Good Example Of Essay On Jgt2 Decision Analysis Task 1

A. Recommendation to improve current workflow in the plant:

There are 8 steps in the process of producing the Rugged Wear Work boot product for the company. The company is budgeted to produce 6 workboots an hour with a 40 hour workweek.

The work boot assembly schedule follows:

The current production line layout consists of 8 workstations performing each individual task. The current production line is as follows:
6 min 3 min
10 min 8 min 3 min 9 min
33

3min 4 min

It is recommended that the revised schedule should use five teams. Five teams would improve the effeciency of production. The maximum time of any workstation would 10 minutes and the total cycle time would be 10 minutes. Total task time is 46 minutes. The following diagram shows the revised workteams:

A1. Justification for recommendation:

The assembly line balancing tool was used for this analysis. Line balancing seeks to minimize deficiencies in production and maximize efficiencies. With line balancing the goal is to have a smooth even production flow with work evenly distributed and minimal idle time.(Heizer& Render, n.d)The cycle time is the time from the beginning to end of the production process.(Six Sigma, n.d.) Efficiency in production measures the ability to produce a product in a way which is most time or cost efficient. In the rugged wear boot assembly schedule the time of each task A through H was entered along with the required sequence requirements. The total minimum time required to assemble boots is 46 minutes.
Shuzworld has a budget production rate of 6 boots per hour, with a 40 hour workweek. The total minimum time to assemble boots is 46 minutes. The cycle time is calculated by taking the total time available and dividing it by the total number to be produced. The cycle time thus is ten minutes. Efficiency is improved by reducing the number of work stations. The number of workstations takes into account the longest task and also the predecessors of each task. The combined task cannot exceed in time the longest task which would decrease efficiency. Task A is the longest task at ten minutes. Also, no task can supersede its predecessors.
Analysis shows that by taking the total assembly time (46 minutes) and dividing it by the cycle time (10 minutes) theoretically 4.6 or rounded to 5 is the minimum number of workstations. The combining of tasks improved efficiency by decreasing idle time by 10 minutes. The total idle time with this combination of teams is 50 minutes, which gives an efficiency of 92%.
B. Analyze the initial and ongoing costs needed for the new sandal line being introduce in the case study.

Maui Sandals project

As Shuzworld is going to introduce a new product with the name Maui Sandal it is important for the company to know the production hours for the new product to plan an estimated budget for the production of the new product. Hence it is important for the company to make a proper budget for the product to get success in long run and make decision regarding the pricing of the product (Mishan & Quah, 2007). The company’s anticipation of a well-received product in the Maui Sandals is very positive. It is important that the company properly aligns its resources, which includes the labor costs, to ensure not only a strong launching, but continual and sustainable growth. The data provided along with the aggressive nature of the anticipated growth points to some numbers that need to be formulated (Baltz & Baltz, 1969).
It has been predicted by the company that for producing the first batch of the new product it will take about 1000 labor hours as per the estimation made from the introduction of the previous line product. It has been also said in the meeting that the company has a learning curve of 80% that has been shown in the table below with the calculation made to describe the learning curve of the company (Stine & Foster, 2011). With the help of the learning curve the labor hour can be calculated because the learning curve helps to determine the labor hour for the company. It has been planned that the company will produce:
The calculation of the learning curve and the labor hours along with the cost estimation has been shown in the table and diagrams below:
The above table shows that how the time needed for production changes due to 80% learning curve of the company production facility.
The above diagram shows that how the learning curve falls towards the right side with increase in number of unit. This shows that the time required for the next unit of production will decrease with the increase in number of units produced.
The above table shows the calculation for the working hours for each batch for four different months. This can be presented as:
Month 1: In the first month the company produces five batches because in the beginning the production hours required is quite more because of the implementation of the new products. AS the company is in the beginning phase of the learning curve therefore the time required to complete one batch is more than the proceeding one. For the first five batches the production department requires 3737.74 hours that if multiplied with $1.08/ labor hour, then the cost stands at $4036.75 for the first month.
Month 2: In the second month it is estimated that the company will manufacture 10 batches of sandal that will require 4772.78 labor hours and a total labor cost for the second month stands at $5154.60.
Month 3: During the third month the company’s production increases to 15 batches from 10 batches and the labor hour required during the third month is 5509.32 labor hours. This happens because the batches produced in this month stands in the middle of the learning curve. The direct labor cost estimation for this month is around $5950.07.
Month 4: In the last month the company produces the most number of batches that is 20 batches. The batch number for this month production is 31 to 50. The total labor hours required for production is 6101.78 labor hours that costs the company of $6589.92.
Therefore the projected budget for Shuzworld for the new product of Maui Sandal for the first four month is shown in the table below:
It has been seen from the analysis that the first batch requires about 1000 labor hours whereas the last batch that is the 50th batch will only require 283.82 hours because of the decreasing learning curve of the company’s production ability. This reduces the labor cost of the company that is associated with the production of the new batches of product (Schulz, n.d.). As it has been seen that the labor hours drastically decreases at the beginning, but it seems to decrease slowly at the end of the production line.
As because the labor cost goes on decreasing with the increasing production, therefore it is recommended that the company must go for the new line production of the Maui Sandal project. It is recommended that the company must continue its production after the four month due to increment in production capacity and decrease in the cost of production. The labor of the company will be operating with the increasing efficiency (Brijs, 2012). This will earn the company with more amount of profit with the increasing production of each batch of sandals. It is estimated by the company to have a good demand for the sandals. Hence it is recommended to the company to continue with the process because if they discontinue the process they will have to start a new production from the beginning that will again increase the labor hours and labor cost for the company (Thomas & Li, 2009). Therefore the company must take the advantage of the Maui sandal project and run the project for a long time.
Here in this section the learning curve have been generated with the help of the POM for Windows to get help in the calculation of the labor hour and to find out the estimated budget of the direct labor cost (Nahmias, 2001). For this calculation this tool was chosen because it provides accurate result that is based on 80% learning curve which is required in this section. The learning curve helps to calculate the labor hour that tends to decrease that helps in calculation of the labor cost. Therefore this analytical tool is best suited for the analysis of the labor hour and budget of the new production line.
C. Recommendation of a staffing plan for the assignment of machine operators on a manufacturing shift of the Shuzworld Shangai plant that will increase cost effectiveness using proper decision analysis tool in case study.

Layout strategy for Shuzworld line production

In order to recommending of a suitable staffing plan for the assignment of the machine operators on manufacturing shift of the Shuzworld Shanghai plant a well suited model of analysis of data has been done in this section. As the company is a women’s show manufacturing organization it has specifically four most important and different types of jobs that must be completed (Burnett, Clifford & Durant-Law, 2010). In the below table it has been summarized that they have four different mechanical operators who complete the given job in different point of time as shown in the Job Machines Operators’ table.
The above table has been created by the data given by the company. In order to obtain the best possible model the all important input has been analyzed. The A, B, C and D are four different Machine operators and the columns are showing the cost of completing four different jobs of the four operators (Vance, 2003). However inputting the given data in POM has revealed the below analysis charts and table which have been thoroughly analyzed to recommend a specific staffing plan.
Now, from the JGT2 decision analysis the limit report chart, sensitivity report and answer report has been derived by using constraint is equal to 1 and analysis has been obtain that includes the row numbers, final values, reduced costs, lower limits, upper limits, target results, objective coefficients, allowable increase and decrease, original and final value of the operation costs.

Computer Generated Analysis for the best suited staffing plan:

The staffing plan is developed with the help of the POM for windows that uses the decision analytical tools like Om formula that uses solver analytical tools to accurately display the staffing plan required to minimize the cost and maximize the profit. Hence, this analytical tool is best suited for decision making of the optimal staffing plan. This is because this tools helps the management to plan the best staffing plan to minimize cost. Therefore the use of the staffing analytical tool is justified in this decision making. As the company was looking at choosing the best staffing plan to minimize the cost, therefore this was the best option for the company.
D. Discussion of two short-term scheduling techniques or rule that can be used to achieve efficient movements of units through production systems.
In this section some of most important short-term scheduling techniques or rules that can be applied by Shuzworld has been categorically analyzed that can be sincerely taken into consideration to achieve efficient movements of the units through production system of the above mentioned corporation. There are few specific short-term scheduling techniques or rules to be implemented for Shuzworld as by the use of these particular rules the cost for the company’s provided facilities will be lowered to a significant way (Carlberg & Carlberg, 2002). In order to implement the short-term scheduling techniques the company has to use four important scheduling criteria that will help to complete the program. These four different criteria are mentioned below.

Minimization of the time to complete a given work

Maximization of the utilization of sources
Minimization of the inventory regarding to the work in process
Minimization of the time waited by the customers for a given job
After analyzing these four specific criteria the short time scheduling techniques can be determined. It can be said that Shuzworld uses assembly line type for the production sector. Therefore the provided facility mainly utilize the specific systems such as progressive schedule and Just in time systems that are typically used to continue the movement of the assembly line (Purica, 2010). However the most costly portion of this type of system is the starting of a whole new process.
One of most important and effective short term scheduling technique is Johnson’s rule. This a short term scheduling technique that can be used in two work centers. The primary objective of the method is to determine an optimal sequence of provided jobs to shorten the total time which is required to complete all the jobs (Gregory, 1988). The technique helps to minimize the makespan in the two workstations. Thus the method also reduces the idle time between two work stations. Apart from that the method is used to find the shortest makespan of the workstations of a company.
Another important short time scheduling technique is the Finite Capacity Scheduling (FCS) technique. The said technique is mainly an electronic scheduling systematic technique that adds collaborative computing systems as well as graphical and pictorial layouts. Finite Capacity Scheduling (FCS) basically allows changing the latest scheduling based on the particular data that is collected and acquired by the computer. Most importantly Finite Capacity Scheduling (FCS) has the ability to regulate the distribution and the requirements according to the present circumstances and status of the system by analyzing the computerized data available to it. Therefore many companies in the world have adopted this particular scheduling system which is very essential to save money, labor as well as the most important time.
Other than these two techniques there are more several techniques that should be mentioned in this section that are as important as the two techniques to achieve efficient movements of the units through production system of the company. The techniques such as Johnson’s rule which mainly minimizes the processing time, the critical ratio analysis method, Gantt chart system for short term scheduling, the assignment method that reduces the cost as well as the time of production can be implemented to the efficient movements of units in the production system of Shuzworld.

References

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