Connected Systems Analysis

PART A.

a) Stage B is the bottleneck in the system. Processing capacity of this stage is on average 15,000- lbs/hour. Or 120,000 lbs per 8 hour shift

b) If stage A is already been setup and there’s no changing to a different size, then there’s no idle time

c) I would add capacity to stage B 3,000 lbs/hour. Stage B is the bottleneck of the system, if its corrected, then stage C is the next one with the lowest capacity, stage B should at least match stage C in the capacity.

d) We should spend money to reduce setup time by 50% for stage B. Stage A will overproduce 5,000 lbs which cost 150,000 to store. It will add 2,500 extra lbs/hour at $20,000 expense

PART B.

See attached Excel file

I developed a batch sequence keeping in mind that switching between batch sizes slows down the whole system. I wanted to keep setups to a minimum. In my sequence, initially there will be 13 setups in the first week. Once the system is running, there will be 12 setups. This batch system will produce 8 batches of each size weekly.

If the setup time would be instantaneous, we could run this sequence continuously, but because of frequent interruptions for Stage A, my second solution is not feasible.

PART A.

a) Stage B is the bottleneck in the system. Processing capacity of this stage is on average 15,000- lbs/hour. Or 120,000 lbs per 8 hour shift

b) If stage A is already been setup and there’s no changing to a different size, then there’s no idle time

c) I would add capacity to stage B 3,000 lbs/hour. Stage B is the bottleneck of the system, if its corrected, then stage C is the next one with the lowest capacity, stage B should at least match stage C in the capacity.

d) We should spend money to reduce setup time by 50% for stage B. Stage A will overproduce 5,000 lbs which cost 150,000 to store. It will add 2,500 extra lbs/hour at $20,000 expense

PART B.

See attached Excel file

I developed a batch sequence keeping in mind that switching between batch sizes slows down the whole system. I wanted to keep setups to a minimum. In my sequence, initially there will be 13 setups in the first week. Once the system is running, there will be 12 setups. This batch system will produce 8 batches of each size weekly.

If the setup time would be instantaneous, we could run this sequence continuously, but because of frequent interruptions for Stage A, my second solution is not feasible.