A company needs to rebalance a product layout for producing new plastic license plates. They plan to use the assembly line six hours in order to meet projected demand of 2,160 license plates each day. The following table describes the tasks involved in the production of this product: $$\begin{array} { l l l }
\text { Task } & \text { Time (secs) } & \text { Immediate Predecessor } \
\hline \mathrm { a } & 3 & \text { none } \
\mathrm { b } & 4 & \text { none } \
\mathrm { c } & 5 & \mathrm { a } , \mathrm { b } \
\mathrm { d } & 7 & \text { none } \
\mathrm { e } & 9 & \mathrm { c } , \mathrm { d }
\end{array}$$ For output to equal projected demand, what should be the actual cycle time for this assembly line?
A) 0 seconds
B) 3 seconds
C) 9 seconds
D) 10 seconds
E) 28 seconds

Question

A company needs to rebalance a product layout for producing new plastic license plates. They plan to use the assembly line six hours in order to meet projected demand of 2,160 license plates each day. The following table describes the tasks involved in the production of this product: $$\begin{array} { l l l } 
\text { Task } & \text { Time (secs) } & \text { Immediate Predecessor } \
\hline \mathrm { a } & 3 & \text { none } \
\mathrm { b } & 4 & \text { none } \
\mathrm { c } & 5 & \mathrm { a } , \mathrm { b } \
\mathrm { d } & 7 & \text { none } \
\mathrm { e } & 9 & \mathrm { c } , \mathrm { d }
\end{array}$$ For output to equal projected demand, what should be the actual cycle time for this assembly line?
A) 0 seconds
B) 3 seconds
C) 9 seconds
D) 10 seconds
E) 28 seconds

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The first step to calculate the cycle time is to find the task with the longest processing time, which in this case is task e with 9 seconds.

Next, we need to calculate the total time per cycle by summing the processing times of all tasks in the critical path, which in this case is tasks a, b, and c. Therefore, the total time per cycle is:

Total time per cycle = Time for task a + Time for task b + Time for task c
Total time per cycle = 3 + 4 + 5
Total time per cycle = 12 seconds

Finally, we need to calculate the actual cycle time by dividing the total time per cycle by the demand per day and the number of hours in a workday:

Actual cycle time = Total time per cycle / (Demand per day / Hours per day)
Actual cycle time = 12 / (2,160 / 6)
Actual cycle time = 10 seconds

Therefore, the actual cycle time for this assembly line should be 10 seconds. The answer is D.

A Company Needs to Rebalance a Product Layout for Producing