. Jim, however, always considered himself a "company man" and would do what he could to make it happen.
Assignment
Do you agree with Cindy? Do you agree with Jim? Is there some other alternative approach that might be better in this situation? Explain.
Question
Melrose Products
Jim Hartough was not in a good mood. He worked his way through the ranks when supervisors did supervision and workers did what they were told. He was now faced with the fact that the new president of Melrose products was one of these "touchy-feely" types that was pushing for self-directed work teams. As the manufacturing manager, Jim was ultimately responsible to not only meet production needs, but also to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. To him, that meant specific allocation of work. It had always worked that way and he saw nothing new to tell him it shouldn't continue to do so. Part of the problem, Jim realized, was that the business environment was changing. Changes in the product design were becoming more frequent and the customers were expecting more service. While they were still sensitive to price (the competition had not disappeared), they wanted quick delivery, high quality, and the product designed more specifically to their need. To Jim, that meant putting more pressure on those "lazy, pampered engineers" to make better designs as well as additional pressure on those "bums on the factory floor" to meet production needs. With better designs, he could more easily allocate the work to his workforce to meet the customer demands. He felt he had truly kept up with the times-the customer was king. The fact that the customer expected more meant little more than how to get them what they wanted from production. It was merely a case of making sure everyone delivered on the job the way they were supposed to. While Mr. Melrose had avoided the need to become a public company and had managed to keep unions out, he had still apparently gone soft, at least according to Jim. He had recently appointed Cindy Lopez as the new president, passing over Jim. She not only had an MBA (Jim had always thought the real business learning was done "on the firing line"), but also had never even been a supervisor. She had come from, of all places, the human resources department! That department had never done anything for him other than send him a bunch of worthless people. Some of those people had, in his mind, no chance of ever becoming useful. As far as he was concerned, the only real value of a human resources department was to keep the government idiotic bureaucrats off their backs. So, now Jim was in the position to try to "change with the times," as Cindy had said. She wanted to gradually move the company toward flexible self-directed work teams. Jim, of course, felt that all the workers really wanted was to get their paycheck and party on Friday and Saturday nights, and could care less about having any say in the product or the customer. How was he ever going to get anything done with someone so naive in charge? the Current situation Cindy had suggested that Jim start the process of changing to teams by looking at the K-line. The K-line of product was a fairly standard product that had recently undergone heavy competitive pressure in the form of delivery speed and design enhancements. Melrose had been gradually losing market share in the K-line. Jim had responded, before the naming of Cindy as president, by putting additional pressure on workers to be more efficient and reducing their task times. As Jim said, "there's always some slack time we can squeeze out of any process if we really put our minds to it." They are using carefully developed time standards, much as Jim learned in his Industrial Engineering courses. He feels they are quite good, including a liberal 10% allowance. Since the K-line is a fairly standard product, Jim not only uses the time standard to develop cost figures for labor, but also uses those cost figures to allocate overhead. There are currently seven labor tasks to make one of the K-line products.
The overhead allocation is currently at 230% of direct labor. Material costs are $9.35 per unit. They currently have enough labor to produce 20 of the K-line per shift. Each shift has one supervisor costing about $24 per hour, accounted for in the overhead account. From this information, Jim was being asked to develop teams, and without direct supervision. From his standpoint, the effort was doomed to failure. Jim, however, always considered himself a "company man" and would do what he could to make it happen.
Assignment
What do you do with the supervisor in this situation? Be specific in your approach.
Jim Hartough was not in a good mood. He worked his way through the ranks when supervisors did supervision and workers did what they were told. He was now faced with the fact that the new president of Melrose products was one of these "touchy-feely" types that was pushing for self-directed work teams. As the manufacturing manager, Jim was ultimately responsible to not only meet production needs, but also to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. To him, that meant specific allocation of work. It had always worked that way and he saw nothing new to tell him it shouldn't continue to do so. Part of the problem, Jim realized, was that the business environment was changing. Changes in the product design were becoming more frequent and the customers were expecting more service. While they were still sensitive to price (the competition had not disappeared), they wanted quick delivery, high quality, and the product designed more specifically to their need. To Jim, that meant putting more pressure on those "lazy, pampered engineers" to make better designs as well as additional pressure on those "bums on the factory floor" to meet production needs. With better designs, he could more easily allocate the work to his workforce to meet the customer demands. He felt he had truly kept up with the times-the customer was king. The fact that the customer expected more meant little more than how to get them what they wanted from production. It was merely a case of making sure everyone delivered on the job the way they were supposed to. While Mr. Melrose had avoided the need to become a public company and had managed to keep unions out, he had still apparently gone soft, at least according to Jim. He had recently appointed Cindy Lopez as the new president, passing over Jim. She not only had an MBA (Jim had always thought the real business learning was done "on the firing line"), but also had never even been a supervisor. She had come from, of all places, the human resources department! That department had never done anything for him other than send him a bunch of worthless people. Some of those people had, in his mind, no chance of ever becoming useful. As far as he was concerned, the only real value of a human resources department was to keep the government idiotic bureaucrats off their backs. So, now Jim was in the position to try to "change with the times," as Cindy had said. She wanted to gradually move the company toward flexible self-directed work teams. Jim, of course, felt that all the workers really wanted was to get their paycheck and party on Friday and Saturday nights, and could care less about having any say in the product or the customer. How was he ever going to get anything done with someone so naive in charge? the Current situation Cindy had suggested that Jim start the process of changing to teams by looking at the K-line. The K-line of product was a fairly standard product that had recently undergone heavy competitive pressure in the form of delivery speed and design enhancements. Melrose had been gradually losing market share in the K-line. Jim had responded, before the naming of Cindy as president, by putting additional pressure on workers to be more efficient and reducing their task times. As Jim said, "there's always some slack time we can squeeze out of any process if we really put our minds to it." They are using carefully developed time standards, much as Jim learned in his Industrial Engineering courses. He feels they are quite good, including a liberal 10% allowance. Since the K-line is a fairly standard product, Jim not only uses the time standard to develop cost figures for labor, but also uses those cost figures to allocate overhead. There are currently seven labor tasks to make one of the K-line products.
The overhead allocation is currently at 230% of direct labor. Material costs are $9.35 per unit. They currently have enough labor to produce 20 of the K-line per shift. Each shift has one supervisor costing about $24 per hour, accounted for in the overhead account. From this information, Jim was being asked to develop teams, and without direct supervision. From his standpoint, the effort was doomed to failure. Jim, however, always considered himself a "company man" and would do what he could to make it happen.
Assignment
What do you do with the supervisor in this situation? Be specific in your approach.
Question
Melrose Products
Jim Hartough was not in a good mood. He worked his way through the ranks when supervisors did supervision and workers did what they were told. He was now faced with the fact that the new president of Melrose products was one of these "touchy-feely" types that was pushing for self-directed work teams. As the manufacturing manager, Jim was ultimately responsible to not only meet production needs, but also to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. To him, that meant specific allocation of work. It had always worked that way and he saw nothing new to tell him it shouldn't continue to do so. Part of the problem, Jim realized, was that the business environment was changing. Changes in the product design were becoming more frequent and the customers were expecting more service. While they were still sensitive to price (the competition had not disappeared), they wanted quick delivery, high quality, and the product designed more specifically to their need. To Jim, that meant putting more pressure on those "lazy, pampered engineers" to make better designs as well as additional pressure on those "bums on the factory floor" to meet production needs. With better designs, he could more easily allocate the work to his workforce to meet the customer demands. He felt he had truly kept up with the times-the customer was king. The fact that the customer expected more meant little more than how to get them what they wanted from production. It was merely a case of making sure everyone delivered on the job the way they were supposed to. While Mr. Melrose had avoided the need to become a public company and had managed to keep unions out, he had still apparently gone soft, at least according to Jim. He had recently appointed Cindy Lopez as the new president, passing over Jim. She not only had an MBA (Jim had always thought the real business learning was done "on the firing line"), but also had never even been a supervisor. She had come from, of all places, the human resources department! That department had never done anything for him other than send him a bunch of worthless people. Some of those people had, in his mind, no chance of ever becoming useful. As far as he was concerned, the only real value of a human resources department was to keep the government idiotic bureaucrats off their backs. So, now Jim was in the position to try to "change with the times," as Cindy had said. She wanted to gradually move the company toward flexible self-directed work teams. Jim, of course, felt that all the workers really wanted was to get their paycheck and party on Friday and Saturday nights, and could care less about having any say in the product or the customer. How was he ever going to get anything done with someone so naive in charge? the Current situation Cindy had suggested that Jim start the process of changing to teams by looking at the K-line. The K-line of product was a fairly standard product that had recently undergone heavy competitive pressure in the form of delivery speed and design enhancements. Melrose had been gradually losing market share in the K-line. Jim had responded, before the naming of Cindy as president, by putting additional pressure on workers to be more efficient and reducing their task times. As Jim said, "there's always some slack time we can squeeze out of any process if we really put our minds to it." They are using carefully developed time standards, much as Jim learned in his Industrial Engineering courses. He feels they are quite good, including a liberal 10% allowance. Since the K-line is a fairly standard product, Jim not only uses the time standard to develop cost figures for labor, but also uses those cost figures to allocate overhead. There are currently seven labor tasks to make one of the K-line products.
The overhead allocation is currently at 230% of direct labor. Material costs are $9.35 per unit. They currently have enough labor to produce 20 of the K-line per shift. Each shift has one supervisor costing about $24 per hour, accounted for in the overhead account. From this information, Jim was being asked to develop teams, and without direct supervision. From his standpoint, the effort was doomed to failure. Jim, however, always considered himself a "company man" and would do what he could to make it happen.
Assignment
How do you deal with Jim? Develop a specific plan to deal with a situation such as the one described.
Jim Hartough was not in a good mood. He worked his way through the ranks when supervisors did supervision and workers did what they were told. He was now faced with the fact that the new president of Melrose products was one of these "touchy-feely" types that was pushing for self-directed work teams. As the manufacturing manager, Jim was ultimately responsible to not only meet production needs, but also to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. To him, that meant specific allocation of work. It had always worked that way and he saw nothing new to tell him it shouldn't continue to do so. Part of the problem, Jim realized, was that the business environment was changing. Changes in the product design were becoming more frequent and the customers were expecting more service. While they were still sensitive to price (the competition had not disappeared), they wanted quick delivery, high quality, and the product designed more specifically to their need. To Jim, that meant putting more pressure on those "lazy, pampered engineers" to make better designs as well as additional pressure on those "bums on the factory floor" to meet production needs. With better designs, he could more easily allocate the work to his workforce to meet the customer demands. He felt he had truly kept up with the times-the customer was king. The fact that the customer expected more meant little more than how to get them what they wanted from production. It was merely a case of making sure everyone delivered on the job the way they were supposed to. While Mr. Melrose had avoided the need to become a public company and had managed to keep unions out, he had still apparently gone soft, at least according to Jim. He had recently appointed Cindy Lopez as the new president, passing over Jim. She not only had an MBA (Jim had always thought the real business learning was done "on the firing line"), but also had never even been a supervisor. She had come from, of all places, the human resources department! That department had never done anything for him other than send him a bunch of worthless people. Some of those people had, in his mind, no chance of ever becoming useful. As far as he was concerned, the only real value of a human resources department was to keep the government idiotic bureaucrats off their backs. So, now Jim was in the position to try to "change with the times," as Cindy had said. She wanted to gradually move the company toward flexible self-directed work teams. Jim, of course, felt that all the workers really wanted was to get their paycheck and party on Friday and Saturday nights, and could care less about having any say in the product or the customer. How was he ever going to get anything done with someone so naive in charge? the Current situation Cindy had suggested that Jim start the process of changing to teams by looking at the K-line. The K-line of product was a fairly standard product that had recently undergone heavy competitive pressure in the form of delivery speed and design enhancements. Melrose had been gradually losing market share in the K-line. Jim had responded, before the naming of Cindy as president, by putting additional pressure on workers to be more efficient and reducing their task times. As Jim said, "there's always some slack time we can squeeze out of any process if we really put our minds to it." They are using carefully developed time standards, much as Jim learned in his Industrial Engineering courses. He feels they are quite good, including a liberal 10% allowance. Since the K-line is a fairly standard product, Jim not only uses the time standard to develop cost figures for labor, but also uses those cost figures to allocate overhead. There are currently seven labor tasks to make one of the K-line products.
The overhead allocation is currently at 230% of direct labor. Material costs are $9.35 per unit. They currently have enough labor to produce 20 of the K-line per shift. Each shift has one supervisor costing about $24 per hour, accounted for in the overhead account. From this information, Jim was being asked to develop teams, and without direct supervision. From his standpoint, the effort was doomed to failure. Jim, however, always considered himself a "company man" and would do what he could to make it happen.
Assignment
How do you deal with Jim? Develop a specific plan to deal with a situation such as the one described.
Question
Melrose Products
Jim Hartough was not in a good mood. He worked his way through the ranks when supervisors did supervision and workers did what they were told. He was now faced with the fact that the new president of Melrose products was one of these "touchy-feely" types that was pushing for self-directed work teams. As the manufacturing manager, Jim was ultimately responsible to not only meet production needs, but also to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. To him, that meant specific allocation of work. It had always worked that way and he saw nothing new to tell him it shouldn't continue to do so. Part of the problem, Jim realized, was that the business environment was changing. Changes in the product design were becoming more frequent and the customers were expecting more service. While they were still sensitive to price (the competition had not disappeared), they wanted quick delivery, high quality, and the product designed more specifically to their need. To Jim, that meant putting more pressure on those "lazy, pampered engineers" to make better designs as well as additional pressure on those "bums on the factory floor" to meet production needs. With better designs, he could more easily allocate the work to his workforce to meet the customer demands. He felt he had truly kept up with the times-the customer was king. The fact that the customer expected more meant little more than how to get them what they wanted from production. It was merely a case of making sure everyone delivered on the job the way they were supposed to. While Mr. Melrose had avoided the need to become a public company and had managed to keep unions out, he had still apparently gone soft, at least according to Jim. He had recently appointed Cindy Lopez as the new president, passing over Jim. She not only had an MBA (Jim had always thought the real business learning was done "on the firing line"), but also had never even been a supervisor. She had come from, of all places, the human resources department! That department had never done anything for him other than send him a bunch of worthless people. Some of those people had, in his mind, no chance of ever becoming useful. As far as he was concerned, the only real value of a human resources department was to keep the government idiotic bureaucrats off their backs. So, now Jim was in the position to try to "change with the times," as Cindy had said. She wanted to gradually move the company toward flexible self-directed work teams. Jim, of course, felt that all the workers really wanted was to get their paycheck and party on Friday and Saturday nights, and could care less about having any say in the product or the customer. How was he ever going to get anything done with someone so naive in charge? the Current situation Cindy had suggested that Jim start the process of changing to teams by looking at the K-line. The K-line of product was a fairly standard product that had recently undergone heavy competitive pressure in the form of delivery speed and design enhancements. Melrose had been gradually losing market share in the K-line. Jim had responded, before the naming of Cindy as president, by putting additional pressure on workers to be more efficient and reducing their task times. As Jim said, "there's always some slack time we can squeeze out of any process if we really put our minds to it." They are using carefully developed time standards, much as Jim learned in his Industrial Engineering courses. He feels they are quite good, including a liberal 10% allowance. Since the K-line is a fairly standard product, Jim not only uses the time standard to develop cost figures for labor, but also uses those cost figures to allocate overhead. There are currently seven labor tasks to make one of the K-line products.
The overhead allocation is currently at 230% of direct labor. Material costs are $9.35 per unit. They currently have enough labor to produce 20 of the K-line per shift. Each shift has one supervisor costing about $24 per hour, accounted for in the overhead account. From this information, Jim was being asked to develop teams, and without direct supervision. From his standpoint, the effort was doomed to failure. Jim, however, always considered himself a "company man" and would do what he could to make it happen.
Assignment
Are self-directed work teams the answer? Where should or shouldn't they be used. Discuss the pros and cons of such teams and where, or where not, they should be used, and how they would be used in this situation, if appropriate.
Jim Hartough was not in a good mood. He worked his way through the ranks when supervisors did supervision and workers did what they were told. He was now faced with the fact that the new president of Melrose products was one of these "touchy-feely" types that was pushing for self-directed work teams. As the manufacturing manager, Jim was ultimately responsible to not only meet production needs, but also to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. To him, that meant specific allocation of work. It had always worked that way and he saw nothing new to tell him it shouldn't continue to do so. Part of the problem, Jim realized, was that the business environment was changing. Changes in the product design were becoming more frequent and the customers were expecting more service. While they were still sensitive to price (the competition had not disappeared), they wanted quick delivery, high quality, and the product designed more specifically to their need. To Jim, that meant putting more pressure on those "lazy, pampered engineers" to make better designs as well as additional pressure on those "bums on the factory floor" to meet production needs. With better designs, he could more easily allocate the work to his workforce to meet the customer demands. He felt he had truly kept up with the times-the customer was king. The fact that the customer expected more meant little more than how to get them what they wanted from production. It was merely a case of making sure everyone delivered on the job the way they were supposed to. While Mr. Melrose had avoided the need to become a public company and had managed to keep unions out, he had still apparently gone soft, at least according to Jim. He had recently appointed Cindy Lopez as the new president, passing over Jim. She not only had an MBA (Jim had always thought the real business learning was done "on the firing line"), but also had never even been a supervisor. She had come from, of all places, the human resources department! That department had never done anything for him other than send him a bunch of worthless people. Some of those people had, in his mind, no chance of ever becoming useful. As far as he was concerned, the only real value of a human resources department was to keep the government idiotic bureaucrats off their backs. So, now Jim was in the position to try to "change with the times," as Cindy had said. She wanted to gradually move the company toward flexible self-directed work teams. Jim, of course, felt that all the workers really wanted was to get their paycheck and party on Friday and Saturday nights, and could care less about having any say in the product or the customer. How was he ever going to get anything done with someone so naive in charge? the Current situation Cindy had suggested that Jim start the process of changing to teams by looking at the K-line. The K-line of product was a fairly standard product that had recently undergone heavy competitive pressure in the form of delivery speed and design enhancements. Melrose had been gradually losing market share in the K-line. Jim had responded, before the naming of Cindy as president, by putting additional pressure on workers to be more efficient and reducing their task times. As Jim said, "there's always some slack time we can squeeze out of any process if we really put our minds to it." They are using carefully developed time standards, much as Jim learned in his Industrial Engineering courses. He feels they are quite good, including a liberal 10% allowance. Since the K-line is a fairly standard product, Jim not only uses the time standard to develop cost figures for labor, but also uses those cost figures to allocate overhead. There are currently seven labor tasks to make one of the K-line products.
The overhead allocation is currently at 230% of direct labor. Material costs are $9.35 per unit. They currently have enough labor to produce 20 of the K-line per shift. Each shift has one supervisor costing about $24 per hour, accounted for in the overhead account. From this information, Jim was being asked to develop teams, and without direct supervision. From his standpoint, the effort was doomed to failure. Jim, however, always considered himself a "company man" and would do what he could to make it happen.
Assignment
Are self-directed work teams the answer? Where should or shouldn't they be used. Discuss the pros and cons of such teams and where, or where not, they should be used, and how they would be used in this situation, if appropriate.
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Deck 6: Production Activity Control
1
Shop order 7777 is for 600 of part 8900. From the routing file, it is found that operation 20 is done on work center 300. The setup time is 3.5 hours, and run time is 0.233 hours per piece. What is the required capacity on work center 300 for shop order 7777?
Calculate required capacity :
The required capacity is the total of the required time for all the planed and actual orders to be carried out on a work station in a particular period.
Analysis :
The shop order 7777 is for 600 pieces, part of total lot of 8900. The work station 300 and operation 20 produces 600 pieces. The set up time is 3.5 hours and the run time is 0.233 hours per piece.
Use the following formula to calculate the required capacity,
Bu substituting the values, 
Conclusion :
The required capacity on work center 300 for the shop order 7777 is 143.30 standard hours. Standard time is usually used to measure the required capacity because standard time is the time taken by a skilled worker while working at a normal routine to carry out the work.
The required capacity is the total of the required time for all the planed and actual orders to be carried out on a work station in a particular period.
Analysis :
The shop order 7777 is for 600 pieces, part of total lot of 8900. The work station 300 and operation 20 produces 600 pieces. The set up time is 3.5 hours and the run time is 0.233 hours per piece.
Use the following formula to calculate the required capacity,
Bu substituting the values, Conclusion : The required capacity on work center 300 for the shop order 7777 is 143.30 standard hours. Standard time is usually used to measure the required capacity because standard time is the time taken by a skilled worker while working at a normal routine to carry out the work.
2
What is the responsibility of production activity control?
Production activity control (PAC) is the procedure which includes the management of manufacturing resources.
Production activity control involves the different activities associated with scheduling, releasing and following production orders and schedules and after that reporting the materials.
Responsibility of production activity control :
Production activity control (PAC) is responsible for performing the master production schedule (MPS) and the material requirements plan (MRP). Simultaneously, it must properly utilize workforce and machines, reduce work-in-process inventory, and keep customer service.
Production activity control involves the different activities associated with scheduling, releasing and following production orders and schedules and after that reporting the materials.
Responsibility of production activity control :
Production activity control (PAC) is responsible for performing the master production schedule (MPS) and the material requirements plan (MRP). Simultaneously, it must properly utilize workforce and machines, reduce work-in-process inventory, and keep customer service.
3
An order for 100 of a product is processed on work centers A and B. The setup time on A is 50 minutes, and run time is 5 minutes per piece. The setup time on B is 60 minutes, and the run time is 5 minutes per piece. Wait time between the two operations is 5 hours. The move time between A and B is 40 minutes. Wait time after operation B is 5 hours, and the move time into stores is 3 hours. Queue at work center A is 25 hours and at B is 35 hours. Calculate the total manufacturing lead time for the order.
Calculate manufacturing lead time :
Manufacturing lead time includes queue time, setup time, run time, move time and wait time.
Analysis :
A lot include 100 products processed on work station A and B. The set up time for work station A is 50 minutes and run time is 5 minutes. In case of work station B the setup time is 60 minutes or l hour and run time is 5 minutes per piece.
The wait time between two operations is 5 hours. The move time between A and B is 40 minutes. The wait time after operation B is 5 hours. Move time into store is 3 hours.
The queue time is for work station A and is 25 hours and for work station B is 35 hours.
Following table shows the calculation of manufacturing lead time:
To convert total minutes into hours, divided 5,530 minutes by 60.
Conclusion :
Manufacturing lead time is the time usually needed to manufacture a product in a normal lot quantity. The total manufacturing lead time for the order is 92 hours 10 minutes.
Manufacturing lead time includes queue time, setup time, run time, move time and wait time.
Analysis :
A lot include 100 products processed on work station A and B. The set up time for work station A is 50 minutes and run time is 5 minutes. In case of work station B the setup time is 60 minutes or l hour and run time is 5 minutes per piece.
The wait time between two operations is 5 hours. The move time between A and B is 40 minutes. The wait time after operation B is 5 hours. Move time into store is 3 hours.
The queue time is for work station A and is 25 hours and for work station B is 35 hours.
Following table shows the calculation of manufacturing lead time:
To convert total minutes into hours, divided 5,530 minutes by 60.Conclusion :
Manufacturing lead time is the time usually needed to manufacture a product in a normal lot quantity. The total manufacturing lead time for the order is 92 hours 10 minutes.
4
What are the major functions of planning, implementation, and control?
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5
In problem, what percent of the time is the order actually running?
problem
An order for 100 of a product is processed on work centers A and B. The setup time on A is 50 minutes, and run time is 5 minutes per piece. The setup time on B is 60 minutes, and the run time is 5 minutes per piece. Wait time between the two operations is 5 hours. The move time between A and B is 40 minutes. Wait time after operation B is 5 hours, and the move time into stores is 3 hours. Queue at work center A is 25 hours and at B is 35 hours. Calculate the total manufacturing lead time for the order.
problem
An order for 100 of a product is processed on work centers A and B. The setup time on A is 50 minutes, and run time is 5 minutes per piece. The setup time on B is 60 minutes, and the run time is 5 minutes per piece. Wait time between the two operations is 5 hours. The move time between A and B is 40 minutes. Wait time after operation B is 5 hours, and the move time into stores is 3 hours. Queue at work center A is 25 hours and at B is 35 hours. Calculate the total manufacturing lead time for the order.
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6
What are the major characteristics of flow, intermittent, and project manufacturing?
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7
An order for 50 of a product is processed on work centers A and B. The setup time on A is 60 minutes, and run time is 5 minutes per piece. The setup time on B is 30 minutes, and the run time is 6 minutes per piece. Wait time between the two operations is 10 hours. The move time between A and B is 60 minutes. Wait time after operation B is 8 hours, and the move time into stores is 2 hours. Queue at work center A is 40 hours and at B is 35 hours. Calculate the total manufacturing lead time for the order.
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8
Why is production activity control more complex in intermittent manufacturing?
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9
In problem, what percent of time is the order actually running?
problem
An order for 50 of a product is processed on work centers A and B. The setup time on A is 60 minutes, and run time is 5 minutes per piece. The setup time on B is 30 minutes, and the run time is 6 minutes per piece. Wait time between the two operations is 10 hours. The move time between A and B is 60 minutes. Wait time after operation B is 8 hours, and the move time into stores is 2 hours. Queue at work center A is 40 hours and at B is 35 hours. Calculate the total manufacturing lead time for the order.
problem
An order for 50 of a product is processed on work centers A and B. The setup time on A is 60 minutes, and run time is 5 minutes per piece. The setup time on B is 30 minutes, and the run time is 6 minutes per piece. Wait time between the two operations is 10 hours. The move time between A and B is 60 minutes. Wait time after operation B is 8 hours, and the move time into stores is 2 hours. Queue at work center A is 40 hours and at B is 35 hours. Calculate the total manufacturing lead time for the order.
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10
To plan the flow of materials through manufacturing, what four things must production activity control know? Where will information on each be obtained?
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11
Amalgamated Skyhooks, Inc., has an order for 200 Model SKY3 Skyhooks for delivery on day 200. The Skyhook consists of three parts. Components B and C form subassembly A. Subassembly A and component D form the final assembly. Following are the work centers and times for each operation. Using a piece of graph paper, draw a backward schedule based on the following. When must component C be started to meet the delivery date?
a. Only one machine is assigned to each operation.
b. The factory works one 8-hour shift 5 days a week.
c. All parts move in one lot of 200.
a. Only one machine is assigned to each operation.
b. The factory works one 8-hour shift 5 days a week.
c. All parts move in one lot of 200.
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12
What are the four planning files used in production activity control? What information does each contain?
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13
International Door Slammers has an order to deliver 500 door slammers on day 130. Draw up a backward schedule under the following conditions:
a. Only one machine is assigned to each operation.
b. Schedule one 8-hour shift per day for 5 days per week.
c. All parts are to move in one lot of 500 pieces.
d. Allow 8 hours between operations for queue and move times.
A slammer consists of three parts. Purchased components C and D form subassembly A. Subassembly A and component B form the final assembly. Part B is machined in three operations. No special tooling is required except for part B, operation 20. It takes 24 hours to make the tooling. Material is available for all parts. Standard times for the lot of 500 are as follows:
a. Only one machine is assigned to each operation.
b. Schedule one 8-hour shift per day for 5 days per week.
c. All parts are to move in one lot of 500 pieces.
d. Allow 8 hours between operations for queue and move times.
A slammer consists of three parts. Purchased components C and D form subassembly A. Subassembly A and component B form the final assembly. Part B is machined in three operations. No special tooling is required except for part B, operation 20. It takes 24 hours to make the tooling. Material is available for all parts. Standard times for the lot of 500 are as follows:
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14
What information is used for controlling production?
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15
An order for 100 of a product is processed on operation A and operation B. The setup time on A is 50 minutes, and the run time per piece is 9 minutes. The setup time on B is 30 minutes, and the run time is 6 minutes per piece. It takes 20 minutes to move a lot between A and B. Since this is a rush order, it is given top priority (president's edict) and is run as soon as it arrives at either workstation.
It is decided to overlap the two operations and to split the lot of 100 into two lots of 60 and 40.When the first lot is finished on operation A, it is moved to operation B where it is set up and run. Meanwhile, operation A completes the balance of the 100 units (40) and sends the units over to operation B. These 40 units should arrive as operation B is completing the first batch of 60; thus, operation B can continue without interruption until all 100 are completed.
a. Calculate the total manufacturing lead time for operation A and for B without overlapping.
b. Calculate the manufacturing lead time if the operations are overlapped. How much time is saved?
It is decided to overlap the two operations and to split the lot of 100 into two lots of 60 and 40.When the first lot is finished on operation A, it is moved to operation B where it is set up and run. Meanwhile, operation A completes the balance of the 100 units (40) and sends the units over to operation B. These 40 units should arrive as operation B is completing the first batch of 60; thus, operation B can continue without interruption until all 100 are completed.
a. Calculate the total manufacturing lead time for operation A and for B without overlapping.
b. Calculate the manufacturing lead time if the operations are overlapped. How much time is saved?
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16
What should production activity control check before releasing a shop order?
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17
An order for 250 bell ringers is processed on work centers 10 and 20. The setup and run times are as follows. It is decided to overlap the lot on the two work centers and to split the lot into two lots of 100 and 150. Move time between operations is 30 minutes. Work center 20 cannot be set up until the first lot arrives. Calculate the saving in manufacturing lead time.
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18
What is manufacturing lead time? Name and describe each of its elements.
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19
An order for 100 of a product is processed on operation A. The setup time is 50 minutes, and the run time per piece is 9 minutes. Since this is a rush order, it is to be split into two lots of 50 each and run on two machines in the work center. The machines can be set up simultaneously.
a. Calculate the manufacturing lead time if the 100 units are run on one machine.
b. Calculate the manufacturing lead time when run on two machines simultaneously.
c. Calculate the reduction in lead time.
a. Calculate the manufacturing lead time if the 100 units are run on one machine.
b. Calculate the manufacturing lead time when run on two machines simultaneously.
c. Calculate the reduction in lead time.
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20
Describe forward and backward scheduling. Why is backward scheduling preferred?
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21
What would be the reduction in MLT if the second machine could not be set up until the setup was completed on the first machine?
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22
Describe infinite and finite loading.
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23
An order for 100 of a product is run on work center 40. The setup time is 4 hours, and the run time is 3 minutes per piece. Since the order is a rush and there are two machines in the work center, it is decided to split the order and run it on both machines. Calculate the manufacturing lead time before and after splitting.
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24
What is operation overlapping? What is its purpose?
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25
In problem, what would be the manufacturing lead time if the second machine could not be set up until the setup on the first machine was completed? Would there be any reduction in manufacturing lead time?
problem
An order for 100 of a product is run on work center 40. The setup time is 4 hours, and the run time is 3 minutes per piece. Since the order is a rush and there are two machines in the work center, it is decided to split the order and run it on both machines. Calculate the manufacturing lead time before and after splitting.
problem
An order for 100 of a product is run on work center 40. The setup time is 4 hours, and the run time is 3 minutes per piece. Since the order is a rush and there are two machines in the work center, it is decided to split the order and run it on both machines. Calculate the manufacturing lead time before and after splitting.
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26
What is operation splitting? What is its purpose?
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27
Complete the following input/output report. What are the planned and actual backlogs at the end of period 4? ? ?
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28
What information does a load report contain? Why is it useful to production activity control?
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29
Complete the following input/output report. What is the actual backlog at the end of period 5? ? ?
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30
What is a bottleneck operation?
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31
Complete the following table to determine the run sequence for each of the sequencing rules.
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32
What is the definition of throughput?
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33
Jobs A, B, and C are in queue at work center 10 before being completed on work center 20. The following information pertains to the jobs and the work centers. For this problem, there is no move time. Today is day 1. If the jobs are scheduled by the earliest due date, can they be completed on time?
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34
What information is used for controlling production?
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35
Calculate the critical ratios for the following orders and establish in what order they should be run. Today's date is 75.
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36
What are the five things discussed in the text that are important in managing bottlenecks?
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37
What is a shop order? What kind of information does it usually contain?
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38
What two things must be done to control queue and meet delivery commitments?
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39
What is an input/output control system designed to do? How is input controlled? How is output controlled?
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40
What is dispatching? What is a dispatch list?
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41
Describe each of the following dispatching rules giving their advantages and disadvantages.
a. First come, first served.
b. Earliest due date.
c. Earliest operation due date.
d. Shortest processing time.
e. Critical ratio.
a. First come, first served.
b. Earliest due date.
c. Earliest operation due date.
d. Shortest processing time.
e. Critical ratio.
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42
If the time remaining to complete a job is 10 days and the lead time remaining is 12 days, what is the critical ratio? Is the order ahead of schedule, on schedule, or behind schedule?
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43
Would critical ratio be better utilized as a static ratio or a dynamic ratio, and why?
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44
What is the purpose of production reporting? Why is it needed?
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45
A student of production inventory management has decided to apply critical ratio to his homework assignments. Describe what is happening if his critical ratio for various assignments is:
a. negative.
b. zero.
c. between zero and 1.
d. greater than 1.
a. negative.
b. zero.
c. between zero and 1.
d. greater than 1.
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46
Bottlenecks exist in many business processes that serve the public and are usually indicated by lineups. Choose a business that experiences lineups and identify the constraints in the system. Give specific examples of each of the seven bottleneck principles that apply to that business. Suggest a way to increase the throughput of the bottleneck and describe the benefits to the business and to the customers.
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47
What is lot traceability? Why is it important to safety related products?
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48
Choose a service industry and describe the scheduling and bottleneck issues that must be controlled in order to maintain customer service.
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49
Provide an explanation of Drum-Buffer-Rope and give an example of how it would be used.
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50
With this information, Justin calculated the total standard time required to be within the 320 hours available. Is he correct? Calculate the time required and check the accuracy of his calculation.
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51
List the areas you think are causing trouble in this facility.
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52
Develop a plan to deal with the situation and try to get the production schedule back under control under the constraints listed
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53
Crofts Printing Company
John Burton was not a happy man. He was a supervisor for the Crofts Printing Company, having been recently promoted from lead printer. While he felt very comfortable with his knowledge and success in the printing business, this managerial position was starting to wear on him. He was determined not to let it get him down, however, as he felt he surely had the knowledge, experience, and respect of the workers. He had been asking Jason Crofts for months for a chance at management, and he certainly wasn't about to let it get the better of him. His current problem had to do with scheduling. Since he had become supervisor the sales people always asked him about an order before they promised delivery to a customer. He thought that would be quite simple; after all, who knew more about the printing business than he did? Based on his knowledge of the processes and what was already in progress, he gave what he thought were reasonable, even conservative, estimates of promise dates. Unfortunately, his track record was not too good. There had been many late deliveries since his managerial appointment, and nobody in the organization was too happy about it. At first he thought it must be the other workers. "They're just jealous about my selection as supervisor and want to make me look bad" was his initial reaction. Henry Hurley, another long-time machine operator, was John's best friend. One afternoon over a beer, John asked Henry about the problem in a confidential discussion. Henry said he was sure that John had been trying to get it right but somehow it didn't seem to be going well. Henry assured John that the workers were trying their best. In fact, according to Henry, the workers had been putting in extra effort. They viewed John's promotion as a positive sign that there was a possible future for them in management as well. John's failure would have been, in fact, greatly discouraging to most of the workers. John then thought he might be the problem when it came to giving estimates. The sales people would almost always contact him about a possible job to ask him when it should be promised to the customer. His great knowledge of the printing business allowed him, he thought, to quickly come to a good estimate. Perhaps he was not as good at estimating as he thought. To check this out, he looked at most of the jobs done during the last couple of weeks. In almost every case, the work recorded against a job was almost exactly what he had estimated. What little error existed was certainly not large enough to cause the problem. John trusted Henry and believed his account of the situation, and his analysis of the estimates convinced him the problem wasn't there. If it wasn't the workers and wasn't the estimates then what could it be? He must do something. Jason Crofts was a patient man, but there was a limit. He was worried about alienating his best customers, and at the same time knew he must be concerned about efficiency as a way to control cost. John decided there was a need to take drastic action to ease the situation, or at least to find out what the cause was. On a Friday he scheduled overtime for Saturday to finish all jobs in progress. On Monday, therefore, he could start with a clean slate. There were several jobs already promised, but not yet started. He figured that on Monday he could start with all new jobs and really figure out the source of his problem. The jobs were all promised within four days, but he figured there should be no problem. He had three operations, and most of the jobs went through all three, but not all jobs needed all operations. He had one worker assigned to each operation. Over the next four days that represented 96 hours of available work time per day), he had eight jobs promised. The total estimated time for all eight jobs was only 88 hours, giving him a buffer of 8 hours over the next four days. To make sure there would be no problem, he decided there would be no new jobs even scheduled to start during those four days, with the only exception being if any operation completed all the necessary work for all eight jobs before the end of the four days, they could start another. In any case, he wanted to make sure that if necessary, all 96 hours would be reserved for just the 88 hours of scheduled work. John had learned that a good priority rule to use was the critical ratio rule, primarily because it took into account both the customer due date and the amount of processing time for a job. He therefore used that rule to prioritize the jobs. The following table shows the eight jobs, together with processing time estimates and due dates. All due dates are at the end of the day indicated. Processing times for all jobs at all three operations are in hours.
Assignment
Using the critical ratio rule, establish the priority for the eight jobs.
John Burton was not a happy man. He was a supervisor for the Crofts Printing Company, having been recently promoted from lead printer. While he felt very comfortable with his knowledge and success in the printing business, this managerial position was starting to wear on him. He was determined not to let it get him down, however, as he felt he surely had the knowledge, experience, and respect of the workers. He had been asking Jason Crofts for months for a chance at management, and he certainly wasn't about to let it get the better of him. His current problem had to do with scheduling. Since he had become supervisor the sales people always asked him about an order before they promised delivery to a customer. He thought that would be quite simple; after all, who knew more about the printing business than he did? Based on his knowledge of the processes and what was already in progress, he gave what he thought were reasonable, even conservative, estimates of promise dates. Unfortunately, his track record was not too good. There had been many late deliveries since his managerial appointment, and nobody in the organization was too happy about it. At first he thought it must be the other workers. "They're just jealous about my selection as supervisor and want to make me look bad" was his initial reaction. Henry Hurley, another long-time machine operator, was John's best friend. One afternoon over a beer, John asked Henry about the problem in a confidential discussion. Henry said he was sure that John had been trying to get it right but somehow it didn't seem to be going well. Henry assured John that the workers were trying their best. In fact, according to Henry, the workers had been putting in extra effort. They viewed John's promotion as a positive sign that there was a possible future for them in management as well. John's failure would have been, in fact, greatly discouraging to most of the workers. John then thought he might be the problem when it came to giving estimates. The sales people would almost always contact him about a possible job to ask him when it should be promised to the customer. His great knowledge of the printing business allowed him, he thought, to quickly come to a good estimate. Perhaps he was not as good at estimating as he thought. To check this out, he looked at most of the jobs done during the last couple of weeks. In almost every case, the work recorded against a job was almost exactly what he had estimated. What little error existed was certainly not large enough to cause the problem. John trusted Henry and believed his account of the situation, and his analysis of the estimates convinced him the problem wasn't there. If it wasn't the workers and wasn't the estimates then what could it be? He must do something. Jason Crofts was a patient man, but there was a limit. He was worried about alienating his best customers, and at the same time knew he must be concerned about efficiency as a way to control cost. John decided there was a need to take drastic action to ease the situation, or at least to find out what the cause was. On a Friday he scheduled overtime for Saturday to finish all jobs in progress. On Monday, therefore, he could start with a clean slate. There were several jobs already promised, but not yet started. He figured that on Monday he could start with all new jobs and really figure out the source of his problem. The jobs were all promised within four days, but he figured there should be no problem. He had three operations, and most of the jobs went through all three, but not all jobs needed all operations. He had one worker assigned to each operation. Over the next four days that represented 96 hours of available work time
per day), he had eight jobs promised. The total estimated time for all eight jobs was only 88 hours, giving him a buffer of 8 hours over the next four days. To make sure there would be no problem, he decided there would be no new jobs even scheduled to start during those four days, with the only exception being if any operation completed all the necessary work for all eight jobs before the end of the four days, they could start another. In any case, he wanted to make sure that if necessary, all 96 hours would be reserved for just the 88 hours of scheduled work. John had learned that a good priority rule to use was the critical ratio rule, primarily because it took into account both the customer due date and the amount of processing time for a job. He therefore used that rule to prioritize the jobs. The following table shows the eight jobs, together with processing time estimates and due dates. All due dates are at the end of the day indicated. Processing times for all jobs at all three operations are in hours. Assignment
Using the critical ratio rule, establish the priority for the eight jobs.
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54
Crofts Printing Company
John Burton was not a happy man. He was a supervisor for the Crofts Printing Company, having been recently promoted from lead printer. While he felt very comfortable with his knowledge and success in the printing business, this managerial position was starting to wear on him. He was determined not to let it get him down, however, as he felt he surely had the knowledge, experience, and respect of the workers. He had been asking Jason Crofts for months for a chance at management, and he certainly wasn't about to let it get the better of him. His current problem had to do with scheduling. Since he had become supervisor the sales people always asked him about an order before they promised delivery to a customer. He thought that would be quite simple; after all, who knew more about the printing business than he did? Based on his knowledge of the processes and what was already in progress, he gave what he thought were reasonable, even conservative, estimates of promise dates. Unfortunately, his track record was not too good. There had been many late deliveries since his managerial appointment, and nobody in the organization was too happy about it. At first he thought it must be the other workers. "They're just jealous about my selection as supervisor and want to make me look bad" was his initial reaction. Henry Hurley, another long-time machine operator, was John's best friend. One afternoon over a beer, John asked Henry about the problem in a confidential discussion. Henry said he was sure that John had been trying to get it right but somehow it didn't seem to be going well. Henry assured John that the workers were trying their best. In fact, according to Henry, the workers had been putting in extra effort. They viewed John's promotion as a positive sign that there was a possible future for them in management as well. John's failure would have been, in fact, greatly discouraging to most of the workers. John then thought he might be the problem when it came to giving estimates. The sales people would almost always contact him about a possible job to ask him when it should be promised to the customer. His great knowledge of the printing business allowed him, he thought, to quickly come to a good estimate. Perhaps he was not as good at estimating as he thought. To check this out, he looked at most of the jobs done during the last couple of weeks. In almost every case, the work recorded against a job was almost exactly what he had estimated. What little error existed was certainly not large enough to cause the problem. John trusted Henry and believed his account of the situation, and his analysis of the estimates convinced him the problem wasn't there. If it wasn't the workers and wasn't the estimates then what could it be? He must do something. Jason Crofts was a patient man, but there was a limit. He was worried about alienating his best customers, and at the same time knew he must be concerned about efficiency as a way to control cost. John decided there was a need to take drastic action to ease the situation, or at least to find out what the cause was. On a Friday he scheduled overtime for Saturday to finish all jobs in progress. On Monday, therefore, he could start with a clean slate. There were several jobs already promised, but not yet started. He figured that on Monday he could start with all new jobs and really figure out the source of his problem. The jobs were all promised within four days, but he figured there should be no problem. He had three operations, and most of the jobs went through all three, but not all jobs needed all operations. He had one worker assigned to each operation. Over the next four days that represented 96 hours of available work time per day), he had eight jobs promised. The total estimated time for all eight jobs was only 88 hours, giving him a buffer of 8 hours over the next four days. To make sure there would be no problem, he decided there would be no new jobs even scheduled to start during those four days, with the only exception being if any operation completed all the necessary work for all eight jobs before the end of the four days, they could start another. In any case, he wanted to make sure that if necessary, all 96 hours would be reserved for just the 88 hours of scheduled work. John had learned that a good priority rule to use was the critical ratio rule, primarily because it took into account both the customer due date and the amount of processing time for a job. He therefore used that rule to prioritize the jobs. The following table shows the eight jobs, together with processing time estimates and due dates. All due dates are at the end of the day indicated. Processing times for all jobs at all three operations are in hours.
Assignment
Use a chart to load the operation according to the priority rule established. In other words, load the most important job in all three work centers, then the next most important, and so forth. This is the method that John used.
John Burton was not a happy man. He was a supervisor for the Crofts Printing Company, having been recently promoted from lead printer. While he felt very comfortable with his knowledge and success in the printing business, this managerial position was starting to wear on him. He was determined not to let it get him down, however, as he felt he surely had the knowledge, experience, and respect of the workers. He had been asking Jason Crofts for months for a chance at management, and he certainly wasn't about to let it get the better of him. His current problem had to do with scheduling. Since he had become supervisor the sales people always asked him about an order before they promised delivery to a customer. He thought that would be quite simple; after all, who knew more about the printing business than he did? Based on his knowledge of the processes and what was already in progress, he gave what he thought were reasonable, even conservative, estimates of promise dates. Unfortunately, his track record was not too good. There had been many late deliveries since his managerial appointment, and nobody in the organization was too happy about it. At first he thought it must be the other workers. "They're just jealous about my selection as supervisor and want to make me look bad" was his initial reaction. Henry Hurley, another long-time machine operator, was John's best friend. One afternoon over a beer, John asked Henry about the problem in a confidential discussion. Henry said he was sure that John had been trying to get it right but somehow it didn't seem to be going well. Henry assured John that the workers were trying their best. In fact, according to Henry, the workers had been putting in extra effort. They viewed John's promotion as a positive sign that there was a possible future for them in management as well. John's failure would have been, in fact, greatly discouraging to most of the workers. John then thought he might be the problem when it came to giving estimates. The sales people would almost always contact him about a possible job to ask him when it should be promised to the customer. His great knowledge of the printing business allowed him, he thought, to quickly come to a good estimate. Perhaps he was not as good at estimating as he thought. To check this out, he looked at most of the jobs done during the last couple of weeks. In almost every case, the work recorded against a job was almost exactly what he had estimated. What little error existed was certainly not large enough to cause the problem. John trusted Henry and believed his account of the situation, and his analysis of the estimates convinced him the problem wasn't there. If it wasn't the workers and wasn't the estimates then what could it be? He must do something. Jason Crofts was a patient man, but there was a limit. He was worried about alienating his best customers, and at the same time knew he must be concerned about efficiency as a way to control cost. John decided there was a need to take drastic action to ease the situation, or at least to find out what the cause was. On a Friday he scheduled overtime for Saturday to finish all jobs in progress. On Monday, therefore, he could start with a clean slate. There were several jobs already promised, but not yet started. He figured that on Monday he could start with all new jobs and really figure out the source of his problem. The jobs were all promised within four days, but he figured there should be no problem. He had three operations, and most of the jobs went through all three, but not all jobs needed all operations. He had one worker assigned to each operation. Over the next four days that represented 96 hours of available work time
per day), he had eight jobs promised. The total estimated time for all eight jobs was only 88 hours, giving him a buffer of 8 hours over the next four days. To make sure there would be no problem, he decided there would be no new jobs even scheduled to start during those four days, with the only exception being if any operation completed all the necessary work for all eight jobs before the end of the four days, they could start another. In any case, he wanted to make sure that if necessary, all 96 hours would be reserved for just the 88 hours of scheduled work. John had learned that a good priority rule to use was the critical ratio rule, primarily because it took into account both the customer due date and the amount of processing time for a job. He therefore used that rule to prioritize the jobs. The following table shows the eight jobs, together with processing time estimates and due dates. All due dates are at the end of the day indicated. Processing times for all jobs at all three operations are in hours. Assignment
Use a chart to load the operation according to the priority rule established. In other words, load the most important job in all three work centers, then the next most important, and so forth. This is the method that John used.
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55
Crofts Printing Company
John Burton was not a happy man. He was a supervisor for the Crofts Printing Company, having been recently promoted from lead printer. While he felt very comfortable with his knowledge and success in the printing business, this managerial position was starting to wear on him. He was determined not to let it get him down, however, as he felt he surely had the knowledge, experience, and respect of the workers. He had been asking Jason Crofts for months for a chance at management, and he certainly wasn't about to let it get the better of him. His current problem had to do with scheduling. Since he had become supervisor the sales people always asked him about an order before they promised delivery to a customer. He thought that would be quite simple; after all, who knew more about the printing business than he did? Based on his knowledge of the processes and what was already in progress, he gave what he thought were reasonable, even conservative, estimates of promise dates. Unfortunately, his track record was not too good. There had been many late deliveries since his managerial appointment, and nobody in the organization was too happy about it. At first he thought it must be the other workers. "They're just jealous about my selection as supervisor and want to make me look bad" was his initial reaction. Henry Hurley, another long-time machine operator, was John's best friend. One afternoon over a beer, John asked Henry about the problem in a confidential discussion. Henry said he was sure that John had been trying to get it right but somehow it didn't seem to be going well. Henry assured John that the workers were trying their best. In fact, according to Henry, the workers had been putting in extra effort. They viewed John's promotion as a positive sign that there was a possible future for them in management as well. John's failure would have been, in fact, greatly discouraging to most of the workers. John then thought he might be the problem when it came to giving estimates. The sales people would almost always contact him about a possible job to ask him when it should be promised to the customer. His great knowledge of the printing business allowed him, he thought, to quickly come to a good estimate. Perhaps he was not as good at estimating as he thought. To check this out, he looked at most of the jobs done during the last couple of weeks. In almost every case, the work recorded against a job was almost exactly what he had estimated. What little error existed was certainly not large enough to cause the problem. John trusted Henry and believed his account of the situation, and his analysis of the estimates convinced him the problem wasn't there. If it wasn't the workers and wasn't the estimates then what could it be? He must do something. Jason Crofts was a patient man, but there was a limit. He was worried about alienating his best customers, and at the same time knew he must be concerned about efficiency as a way to control cost. John decided there was a need to take drastic action to ease the situation, or at least to find out what the cause was. On a Friday he scheduled overtime for Saturday to finish all jobs in progress. On Monday, therefore, he could start with a clean slate. There were several jobs already promised, but not yet started. He figured that on Monday he could start with all new jobs and really figure out the source of his problem. The jobs were all promised within four days, but he figured there should be no problem. He had three operations, and most of the jobs went through all three, but not all jobs needed all operations. He had one worker assigned to each operation. Over the next four days that represented 96 hours of available work time per day), he had eight jobs promised. The total estimated time for all eight jobs was only 88 hours, giving him a buffer of 8 hours over the next four days. To make sure there would be no problem, he decided there would be no new jobs even scheduled to start during those four days, with the only exception being if any operation completed all the necessary work for all eight jobs before the end of the four days, they could start another. In any case, he wanted to make sure that if necessary, all 96 hours would be reserved for just the 88 hours of scheduled work. John had learned that a good priority rule to use was the critical ratio rule, primarily because it took into account both the customer due date and the amount of processing time for a job. He therefore used that rule to prioritize the jobs. The following table shows the eight jobs, together with processing time estimates and due dates. All due dates are at the end of the day indicated. Processing times for all jobs at all three operations are in hours.
Assignment
Analyze John's approach and try to determine if he has a problem, and if he does determine the source of the problem.
John Burton was not a happy man. He was a supervisor for the Crofts Printing Company, having been recently promoted from lead printer. While he felt very comfortable with his knowledge and success in the printing business, this managerial position was starting to wear on him. He was determined not to let it get him down, however, as he felt he surely had the knowledge, experience, and respect of the workers. He had been asking Jason Crofts for months for a chance at management, and he certainly wasn't about to let it get the better of him. His current problem had to do with scheduling. Since he had become supervisor the sales people always asked him about an order before they promised delivery to a customer. He thought that would be quite simple; after all, who knew more about the printing business than he did? Based on his knowledge of the processes and what was already in progress, he gave what he thought were reasonable, even conservative, estimates of promise dates. Unfortunately, his track record was not too good. There had been many late deliveries since his managerial appointment, and nobody in the organization was too happy about it. At first he thought it must be the other workers. "They're just jealous about my selection as supervisor and want to make me look bad" was his initial reaction. Henry Hurley, another long-time machine operator, was John's best friend. One afternoon over a beer, John asked Henry about the problem in a confidential discussion. Henry said he was sure that John had been trying to get it right but somehow it didn't seem to be going well. Henry assured John that the workers were trying their best. In fact, according to Henry, the workers had been putting in extra effort. They viewed John's promotion as a positive sign that there was a possible future for them in management as well. John's failure would have been, in fact, greatly discouraging to most of the workers. John then thought he might be the problem when it came to giving estimates. The sales people would almost always contact him about a possible job to ask him when it should be promised to the customer. His great knowledge of the printing business allowed him, he thought, to quickly come to a good estimate. Perhaps he was not as good at estimating as he thought. To check this out, he looked at most of the jobs done during the last couple of weeks. In almost every case, the work recorded against a job was almost exactly what he had estimated. What little error existed was certainly not large enough to cause the problem. John trusted Henry and believed his account of the situation, and his analysis of the estimates convinced him the problem wasn't there. If it wasn't the workers and wasn't the estimates then what could it be? He must do something. Jason Crofts was a patient man, but there was a limit. He was worried about alienating his best customers, and at the same time knew he must be concerned about efficiency as a way to control cost. John decided there was a need to take drastic action to ease the situation, or at least to find out what the cause was. On a Friday he scheduled overtime for Saturday to finish all jobs in progress. On Monday, therefore, he could start with a clean slate. There were several jobs already promised, but not yet started. He figured that on Monday he could start with all new jobs and really figure out the source of his problem. The jobs were all promised within four days, but he figured there should be no problem. He had three operations, and most of the jobs went through all three, but not all jobs needed all operations. He had one worker assigned to each operation. Over the next four days that represented 96 hours of available work time
per day), he had eight jobs promised. The total estimated time for all eight jobs was only 88 hours, giving him a buffer of 8 hours over the next four days. To make sure there would be no problem, he decided there would be no new jobs even scheduled to start during those four days, with the only exception being if any operation completed all the necessary work for all eight jobs before the end of the four days, they could start another. In any case, he wanted to make sure that if necessary, all 96 hours would be reserved for just the 88 hours of scheduled work. John had learned that a good priority rule to use was the critical ratio rule, primarily because it took into account both the customer due date and the amount of processing time for a job. He therefore used that rule to prioritize the jobs. The following table shows the eight jobs, together with processing time estimates and due dates. All due dates are at the end of the day indicated. Processing times for all jobs at all three operations are in hours. Assignment
Analyze John's approach and try to determine if he has a problem, and if he does determine the source of the problem.
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56
Crofts Printing Company
John Burton was not a happy man. He was a supervisor for the Crofts Printing Company, having been recently promoted from lead printer. While he felt very comfortable with his knowledge and success in the printing business, this managerial position was starting to wear on him. He was determined not to let it get him down, however, as he felt he surely had the knowledge, experience, and respect of the workers. He had been asking Jason Crofts for months for a chance at management, and he certainly wasn't about to let it get the better of him. His current problem had to do with scheduling. Since he had become supervisor the sales people always asked him about an order before they promised delivery to a customer. He thought that would be quite simple; after all, who knew more about the printing business than he did? Based on his knowledge of the processes and what was already in progress, he gave what he thought were reasonable, even conservative, estimates of promise dates. Unfortunately, his track record was not too good. There had been many late deliveries since his managerial appointment, and nobody in the organization was too happy about it. At first he thought it must be the other workers. "They're just jealous about my selection as supervisor and want to make me look bad" was his initial reaction. Henry Hurley, another long-time machine operator, was John's best friend. One afternoon over a beer, John asked Henry about the problem in a confidential discussion. Henry said he was sure that John had been trying to get it right but somehow it didn't seem to be going well. Henry assured John that the workers were trying their best. In fact, according to Henry, the workers had been putting in extra effort. They viewed John's promotion as a positive sign that there was a possible future for them in management as well. John's failure would have been, in fact, greatly discouraging to most of the workers. John then thought he might be the problem when it came to giving estimates. The sales people would almost always contact him about a possible job to ask him when it should be promised to the customer. His great knowledge of the printing business allowed him, he thought, to quickly come to a good estimate. Perhaps he was not as good at estimating as he thought. To check this out, he looked at most of the jobs done during the last couple of weeks. In almost every case, the work recorded against a job was almost exactly what he had estimated. What little error existed was certainly not large enough to cause the problem. John trusted Henry and believed his account of the situation, and his analysis of the estimates convinced him the problem wasn't there. If it wasn't the workers and wasn't the estimates then what could it be? He must do something. Jason Crofts was a patient man, but there was a limit. He was worried about alienating his best customers, and at the same time knew he must be concerned about efficiency as a way to control cost. John decided there was a need to take drastic action to ease the situation, or at least to find out what the cause was. On a Friday he scheduled overtime for Saturday to finish all jobs in progress. On Monday, therefore, he could start with a clean slate. There were several jobs already promised, but not yet started. He figured that on Monday he could start with all new jobs and really figure out the source of his problem. The jobs were all promised within four days, but he figured there should be no problem. He had three operations, and most of the jobs went through all three, but not all jobs needed all operations. He had one worker assigned to each operation. Over the next four days that represented 96 hours of available work time per day), he had eight jobs promised. The total estimated time for all eight jobs was only 88 hours, giving him a buffer of 8 hours over the next four days. To make sure there would be no problem, he decided there would be no new jobs even scheduled to start during those four days, with the only exception being if any operation completed all the necessary work for all eight jobs before the end of the four days, they could start another. In any case, he wanted to make sure that if necessary, all 96 hours would be reserved for just the 88 hours of scheduled work. John had learned that a good priority rule to use was the critical ratio rule, primarily because it took into account both the customer due date and the amount of processing time for a job. He therefore used that rule to prioritize the jobs. The following table shows the eight jobs, together with processing time estimates and due dates. All due dates are at the end of the day indicated. Processing times for all jobs at all three operations are in hours.
Assignment
Try to provide a solution to John that will ease the problem, and perhaps eliminate it.
John Burton was not a happy man. He was a supervisor for the Crofts Printing Company, having been recently promoted from lead printer. While he felt very comfortable with his knowledge and success in the printing business, this managerial position was starting to wear on him. He was determined not to let it get him down, however, as he felt he surely had the knowledge, experience, and respect of the workers. He had been asking Jason Crofts for months for a chance at management, and he certainly wasn't about to let it get the better of him. His current problem had to do with scheduling. Since he had become supervisor the sales people always asked him about an order before they promised delivery to a customer. He thought that would be quite simple; after all, who knew more about the printing business than he did? Based on his knowledge of the processes and what was already in progress, he gave what he thought were reasonable, even conservative, estimates of promise dates. Unfortunately, his track record was not too good. There had been many late deliveries since his managerial appointment, and nobody in the organization was too happy about it. At first he thought it must be the other workers. "They're just jealous about my selection as supervisor and want to make me look bad" was his initial reaction. Henry Hurley, another long-time machine operator, was John's best friend. One afternoon over a beer, John asked Henry about the problem in a confidential discussion. Henry said he was sure that John had been trying to get it right but somehow it didn't seem to be going well. Henry assured John that the workers were trying their best. In fact, according to Henry, the workers had been putting in extra effort. They viewed John's promotion as a positive sign that there was a possible future for them in management as well. John's failure would have been, in fact, greatly discouraging to most of the workers. John then thought he might be the problem when it came to giving estimates. The sales people would almost always contact him about a possible job to ask him when it should be promised to the customer. His great knowledge of the printing business allowed him, he thought, to quickly come to a good estimate. Perhaps he was not as good at estimating as he thought. To check this out, he looked at most of the jobs done during the last couple of weeks. In almost every case, the work recorded against a job was almost exactly what he had estimated. What little error existed was certainly not large enough to cause the problem. John trusted Henry and believed his account of the situation, and his analysis of the estimates convinced him the problem wasn't there. If it wasn't the workers and wasn't the estimates then what could it be? He must do something. Jason Crofts was a patient man, but there was a limit. He was worried about alienating his best customers, and at the same time knew he must be concerned about efficiency as a way to control cost. John decided there was a need to take drastic action to ease the situation, or at least to find out what the cause was. On a Friday he scheduled overtime for Saturday to finish all jobs in progress. On Monday, therefore, he could start with a clean slate. There were several jobs already promised, but not yet started. He figured that on Monday he could start with all new jobs and really figure out the source of his problem. The jobs were all promised within four days, but he figured there should be no problem. He had three operations, and most of the jobs went through all three, but not all jobs needed all operations. He had one worker assigned to each operation. Over the next four days that represented 96 hours of available work time
per day), he had eight jobs promised. The total estimated time for all eight jobs was only 88 hours, giving him a buffer of 8 hours over the next four days. To make sure there would be no problem, he decided there would be no new jobs even scheduled to start during those four days, with the only exception being if any operation completed all the necessary work for all eight jobs before the end of the four days, they could start another. In any case, he wanted to make sure that if necessary, all 96 hours would be reserved for just the 88 hours of scheduled work. John had learned that a good priority rule to use was the critical ratio rule, primarily because it took into account both the customer due date and the amount of processing time for a job. He therefore used that rule to prioritize the jobs. The following table shows the eight jobs, together with processing time estimates and due dates. All due dates are at the end of the day indicated. Processing times for all jobs at all three operations are in hours. Assignment
Try to provide a solution to John that will ease the problem, and perhaps eliminate it.
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57
Melrose Products
Jim Hartough was not in a good mood. He worked his way through the ranks when supervisors did supervision and workers did what they were told. He was now faced with the fact that the new president of Melrose products was one of these "touchy-feely" types that was pushing for self-directed work teams. As the manufacturing manager, Jim was ultimately responsible to not only meet production needs, but also to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. To him, that meant specific allocation of work. It had always worked that way and he saw nothing new to tell him it shouldn't continue to do so. Part of the problem, Jim realized, was that the business environment was changing. Changes in the product design were becoming more frequent and the customers were expecting more service. While they were still sensitive to price (the competition had not disappeared), they wanted quick delivery, high quality, and the product designed more specifically to their need. To Jim, that meant putting more pressure on those "lazy, pampered engineers" to make better designs as well as additional pressure on those "bums on the factory floor" to meet production needs. With better designs, he could more easily allocate the work to his workforce to meet the customer demands. He felt he had truly kept up with the times-the customer was king. The fact that the customer expected more meant little more than how to get them what they wanted from production. It was merely a case of making sure everyone delivered on the job the way they were supposed to. While Mr. Melrose had avoided the need to become a public company and had managed to keep unions out, he had still apparently gone soft, at least according to Jim. He had recently appointed Cindy Lopez as the new president, passing over Jim. She not only had an MBA (Jim had always thought the real business learning was done "on the firing line"), but also had never even been a supervisor. She had come from, of all places, the human resources department! That department had never done anything for him other than send him a bunch of worthless people. Some of those people had, in his mind, no chance of ever becoming useful. As far as he was concerned, the only real value of a human resources department was to keep the government idiotic bureaucrats off their backs. So, now Jim was in the position to try to "change with the times," as Cindy had said. She wanted to gradually move the company toward flexible self-directed work teams. Jim, of course, felt that all the workers really wanted was to get their paycheck and party on Friday and Saturday nights, and could care less about having any say in the product or the customer. How was he ever going to get anything done with someone so naive in charge? the Current situation Cindy had suggested that Jim start the process of changing to teams by looking at the K-line. The K-line of product was a fairly standard product that had recently undergone heavy competitive pressure in the form of delivery speed and design enhancements. Melrose had been gradually losing market share in the K-line. Jim had responded, before the naming of Cindy as president, by putting additional pressure on workers to be more efficient and reducing their task times. As Jim said, "there's always some slack time we can squeeze out of any process if we really put our minds to it." They are using carefully developed time standards, much as Jim learned in his Industrial Engineering courses. He feels they are quite good, including a liberal 10% allowance. Since the K-line is a fairly standard product, Jim not only uses the time standard to develop cost figures for labor, but also uses those cost figures to allocate overhead. There are currently seven labor tasks to make one of the K-line products.
The overhead allocation is currently at 230% of direct labor. Material costs are $9.35 per unit. They currently have enough labor to produce 20 of the K-line per shift. Each shift has one supervisor costing about $24 per hour, accounted for in the overhead account. From this information, Jim was being asked to develop teams, and without direct supervision. From his standpoint, the effort was doomed to failure. Jim, however, always considered himself a "company man" and would do what he could to make it happen.
Assignment
What is the standard cost of the K-line product?
Jim Hartough was not in a good mood. He worked his way through the ranks when supervisors did supervision and workers did what they were told. He was now faced with the fact that the new president of Melrose products was one of these "touchy-feely" types that was pushing for self-directed work teams. As the manufacturing manager, Jim was ultimately responsible to not only meet production needs, but also to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. To him, that meant specific allocation of work. It had always worked that way and he saw nothing new to tell him it shouldn't continue to do so. Part of the problem, Jim realized, was that the business environment was changing. Changes in the product design were becoming more frequent and the customers were expecting more service. While they were still sensitive to price (the competition had not disappeared), they wanted quick delivery, high quality, and the product designed more specifically to their need. To Jim, that meant putting more pressure on those "lazy, pampered engineers" to make better designs as well as additional pressure on those "bums on the factory floor" to meet production needs. With better designs, he could more easily allocate the work to his workforce to meet the customer demands. He felt he had truly kept up with the times-the customer was king. The fact that the customer expected more meant little more than how to get them what they wanted from production. It was merely a case of making sure everyone delivered on the job the way they were supposed to. While Mr. Melrose had avoided the need to become a public company and had managed to keep unions out, he had still apparently gone soft, at least according to Jim. He had recently appointed Cindy Lopez as the new president, passing over Jim. She not only had an MBA (Jim had always thought the real business learning was done "on the firing line"), but also had never even been a supervisor. She had come from, of all places, the human resources department! That department had never done anything for him other than send him a bunch of worthless people. Some of those people had, in his mind, no chance of ever becoming useful. As far as he was concerned, the only real value of a human resources department was to keep the government idiotic bureaucrats off their backs. So, now Jim was in the position to try to "change with the times," as Cindy had said. She wanted to gradually move the company toward flexible self-directed work teams. Jim, of course, felt that all the workers really wanted was to get their paycheck and party on Friday and Saturday nights, and could care less about having any say in the product or the customer. How was he ever going to get anything done with someone so naive in charge? the Current situation Cindy had suggested that Jim start the process of changing to teams by looking at the K-line. The K-line of product was a fairly standard product that had recently undergone heavy competitive pressure in the form of delivery speed and design enhancements. Melrose had been gradually losing market share in the K-line. Jim had responded, before the naming of Cindy as president, by putting additional pressure on workers to be more efficient and reducing their task times. As Jim said, "there's always some slack time we can squeeze out of any process if we really put our minds to it." They are using carefully developed time standards, much as Jim learned in his Industrial Engineering courses. He feels they are quite good, including a liberal 10% allowance. Since the K-line is a fairly standard product, Jim not only uses the time standard to develop cost figures for labor, but also uses those cost figures to allocate overhead. There are currently seven labor tasks to make one of the K-line products.
The overhead allocation is currently at 230% of direct labor. Material costs are $9.35 per unit. They currently have enough labor to produce 20 of the K-line per shift. Each shift has one supervisor costing about $24 per hour, accounted for in the overhead account. From this information, Jim was being asked to develop teams, and without direct supervision. From his standpoint, the effort was doomed to failure. Jim, however, always considered himself a "company man" and would do what he could to make it happen.
Assignment
What is the standard cost of the K-line product?
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58
Melrose Products
Jim Hartough was not in a good mood. He worked his way through the ranks when supervisors did supervision and workers did what they were told. He was now faced with the fact that the new president of Melrose products was one of these "touchy-feely" types that was pushing for self-directed work teams. As the manufacturing manager, Jim was ultimately responsible to not only meet production needs, but also to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. To him, that meant specific allocation of work. It had always worked that way and he saw nothing new to tell him it shouldn't continue to do so. Part of the problem, Jim realized, was that the business environment was changing. Changes in the product design were becoming more frequent and the customers were expecting more service. While they were still sensitive to price (the competition had not disappeared), they wanted quick delivery, high quality, and the product designed more specifically to their need. To Jim, that meant putting more pressure on those "lazy, pampered engineers" to make better designs as well as additional pressure on those "bums on the factory floor" to meet production needs. With better designs, he could more easily allocate the work to his workforce to meet the customer demands. He felt he had truly kept up with the times-the customer was king. The fact that the customer expected more meant little more than how to get them what they wanted from production. It was merely a case of making sure everyone delivered on the job the way they were supposed to. While Mr. Melrose had avoided the need to become a public company and had managed to keep unions out, he had still apparently gone soft, at least according to Jim. He had recently appointed Cindy Lopez as the new president, passing over Jim. She not only had an MBA (Jim had always thought the real business learning was done "on the firing line"), but also had never even been a supervisor. She had come from, of all places, the human resources department! That department had never done anything for him other than send him a bunch of worthless people. Some of those people had, in his mind, no chance of ever becoming useful. As far as he was concerned, the only real value of a human resources department was to keep the government idiotic bureaucrats off their backs. So, now Jim was in the position to try to "change with the times," as Cindy had said. She wanted to gradually move the company toward flexible self-directed work teams. Jim, of course, felt that all the workers really wanted was to get their paycheck and party on Friday and Saturday nights, and could care less about having any say in the product or the customer. How was he ever going to get anything done with someone so naive in charge? the Current situation Cindy had suggested that Jim start the process of changing to teams by looking at the K-line. The K-line of product was a fairly standard product that had recently undergone heavy competitive pressure in the form of delivery speed and design enhancements. Melrose had been gradually losing market share in the K-line. Jim had responded, before the naming of Cindy as president, by putting additional pressure on workers to be more efficient and reducing their task times. As Jim said, "there's always some slack time we can squeeze out of any process if we really put our minds to it." They are using carefully developed time standards, much as Jim learned in his Industrial Engineering courses. He feels they are quite good, including a liberal 10% allowance. Since the K-line is a fairly standard product, Jim not only uses the time standard to develop cost figures for labor, but also uses those cost figures to allocate overhead. There are currently seven labor tasks to make one of the K-line products.
The overhead allocation is currently at 230% of direct labor. Material costs are $9.35 per unit. They currently have enough labor to produce 20 of the K-line per shift. Each shift has one supervisor costing about $24 per hour, accounted for in the overhead account. From this information, Jim was being asked to develop teams, and without direct supervision. From his standpoint, the effort was doomed to failure. Jim, however, always considered himself a "company man" and would do what he could to make it happen.
Assignment
What specific steps would you undertake to make the self-directed teams? How, specifically, would you deal with the cost and time standard issues?
Jim Hartough was not in a good mood. He worked his way through the ranks when supervisors did supervision and workers did what they were told. He was now faced with the fact that the new president of Melrose products was one of these "touchy-feely" types that was pushing for self-directed work teams. As the manufacturing manager, Jim was ultimately responsible to not only meet production needs, but also to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. To him, that meant specific allocation of work. It had always worked that way and he saw nothing new to tell him it shouldn't continue to do so. Part of the problem, Jim realized, was that the business environment was changing. Changes in the product design were becoming more frequent and the customers were expecting more service. While they were still sensitive to price (the competition had not disappeared), they wanted quick delivery, high quality, and the product designed more specifically to their need. To Jim, that meant putting more pressure on those "lazy, pampered engineers" to make better designs as well as additional pressure on those "bums on the factory floor" to meet production needs. With better designs, he could more easily allocate the work to his workforce to meet the customer demands. He felt he had truly kept up with the times-the customer was king. The fact that the customer expected more meant little more than how to get them what they wanted from production. It was merely a case of making sure everyone delivered on the job the way they were supposed to. While Mr. Melrose had avoided the need to become a public company and had managed to keep unions out, he had still apparently gone soft, at least according to Jim. He had recently appointed Cindy Lopez as the new president, passing over Jim. She not only had an MBA (Jim had always thought the real business learning was done "on the firing line"), but also had never even been a supervisor. She had come from, of all places, the human resources department! That department had never done anything for him other than send him a bunch of worthless people. Some of those people had, in his mind, no chance of ever becoming useful. As far as he was concerned, the only real value of a human resources department was to keep the government idiotic bureaucrats off their backs. So, now Jim was in the position to try to "change with the times," as Cindy had said. She wanted to gradually move the company toward flexible self-directed work teams. Jim, of course, felt that all the workers really wanted was to get their paycheck and party on Friday and Saturday nights, and could care less about having any say in the product or the customer. How was he ever going to get anything done with someone so naive in charge? the Current situation Cindy had suggested that Jim start the process of changing to teams by looking at the K-line. The K-line of product was a fairly standard product that had recently undergone heavy competitive pressure in the form of delivery speed and design enhancements. Melrose had been gradually losing market share in the K-line. Jim had responded, before the naming of Cindy as president, by putting additional pressure on workers to be more efficient and reducing their task times. As Jim said, "there's always some slack time we can squeeze out of any process if we really put our minds to it." They are using carefully developed time standards, much as Jim learned in his Industrial Engineering courses. He feels they are quite good, including a liberal 10% allowance. Since the K-line is a fairly standard product, Jim not only uses the time standard to develop cost figures for labor, but also uses those cost figures to allocate overhead. There are currently seven labor tasks to make one of the K-line products.
The overhead allocation is currently at 230% of direct labor. Material costs are $9.35 per unit. They currently have enough labor to produce 20 of the K-line per shift. Each shift has one supervisor costing about $24 per hour, accounted for in the overhead account. From this information, Jim was being asked to develop teams, and without direct supervision. From his standpoint, the effort was doomed to failure. Jim, however, always considered himself a "company man" and would do what he could to make it happen.
Assignment
What specific steps would you undertake to make the self-directed teams? How, specifically, would you deal with the cost and time standard issues?
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59
Melrose Products
Jim Hartough was not in a good mood. He worked his way through the ranks when supervisors did supervision and workers did what they were told. He was now faced with the fact that the new president of Melrose products was one of these "touchy-feely" types that was pushing for self-directed work teams. As the manufacturing manager, Jim was ultimately responsible to not only meet production needs, but also to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. To him, that meant specific allocation of work. It had always worked that way and he saw nothing new to tell him it shouldn't continue to do so. Part of the problem, Jim realized, was that the business environment was changing. Changes in the product design were becoming more frequent and the customers were expecting more service. While they were still sensitive to price (the competition had not disappeared), they wanted quick delivery, high quality, and the product designed more specifically to their need. To Jim, that meant putting more pressure on those "lazy, pampered engineers" to make better designs as well as additional pressure on those "bums on the factory floor" to meet production needs. With better designs, he could more easily allocate the work to his workforce to meet the customer demands. He felt he had truly kept up with the times-the customer was king. The fact that the customer expected more meant little more than how to get them what they wanted from production. It was merely a case of making sure everyone delivered on the job the way they were supposed to. While Mr. Melrose had avoided the need to become a public company and had managed to keep unions out, he had still apparently gone soft, at least according to Jim. He had recently appointed Cindy Lopez as the new president, passing over Jim. She not only had an MBA (Jim had always thought the real business learning was done "on the firing line"), but also had never even been a supervisor. She had come from, of all places, the human resources department! That department had never done anything for him other than send him a bunch of worthless people. Some of those people had, in his mind, no chance of ever becoming useful. As far as he was concerned, the only real value of a human resources department was to keep the government idiotic bureaucrats off their backs. So, now Jim was in the position to try to "change with the times," as Cindy had said. She wanted to gradually move the company toward flexible self-directed work teams. Jim, of course, felt that all the workers really wanted was to get their paycheck and party on Friday and Saturday nights, and could care less about having any say in the product or the customer. How was he ever going to get anything done with someone so naive in charge? the Current situation Cindy had suggested that Jim start the process of changing to teams by looking at the K-line. The K-line of product was a fairly standard product that had recently undergone heavy competitive pressure in the form of delivery speed and design enhancements. Melrose had been gradually losing market share in the K-line. Jim had responded, before the naming of Cindy as president, by putting additional pressure on workers to be more efficient and reducing their task times. As Jim said, "there's always some slack time we can squeeze out of any process if we really put our minds to it." They are using carefully developed time standards, much as Jim learned in his Industrial Engineering courses. He feels they are quite good, including a liberal 10% allowance. Since the K-line is a fairly standard product, Jim not only uses the time standard to develop cost figures for labor, but also uses those cost figures to allocate overhead. There are currently seven labor tasks to make one of the K-line products.
The overhead allocation is currently at 230% of direct labor. Material costs are $9.35 per unit. They currently have enough labor to produce 20 of the K-line per shift. Each shift has one supervisor costing about $24 per hour, accounted for in the overhead account. From this information, Jim was being asked to develop teams, and without direct supervision. From his standpoint, the effort was doomed to failure. Jim, however, always considered himself a "company man" and would do what he could to make it happen.
Assignment
Do you agree with Cindy? Do you agree with Jim? Is there some other alternative approach that might be better in this situation? Explain.
Jim Hartough was not in a good mood. He worked his way through the ranks when supervisors did supervision and workers did what they were told. He was now faced with the fact that the new president of Melrose products was one of these "touchy-feely" types that was pushing for self-directed work teams. As the manufacturing manager, Jim was ultimately responsible to not only meet production needs, but also to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. To him, that meant specific allocation of work. It had always worked that way and he saw nothing new to tell him it shouldn't continue to do so. Part of the problem, Jim realized, was that the business environment was changing. Changes in the product design were becoming more frequent and the customers were expecting more service. While they were still sensitive to price (the competition had not disappeared), they wanted quick delivery, high quality, and the product designed more specifically to their need. To Jim, that meant putting more pressure on those "lazy, pampered engineers" to make better designs as well as additional pressure on those "bums on the factory floor" to meet production needs. With better designs, he could more easily allocate the work to his workforce to meet the customer demands. He felt he had truly kept up with the times-the customer was king. The fact that the customer expected more meant little more than how to get them what they wanted from production. It was merely a case of making sure everyone delivered on the job the way they were supposed to. While Mr. Melrose had avoided the need to become a public company and had managed to keep unions out, he had still apparently gone soft, at least according to Jim. He had recently appointed Cindy Lopez as the new president, passing over Jim. She not only had an MBA (Jim had always thought the real business learning was done "on the firing line"), but also had never even been a supervisor. She had come from, of all places, the human resources department! That department had never done anything for him other than send him a bunch of worthless people. Some of those people had, in his mind, no chance of ever becoming useful. As far as he was concerned, the only real value of a human resources department was to keep the government idiotic bureaucrats off their backs. So, now Jim was in the position to try to "change with the times," as Cindy had said. She wanted to gradually move the company toward flexible self-directed work teams. Jim, of course, felt that all the workers really wanted was to get their paycheck and party on Friday and Saturday nights, and could care less about having any say in the product or the customer. How was he ever going to get anything done with someone so naive in charge? the Current situation Cindy had suggested that Jim start the process of changing to teams by looking at the K-line. The K-line of product was a fairly standard product that had recently undergone heavy competitive pressure in the form of delivery speed and design enhancements. Melrose had been gradually losing market share in the K-line. Jim had responded, before the naming of Cindy as president, by putting additional pressure on workers to be more efficient and reducing their task times. As Jim said, "there's always some slack time we can squeeze out of any process if we really put our minds to it." They are using carefully developed time standards, much as Jim learned in his Industrial Engineering courses. He feels they are quite good, including a liberal 10% allowance. Since the K-line is a fairly standard product, Jim not only uses the time standard to develop cost figures for labor, but also uses those cost figures to allocate overhead. There are currently seven labor tasks to make one of the K-line products.
The overhead allocation is currently at 230% of direct labor. Material costs are $9.35 per unit. They currently have enough labor to produce 20 of the K-line per shift. Each shift has one supervisor costing about $24 per hour, accounted for in the overhead account. From this information, Jim was being asked to develop teams, and without direct supervision. From his standpoint, the effort was doomed to failure. Jim, however, always considered himself a "company man" and would do what he could to make it happen.
Assignment
Do you agree with Cindy? Do you agree with Jim? Is there some other alternative approach that might be better in this situation? Explain.
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60
Melrose Products
Jim Hartough was not in a good mood. He worked his way through the ranks when supervisors did supervision and workers did what they were told. He was now faced with the fact that the new president of Melrose products was one of these "touchy-feely" types that was pushing for self-directed work teams. As the manufacturing manager, Jim was ultimately responsible to not only meet production needs, but also to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. To him, that meant specific allocation of work. It had always worked that way and he saw nothing new to tell him it shouldn't continue to do so. Part of the problem, Jim realized, was that the business environment was changing. Changes in the product design were becoming more frequent and the customers were expecting more service. While they were still sensitive to price (the competition had not disappeared), they wanted quick delivery, high quality, and the product designed more specifically to their need. To Jim, that meant putting more pressure on those "lazy, pampered engineers" to make better designs as well as additional pressure on those "bums on the factory floor" to meet production needs. With better designs, he could more easily allocate the work to his workforce to meet the customer demands. He felt he had truly kept up with the times-the customer was king. The fact that the customer expected more meant little more than how to get them what they wanted from production. It was merely a case of making sure everyone delivered on the job the way they were supposed to. While Mr. Melrose had avoided the need to become a public company and had managed to keep unions out, he had still apparently gone soft, at least according to Jim. He had recently appointed Cindy Lopez as the new president, passing over Jim. She not only had an MBA (Jim had always thought the real business learning was done "on the firing line"), but also had never even been a supervisor. She had come from, of all places, the human resources department! That department had never done anything for him other than send him a bunch of worthless people. Some of those people had, in his mind, no chance of ever becoming useful. As far as he was concerned, the only real value of a human resources department was to keep the government idiotic bureaucrats off their backs. So, now Jim was in the position to try to "change with the times," as Cindy had said. She wanted to gradually move the company toward flexible self-directed work teams. Jim, of course, felt that all the workers really wanted was to get their paycheck and party on Friday and Saturday nights, and could care less about having any say in the product or the customer. How was he ever going to get anything done with someone so naive in charge? the Current situation Cindy had suggested that Jim start the process of changing to teams by looking at the K-line. The K-line of product was a fairly standard product that had recently undergone heavy competitive pressure in the form of delivery speed and design enhancements. Melrose had been gradually losing market share in the K-line. Jim had responded, before the naming of Cindy as president, by putting additional pressure on workers to be more efficient and reducing their task times. As Jim said, "there's always some slack time we can squeeze out of any process if we really put our minds to it." They are using carefully developed time standards, much as Jim learned in his Industrial Engineering courses. He feels they are quite good, including a liberal 10% allowance. Since the K-line is a fairly standard product, Jim not only uses the time standard to develop cost figures for labor, but also uses those cost figures to allocate overhead. There are currently seven labor tasks to make one of the K-line products.
The overhead allocation is currently at 230% of direct labor. Material costs are $9.35 per unit. They currently have enough labor to produce 20 of the K-line per shift. Each shift has one supervisor costing about $24 per hour, accounted for in the overhead account. From this information, Jim was being asked to develop teams, and without direct supervision. From his standpoint, the effort was doomed to failure. Jim, however, always considered himself a "company man" and would do what he could to make it happen.
Assignment
What do you do with the supervisor in this situation? Be specific in your approach.
Jim Hartough was not in a good mood. He worked his way through the ranks when supervisors did supervision and workers did what they were told. He was now faced with the fact that the new president of Melrose products was one of these "touchy-feely" types that was pushing for self-directed work teams. As the manufacturing manager, Jim was ultimately responsible to not only meet production needs, but also to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. To him, that meant specific allocation of work. It had always worked that way and he saw nothing new to tell him it shouldn't continue to do so. Part of the problem, Jim realized, was that the business environment was changing. Changes in the product design were becoming more frequent and the customers were expecting more service. While they were still sensitive to price (the competition had not disappeared), they wanted quick delivery, high quality, and the product designed more specifically to their need. To Jim, that meant putting more pressure on those "lazy, pampered engineers" to make better designs as well as additional pressure on those "bums on the factory floor" to meet production needs. With better designs, he could more easily allocate the work to his workforce to meet the customer demands. He felt he had truly kept up with the times-the customer was king. The fact that the customer expected more meant little more than how to get them what they wanted from production. It was merely a case of making sure everyone delivered on the job the way they were supposed to. While Mr. Melrose had avoided the need to become a public company and had managed to keep unions out, he had still apparently gone soft, at least according to Jim. He had recently appointed Cindy Lopez as the new president, passing over Jim. She not only had an MBA (Jim had always thought the real business learning was done "on the firing line"), but also had never even been a supervisor. She had come from, of all places, the human resources department! That department had never done anything for him other than send him a bunch of worthless people. Some of those people had, in his mind, no chance of ever becoming useful. As far as he was concerned, the only real value of a human resources department was to keep the government idiotic bureaucrats off their backs. So, now Jim was in the position to try to "change with the times," as Cindy had said. She wanted to gradually move the company toward flexible self-directed work teams. Jim, of course, felt that all the workers really wanted was to get their paycheck and party on Friday and Saturday nights, and could care less about having any say in the product or the customer. How was he ever going to get anything done with someone so naive in charge? the Current situation Cindy had suggested that Jim start the process of changing to teams by looking at the K-line. The K-line of product was a fairly standard product that had recently undergone heavy competitive pressure in the form of delivery speed and design enhancements. Melrose had been gradually losing market share in the K-line. Jim had responded, before the naming of Cindy as president, by putting additional pressure on workers to be more efficient and reducing their task times. As Jim said, "there's always some slack time we can squeeze out of any process if we really put our minds to it." They are using carefully developed time standards, much as Jim learned in his Industrial Engineering courses. He feels they are quite good, including a liberal 10% allowance. Since the K-line is a fairly standard product, Jim not only uses the time standard to develop cost figures for labor, but also uses those cost figures to allocate overhead. There are currently seven labor tasks to make one of the K-line products.
The overhead allocation is currently at 230% of direct labor. Material costs are $9.35 per unit. They currently have enough labor to produce 20 of the K-line per shift. Each shift has one supervisor costing about $24 per hour, accounted for in the overhead account. From this information, Jim was being asked to develop teams, and without direct supervision. From his standpoint, the effort was doomed to failure. Jim, however, always considered himself a "company man" and would do what he could to make it happen.
Assignment
What do you do with the supervisor in this situation? Be specific in your approach.
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61
Melrose Products
Jim Hartough was not in a good mood. He worked his way through the ranks when supervisors did supervision and workers did what they were told. He was now faced with the fact that the new president of Melrose products was one of these "touchy-feely" types that was pushing for self-directed work teams. As the manufacturing manager, Jim was ultimately responsible to not only meet production needs, but also to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. To him, that meant specific allocation of work. It had always worked that way and he saw nothing new to tell him it shouldn't continue to do so. Part of the problem, Jim realized, was that the business environment was changing. Changes in the product design were becoming more frequent and the customers were expecting more service. While they were still sensitive to price (the competition had not disappeared), they wanted quick delivery, high quality, and the product designed more specifically to their need. To Jim, that meant putting more pressure on those "lazy, pampered engineers" to make better designs as well as additional pressure on those "bums on the factory floor" to meet production needs. With better designs, he could more easily allocate the work to his workforce to meet the customer demands. He felt he had truly kept up with the times-the customer was king. The fact that the customer expected more meant little more than how to get them what they wanted from production. It was merely a case of making sure everyone delivered on the job the way they were supposed to. While Mr. Melrose had avoided the need to become a public company and had managed to keep unions out, he had still apparently gone soft, at least according to Jim. He had recently appointed Cindy Lopez as the new president, passing over Jim. She not only had an MBA (Jim had always thought the real business learning was done "on the firing line"), but also had never even been a supervisor. She had come from, of all places, the human resources department! That department had never done anything for him other than send him a bunch of worthless people. Some of those people had, in his mind, no chance of ever becoming useful. As far as he was concerned, the only real value of a human resources department was to keep the government idiotic bureaucrats off their backs. So, now Jim was in the position to try to "change with the times," as Cindy had said. She wanted to gradually move the company toward flexible self-directed work teams. Jim, of course, felt that all the workers really wanted was to get their paycheck and party on Friday and Saturday nights, and could care less about having any say in the product or the customer. How was he ever going to get anything done with someone so naive in charge? the Current situation Cindy had suggested that Jim start the process of changing to teams by looking at the K-line. The K-line of product was a fairly standard product that had recently undergone heavy competitive pressure in the form of delivery speed and design enhancements. Melrose had been gradually losing market share in the K-line. Jim had responded, before the naming of Cindy as president, by putting additional pressure on workers to be more efficient and reducing their task times. As Jim said, "there's always some slack time we can squeeze out of any process if we really put our minds to it." They are using carefully developed time standards, much as Jim learned in his Industrial Engineering courses. He feels they are quite good, including a liberal 10% allowance. Since the K-line is a fairly standard product, Jim not only uses the time standard to develop cost figures for labor, but also uses those cost figures to allocate overhead. There are currently seven labor tasks to make one of the K-line products.
The overhead allocation is currently at 230% of direct labor. Material costs are $9.35 per unit. They currently have enough labor to produce 20 of the K-line per shift. Each shift has one supervisor costing about $24 per hour, accounted for in the overhead account. From this information, Jim was being asked to develop teams, and without direct supervision. From his standpoint, the effort was doomed to failure. Jim, however, always considered himself a "company man" and would do what he could to make it happen.
Assignment
How do you deal with Jim? Develop a specific plan to deal with a situation such as the one described.
Jim Hartough was not in a good mood. He worked his way through the ranks when supervisors did supervision and workers did what they were told. He was now faced with the fact that the new president of Melrose products was one of these "touchy-feely" types that was pushing for self-directed work teams. As the manufacturing manager, Jim was ultimately responsible to not only meet production needs, but also to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. To him, that meant specific allocation of work. It had always worked that way and he saw nothing new to tell him it shouldn't continue to do so. Part of the problem, Jim realized, was that the business environment was changing. Changes in the product design were becoming more frequent and the customers were expecting more service. While they were still sensitive to price (the competition had not disappeared), they wanted quick delivery, high quality, and the product designed more specifically to their need. To Jim, that meant putting more pressure on those "lazy, pampered engineers" to make better designs as well as additional pressure on those "bums on the factory floor" to meet production needs. With better designs, he could more easily allocate the work to his workforce to meet the customer demands. He felt he had truly kept up with the times-the customer was king. The fact that the customer expected more meant little more than how to get them what they wanted from production. It was merely a case of making sure everyone delivered on the job the way they were supposed to. While Mr. Melrose had avoided the need to become a public company and had managed to keep unions out, he had still apparently gone soft, at least according to Jim. He had recently appointed Cindy Lopez as the new president, passing over Jim. She not only had an MBA (Jim had always thought the real business learning was done "on the firing line"), but also had never even been a supervisor. She had come from, of all places, the human resources department! That department had never done anything for him other than send him a bunch of worthless people. Some of those people had, in his mind, no chance of ever becoming useful. As far as he was concerned, the only real value of a human resources department was to keep the government idiotic bureaucrats off their backs. So, now Jim was in the position to try to "change with the times," as Cindy had said. She wanted to gradually move the company toward flexible self-directed work teams. Jim, of course, felt that all the workers really wanted was to get their paycheck and party on Friday and Saturday nights, and could care less about having any say in the product or the customer. How was he ever going to get anything done with someone so naive in charge? the Current situation Cindy had suggested that Jim start the process of changing to teams by looking at the K-line. The K-line of product was a fairly standard product that had recently undergone heavy competitive pressure in the form of delivery speed and design enhancements. Melrose had been gradually losing market share in the K-line. Jim had responded, before the naming of Cindy as president, by putting additional pressure on workers to be more efficient and reducing their task times. As Jim said, "there's always some slack time we can squeeze out of any process if we really put our minds to it." They are using carefully developed time standards, much as Jim learned in his Industrial Engineering courses. He feels they are quite good, including a liberal 10% allowance. Since the K-line is a fairly standard product, Jim not only uses the time standard to develop cost figures for labor, but also uses those cost figures to allocate overhead. There are currently seven labor tasks to make one of the K-line products.
The overhead allocation is currently at 230% of direct labor. Material costs are $9.35 per unit. They currently have enough labor to produce 20 of the K-line per shift. Each shift has one supervisor costing about $24 per hour, accounted for in the overhead account. From this information, Jim was being asked to develop teams, and without direct supervision. From his standpoint, the effort was doomed to failure. Jim, however, always considered himself a "company man" and would do what he could to make it happen.
Assignment
How do you deal with Jim? Develop a specific plan to deal with a situation such as the one described.
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62
Melrose Products
Jim Hartough was not in a good mood. He worked his way through the ranks when supervisors did supervision and workers did what they were told. He was now faced with the fact that the new president of Melrose products was one of these "touchy-feely" types that was pushing for self-directed work teams. As the manufacturing manager, Jim was ultimately responsible to not only meet production needs, but also to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. To him, that meant specific allocation of work. It had always worked that way and he saw nothing new to tell him it shouldn't continue to do so. Part of the problem, Jim realized, was that the business environment was changing. Changes in the product design were becoming more frequent and the customers were expecting more service. While they were still sensitive to price (the competition had not disappeared), they wanted quick delivery, high quality, and the product designed more specifically to their need. To Jim, that meant putting more pressure on those "lazy, pampered engineers" to make better designs as well as additional pressure on those "bums on the factory floor" to meet production needs. With better designs, he could more easily allocate the work to his workforce to meet the customer demands. He felt he had truly kept up with the times-the customer was king. The fact that the customer expected more meant little more than how to get them what they wanted from production. It was merely a case of making sure everyone delivered on the job the way they were supposed to. While Mr. Melrose had avoided the need to become a public company and had managed to keep unions out, he had still apparently gone soft, at least according to Jim. He had recently appointed Cindy Lopez as the new president, passing over Jim. She not only had an MBA (Jim had always thought the real business learning was done "on the firing line"), but also had never even been a supervisor. She had come from, of all places, the human resources department! That department had never done anything for him other than send him a bunch of worthless people. Some of those people had, in his mind, no chance of ever becoming useful. As far as he was concerned, the only real value of a human resources department was to keep the government idiotic bureaucrats off their backs. So, now Jim was in the position to try to "change with the times," as Cindy had said. She wanted to gradually move the company toward flexible self-directed work teams. Jim, of course, felt that all the workers really wanted was to get their paycheck and party on Friday and Saturday nights, and could care less about having any say in the product or the customer. How was he ever going to get anything done with someone so naive in charge? the Current situation Cindy had suggested that Jim start the process of changing to teams by looking at the K-line. The K-line of product was a fairly standard product that had recently undergone heavy competitive pressure in the form of delivery speed and design enhancements. Melrose had been gradually losing market share in the K-line. Jim had responded, before the naming of Cindy as president, by putting additional pressure on workers to be more efficient and reducing their task times. As Jim said, "there's always some slack time we can squeeze out of any process if we really put our minds to it." They are using carefully developed time standards, much as Jim learned in his Industrial Engineering courses. He feels they are quite good, including a liberal 10% allowance. Since the K-line is a fairly standard product, Jim not only uses the time standard to develop cost figures for labor, but also uses those cost figures to allocate overhead. There are currently seven labor tasks to make one of the K-line products.
The overhead allocation is currently at 230% of direct labor. Material costs are $9.35 per unit. They currently have enough labor to produce 20 of the K-line per shift. Each shift has one supervisor costing about $24 per hour, accounted for in the overhead account. From this information, Jim was being asked to develop teams, and without direct supervision. From his standpoint, the effort was doomed to failure. Jim, however, always considered himself a "company man" and would do what he could to make it happen.
Assignment
Are self-directed work teams the answer? Where should or shouldn't they be used. Discuss the pros and cons of such teams and where, or where not, they should be used, and how they would be used in this situation, if appropriate.
Jim Hartough was not in a good mood. He worked his way through the ranks when supervisors did supervision and workers did what they were told. He was now faced with the fact that the new president of Melrose products was one of these "touchy-feely" types that was pushing for self-directed work teams. As the manufacturing manager, Jim was ultimately responsible to not only meet production needs, but also to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. To him, that meant specific allocation of work. It had always worked that way and he saw nothing new to tell him it shouldn't continue to do so. Part of the problem, Jim realized, was that the business environment was changing. Changes in the product design were becoming more frequent and the customers were expecting more service. While they were still sensitive to price (the competition had not disappeared), they wanted quick delivery, high quality, and the product designed more specifically to their need. To Jim, that meant putting more pressure on those "lazy, pampered engineers" to make better designs as well as additional pressure on those "bums on the factory floor" to meet production needs. With better designs, he could more easily allocate the work to his workforce to meet the customer demands. He felt he had truly kept up with the times-the customer was king. The fact that the customer expected more meant little more than how to get them what they wanted from production. It was merely a case of making sure everyone delivered on the job the way they were supposed to. While Mr. Melrose had avoided the need to become a public company and had managed to keep unions out, he had still apparently gone soft, at least according to Jim. He had recently appointed Cindy Lopez as the new president, passing over Jim. She not only had an MBA (Jim had always thought the real business learning was done "on the firing line"), but also had never even been a supervisor. She had come from, of all places, the human resources department! That department had never done anything for him other than send him a bunch of worthless people. Some of those people had, in his mind, no chance of ever becoming useful. As far as he was concerned, the only real value of a human resources department was to keep the government idiotic bureaucrats off their backs. So, now Jim was in the position to try to "change with the times," as Cindy had said. She wanted to gradually move the company toward flexible self-directed work teams. Jim, of course, felt that all the workers really wanted was to get their paycheck and party on Friday and Saturday nights, and could care less about having any say in the product or the customer. How was he ever going to get anything done with someone so naive in charge? the Current situation Cindy had suggested that Jim start the process of changing to teams by looking at the K-line. The K-line of product was a fairly standard product that had recently undergone heavy competitive pressure in the form of delivery speed and design enhancements. Melrose had been gradually losing market share in the K-line. Jim had responded, before the naming of Cindy as president, by putting additional pressure on workers to be more efficient and reducing their task times. As Jim said, "there's always some slack time we can squeeze out of any process if we really put our minds to it." They are using carefully developed time standards, much as Jim learned in his Industrial Engineering courses. He feels they are quite good, including a liberal 10% allowance. Since the K-line is a fairly standard product, Jim not only uses the time standard to develop cost figures for labor, but also uses those cost figures to allocate overhead. There are currently seven labor tasks to make one of the K-line products.
The overhead allocation is currently at 230% of direct labor. Material costs are $9.35 per unit. They currently have enough labor to produce 20 of the K-line per shift. Each shift has one supervisor costing about $24 per hour, accounted for in the overhead account. From this information, Jim was being asked to develop teams, and without direct supervision. From his standpoint, the effort was doomed to failure. Jim, however, always considered himself a "company man" and would do what he could to make it happen.
Assignment
Are self-directed work teams the answer? Where should or shouldn't they be used. Discuss the pros and cons of such teams and where, or where not, they should be used, and how they would be used in this situation, if appropriate.
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