The maker of the world-famous Chocolate Chip Cookies needs to design a product layout for a new product, Mint Chocolate Chip. The company plans to use this new production line eight hours a day in order to meet projected demand of 1,440 cases per day. The following table describes the tasks involved in the production of a case of Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies.
For output to equal projected demand, what should be the actual cycle time for this production line?
A) 56 seconds
B) 27 seconds
C) 20 seconds
D) 18 seconds
E) 14 seconds

Question

The maker of the world-famous Chocolate Chip Cookies needs to design a product layout for a new product, Mint Chocolate Chip. The company plans to use this new production line eight hours a day in order to meet projected demand of 1,440 cases per day. The following table describes the tasks involved in the production of a case of Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies. 
For output to equal projected demand, what should be the actual cycle time for this production line?
A) 56 seconds 
B) 27 seconds 
C) 20 seconds 
D) 18 seconds 
E) 14 seconds

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The actual cycle time is calculated by dividing the total task time by the number of workstations. In this case, there are five workstations, so the total task time is 0.9 + 1.8 + 1.3 + 0.7 + 0.5 = 5.2 minutes or 312 seconds.

Actual cycle time = total task time / number of workstations
= 312 seconds / 5 workstations
= 62.4 seconds

However, the company plans to use the production line for 8 hours or 480 minutes, which means the required output per minute is 3 cases (1440 cases / 480 minutes = 3 cases/minute)

To meet this demand, the actual cycle time should be 20 seconds (60 seconds / 3 cases per minute = 20 seconds per case). Therefore, the best choice is C.

The Maker of the World-Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies Needs to Design