Question

A semi-automated flexible manufacturing cell (FMC) is used to produce three
products. The products are made by two automated processing stations followed
by an assembly station. There is also a load/unload station. Material handling
between stations in the FMC is accomplished by automated guided vehicles
(AGVs) that move tote bins containing the particular components to be
processed and then assembled into a given product. The AGVs transfer tote bins
between stations. In this way, the AGVs are kept busy while tote bins are
queued in front of the workstations. Each tote bin remains with the product
throughout processing and assembly. The details of the FMC can be
summarized in Table 1.

The product mix fractions and station processing times for the parts are
presented in the Table 2. The same station sequence is followed by all products:
1 > 2 > 3 > 4 > 1. The operation frequency fijk = 1.0 for all operations. The
average AGV transfer time between stations is 4.7 minutes 

Questions

The FMS will be operated 8 hours per day, 250 days per year. If the required
annual production is 9000 pieces

a. the minimum number of servers at each station and the minimum number of
carts in the transport system that are required to satisfy production demand. 
b. the utilization of each station for the answers in part 5(a).

Answer 1

Answer 2