Question

Question 4 1 pts Consider the assembly line below. The two fabrication operations run in parallel, such that each unit only needs to go through one of the fabrication operations. After that, portions of each unit go through both assembly and welding, which occur simultaneously (specifically, 10 components are made for each unit in the fabrication stage-some components are then assembled in the assembly area while others are welded in the welding area). The units are packaged and made ready for shipment in the final stage. What is the capacity of this system in units per hour (report your answer to 1 decimal place)? Fabrication 24 minutes/unit Assembly 7 min/unit Packaging 3 min/unit Welding 6 min/unit Fabrication 24 minutes/unit WW

Answer 1

The capacity of a process is always dependent on the time taken by the bottleneck operation in the system, Since, this is a parallel system,

Fabrication is considered as the bottleneck and time per unit is 24 minutes.

Capacity for a single fabrication unit = 60 / 24 = 2.5 units per hour

Hence, for 2 fabrication units, Average time will be 12 minutes / unit which is still the bottleneck,

Hence, Capacity = 2.5 x 2 = 5 units per hour