Technology Enabled Operations Analysis
Question Description
Wendy’s Wonder Wagons Wendy’s Wonder Wagons manufactures brightly-colored, battery-powered wagons that will be scattered about the streets of cities to allow people to haul groceries, dogs, and small children. Below is a simplified process flow diagram for production of the wagons. Forming Coating Assembly 20 min (batch of 10 min 1_4 units) 15 min The forming machine takes 10 minutes to convert plastic pellets into a wagon body. The coating machine takes 20 minutes, and it spray coats (with a single color) up to four wagon bodies simultaneously. Wagon bodies then go to a drying room (with plenty of space) and air dry for 3 hours. Assembly takes 15 minutes to attach the wheels, power unit, and handle. Cross-trained workers are available so we don’t need to worry about labor scheduling. We’ll focus on steady state and not concern ourselves with start-up and shut down — you can assume the production system operates non-stop, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Currently, Wendy’s Wonder Wagons is making one unit of each color at a time — e.g., a lime green wagon, then an iridescent puce wagon, then a luminous red wagon, etc. Assume they are running at full capacity.
A. Base Case (steady-state, running at full capacity)
a. What is the bottleneck task?
b. What is the capacity of the production process, in wagons per 24-hour day?
c. What is the throughput time?
d. What is the average number of wagon bodies in the drying room?
B. Wendy would like to increase capacity. She wants you to evaluate the proposals below. For each, indicate the resulting production capacity (in wagons per 24-hour day), and the throughput time. Briefly indicate why it has changed (or not changed) from the base case. Be sure to provide any calculations you made.
a. Acquire a second forming machine
b. Increase the batch size of the coating machine to 6 units, continuing to produce 1 unit of each color at a time. c.
Produce wagons in batches of 4 (i.e., 4 sunshine yellow, then 4 ornery orange, etc.)
d. Use a fast-drying coating material so the wagon bodies dry in only 10 minutes
- Milk Flow
The Dixon Milk Company produces milk at a fixed rate of 5,000 gallons per hour. Customer demand is
100,000 gallons, spread out uniformly throughout the day, which starts at 5:00 a.m. and ends at 3:00
p.m. If there is no milk available, the customer will wait until milk is available. DMC begins the day with
25,000 gallons of milk in inventory. Production starts at 5:00 a.m. At the end of the day (after all
demand has been filled) the plant produces milk until the 25,000 gallons beginning inventory is
replenished.
A. Draw a Process Flow Diagram
B. At 6:00 a.m.,
i. How much milk has been produced?
ii. How much milk has been picked up by customers?
iii. How much milk is in inventory?
iv. How much demand is waiting for milk to be provided?
C. At noon,
i. How much milk has been produced?
ii. How much milk has been picked up by customers?
iii. How much milk is in inventory?
iv. How much demand is waiting for milk to be provided?
D. At what time does the inventory run out (and customers start to wait)?
E. At what time is customer demand satisfied?
F. At what time does the plant stop operating?
2 - Wendy’s Wonder Wagons
Wendy’s Wonder Wagons manufactures brightly-colored, battery-powered wagons that will be
scattered about the streets of cities to allow people to haul groceries, dogs, and small children. Below is
a simplified process flow diagram for production of the wagons.
The forming machine takes 10 minutes to convert plastic pellets into a wagon body. The coating
machine takes 20 minutes, and it spray coats (with a single color) up to four wagon bodies
simultaneously. Wagon bodies then go to a drying room (with plenty of space) and air dry for 3 hours.
Assembly takes 15 minutes to attach the wheels, power unit, and handle. Cross-trained workers are
available so we don’t need to worry about labor scheduling. We’ll focus on steady state and not concern
ourselves with start-up and shut down – you can assume the production system operates non-stop, 24
hours a day, 7 days a week.
Currently, Wendy’s Wonder Wagons is making one unit of each color at a time – e.g., a lime green
wagon, then an iridescent puce wagon, then a luminous red wagon, etc. Assume they are running at full
capacity.
A. Base Case (steady-state, running at full capacity)
i. What is the bottleneck task?
ii. What is the capacity of the production process, in wagons per 24-hour day?
iii. What is the throughput time?
iv. What is the average number of wagon bodies in the drying room?
B. Wendy would like to increase capacity. She wants you to evaluate the proposals below. For
each, indicate the resulting production capacity (in wagons per 24-hour day), and the
throughput time. Briefly indicate why it has changed (or not changed) from the base case. Be
sure to provide any calculations you made.
i. Acquire a second forming machine
ii. Increase the batch size of the coating machine to 6 units, continuing to produce 1 unit of
each color at a time.
iii. Produce wagons in batches of 4 (i.e., 4 sunshine yellow, then 4 ornery orange, etc.)
iv. Use a fast-drying coating material so the wagon bodies dry in only 10 minutes.
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