Question

Consider the assembly line of a laptop computer. The line consists of 10 stations and operates at a cycle time of 2 minutes/unit. Their most error-prone operation is step 2. There is no inventory between the stations because this is a machine-paced line. Final inspection happens at station 10. What would be the information turnaround time for a defect made at station 2?

Answer 1

Cycle time of whole line \(=2\) minutes/ unit

This means that one unit is made in 2 minutes. In the line of 10 stations the \(2^{\text {nd }}\) step is the most error prone.

Error made at step 2 means that unit must be processed by 8 other stations in order to be made and inspected at \(10^{\text {th }}\) station.

Thus, Information turnaround time \(=\) cycle time \(\times\) number of stations after error is made \(=2 \times 8\)

\(=\mathbf{1 6}\) minutes