Question

Consider the following production process for manufacturing biscuits. The first step of the process is mixing where all of the ingredients are combined in the correct proportion to form dough. In the next step of the process, the dough is formed into sheets and cut into pieces in preparation for baking. The cut dough is then baked into biscuits and subsequently must be cooled. The final step of the process is packaging the biscuits for the consumer.

The following table summarizes the production process along with the processing times at each step of the process. The process is highly automated, so assume that this is a machine-paced process with one machine available at each step.
Process step Activity Time (Minutes per Batch)
Mixing 15
Forming 10
Baking 12
Cooling 18
Packing 10
Round "Flow rate" to 3 decimal places. Round "Utilization rate" to a whole percent.
a. What is the capacity of the baking process step (in batches per hour)? _______ batches per hour
b. What is the bottleneck of the manufacturing process?
c. Assuming unlimited demand, what is the process flow rate (in batches per hour)? ________ batches per hour
d. Assuming unlimited demand, what is the utilization of the mixing process step? _______ percent
e. If the manufacturing process is currently full of work-in-process inventory, how long would it take to complete 50 batches of biscuits? ________ hours to complete 50 batches

Answer 1

a. 5 batches

c. 3.33

d. 83%

e. 15 hours

Explanation:

As per the data given in the question,

a)

Capacity of baking process = 60 ÷ Activity time for per batch

= 60÷12

= 5 batches per hour

b)

Bottleneck of manufacturing process = Cooling price(Since it has maximum activity time)

c)

Process Flow rate = Total number of batches per hour for system, which is described at capacity of bottleneck

Therefore, Flow rate = number of batches at bottleneck

= 60 ÷ 18

= 3.33

d)

Utilization of mixing process = Activity time ÷ Bottleneck activity time

= 15 ÷ 18

= 83 %

e)

Time required for 50 batches = Time for bottleneck for processing 50 batches

= 18 × 50

= 900 minutes

= 15 hours