Chapter 6

Manufacturing Processes
APRIL 25, 2025
Manufacturing Industry
⚫ The manufacturing industry is a
sector of the economy that produces
finished products using industrial
machines.
⚫ Compared to other sectors:
⚫ Primary industry: extracts and
processes raw materials, such as
mining companies, forestry, farming,
and fishing.
⚫ Service industry: produce intangible
services, such as hotel, bank,
restaurant.

2
 Manufacturing Industry Examples
⚫ Transportation: ships, airplanes
⚫ Fast Moving Consumer goods: food, beverages,
cosmetics
⚫ Electronics: mobile phones, computers
⚫ Chemical: plastics, detergents
⚫ Pharmaceutical: medications, medical devices
⚫ Paper: paper, cardboard
⚫ Furniture and Fixture: sofa, curtain
⚫ Fashion: clothing, footwear
⚫ Sporting goods: sports equipment
⚫ Equipment: bicycle tires
⚫ Household goods: refrigerator, TV
⚫ Building materials: bricks, glass, flooring
3
 Learning Objectives

1. Understand what a manufacturing

process is.
2. Understand production process
mapping and Little’s law.
3. Explain how manufacturing processes
are organized.
4. Understand how to design and analyze
an assembly line.
 Production Processes
⚫We consider how processes used to make
tangible goods are designed.
⚫Production processes are used to make
everything that we buy ranging from
apartment building to pens.
⚫The high-level view of what is required to
make something can be divided into three
simple steps.
 Production Processes
• Production Positioning inventory in the supply chain Exhibit 6.1

processes are used

to make any
manufactured item
• Step 1 – Source
the parts needed
• Step 2 – Make
the product
• Step 3 – Deliver
the product
 You Should Know
Production Process Terms
⚫ Lead time – the time needed to respond to a
customer order
⚫ For example, a manufacturer receives an order
from a retailer customer for 100 pieces of
clothes. The manufacturer takes one week to get
the order ready. The lead time is one week.
⚫ Another example, Boeing Company receives an
airplane order from Singapore Airline, Boeing
Company takes two years to build the specific
airplane. The lead time is two years.
 Lead Time
A retailer company orders goods from the wholesale
company.
Order Laptop Computers Make the Payment Deliver Laptop
Computers
On January 1, 2022 On January 10, 2022 On January 21, 2022

⚫ What is the lead time for the computer

purchase?
⚫ From the day of ordering to the day of
delivering/receiving the product:
⚫ January 1, 2022 to January 21, 2022
⚫ The lead time is 20 days.
8
 You Should Know
Production Process Terms
⚫ Customer order decoupling point – where inventory is
positioned to allow entities in the supply chain to operate
independently.
⚫ For example, if a product is stocked at a retailer, the
customer pulls the item from the shelf and the
manufacturer never sees a customer order. Inventory acts
as a buffer to separate the customer from the
manufacturing process. For example, supermarkets,
department stores
⚫ The closer this point is to the customer, the quicker the
customer can be served. There is a trade-off where quicker
response to customer demand comes at the expense of
greater inventory investment because finished goods
inventory is more expensive than raw material inventory.
Instructor Slides 12
 You Should Know: Types of Firms
Make-to-Stock
• A production environment where the customer is served “on-demand”
from finished goods inventory

Assemble-to-Order
• A production environment where preassembled components,
subassemblies, and modules are put together in response to a specific
customer order

Make-to-Order
• A production environment where the product is built directly from raw
materials and components in response to a specific customer order.

Engineer-to-Order
• The firm works with the customer to design the product, which is then
made from purchased material, parts, and components.
 Make-to-Stock
⚫ Examples of products
➢ Mobile phone
➢ Clothing
➢ Packaged food products
⚫ Essential issue in satisfying customers is to
balance the level of inventory against the level of
customer service
➢ Easy with unlimited inventory, but inventory
costs money
➢ Trade-off between the costs of inventory and
level of customer service must be made
⚫ Use lean manufacturing to achieve higher service
levels for a given inventory investment
 Make-to-Stock

INSTRUCTOR SLIDES 15
 Assemble-to-Order
⚫ A primary task is to define a customer’s order in terms
of alternative components, since these are carried in
inventory
➢ An example is the way Dell Computer makes their
desktop computers, home furniture.
⚫ One capability required is a design that enables as
much flexibility as possible in combining components
⚫ There are significant advantages from moving the
customer order decoupling point from finished goods to
components
⚫ Wide variety of finished goods combinations can be built
from a set of components

𝑻𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝑵𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒃𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 = 𝑵𝟏 × 𝑵𝟐 × ⋯ × 𝑵𝒏−𝟏 × 𝑵𝒏

 Total number of combination
example
⚫ If a product has two components (A,B), there are
two combination (A, B).
⚫ If a product has components, A1, A2, B1, B2,
there are four combinations (A1B1, A1B2, A2B1,
A2B2)
⚫ If a product has components, A1, A2, A3, B1, B2,
B3, there can be 9 combinations (A1B1, A1B2,
A1B3, A2B1, A2B2, A2B3, A3B1, A3B2, A3B3)
A1 B1
A2 B2
A3 B3
Assemble-to-
Order Examples

18
 Assemble-
to-Order
Examples

19
Assemble to Order Example
 Make-to-Order

⚫ Boeing’s process for making commercial

aircraft is an example.
⚫ Customer order decoupling point could be
in either raw materials at the
manufacturing site or the supplier
inventory
⚫ Depending on how similar the products
are it might not even be possible to pre-
order parts.
 Make-to-Order Example

Home built from the ground

Airbus 320 painted

Eva Air
Engineer-to-
Order
⚫ The firm works with
the customer to
design the product,
which is then made
from purchased
materials, parts,
and components.
⚫ For example:
semiconductor
chips, pasta
machine
Trade-offs
 You Should Know
Lean Manufacturing

• Lean
manufacturing –
to achieve high
customer service
with minimum
levels of
inventory
investment.
Lean Manufacturing
⚫Example: Paper
company, cosmetics
company
⚫Keep minimum
inventory,
⚫Reduce waste in the
manufacturing process
 Review Question 1

Which of the following is not a term to

describe a type of manufacturing firm:
A. assemble–to-order
B. make-to-stock
C. make-to-order
D. make-to-cheap

27
 Review Question 2
A production environment where pre-
assembled components, subassemblies,
and modules are put together in
response to a specific customer order is
called:
A. assemble–to-order
B. make-to-stock
C. make-to-order
D. make-to-cheap
28
 Review Question 3
The time period from an order is sent
out to the supplier (order placement)
to the time the ordered product is
received (order fulfillment) is called:
A. production time
B. lead time
C. long time
D. order time
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 Review Question 4
Manufacturing companies adopt
__________________ to achieve high
customer service with minimum levels
of inventory investment.
A. high inventory manufacturing
B. fat manufacturing
C. lean manufacturing
D. quick manufacturing
30
 Review Question 5
A production environment, such as a
supermarket, where the customer is
served “on-demand” from finished
goods inventory is call ___________.
A. make-to-order
B. quick production
C. make-to-stock
D. assemble-to-order
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 Production Processes

manufacturing
subcontractors suppliers warehouses retailers
plants
 Wooden Furniture Production
Process

Cut the tree Transport

Timber/lumber

Deliver to home
Make home furniture

33
Exhibit 6.1 Source, Make, Deliver steps
 Production Process Mapping
⚫ Develop a high-level map of a supply chain process
⚫ Useful to understand how material flows and where inventory
is held
⚫ First step in analyzing the flow of material through a
production process

Exhibit 6.2 Make-to-Stock Process Map

 ⚫ Total average
Inventory Measures value of
inventory – From
the Accounting
point of view, total
average value of
inventory refers
to:
Work in process
⚫ The total
investment in
inventory at the
firm, which
includes
1. Raw materials
2. Work-in-
process
3. Finished
goods
 You Should Know
Inventory Measures
⚫ Inventory turn (turnover) – An efficiency measure where the cost
of goods sold is divided by the total average value of inventory.
Inventory Turn (Turnover) = Cost of Goods Sold
Average Value of Inventory
For example, a company has
⚫ Cost of Goods Sold = $6,000,000
⚫ Average Value of Inventory = $1,000,000
⚫ Inventory Turn = $6,000,000 = 6.0
$1,000,000

◆ For two similar consumer products manufacturers, an inventory

turn of six times per year is much better than a firm turning
inventory two times per year.
 You Should Know
Inventory Measures

⚫ Days-of-supply – A measure of the number of days of

supply of an item (the inverse of inventory turn scaled to
days)
Days of supply = 365
Inventory turn
For example,
A company has an inventory turn of 6.0. What is its days-of-
supply?
365 = 60.8 days
6.0
 Review Question 1
According to accounting principle,
inventory includes:
A. Raw materials
B. Work in process
C. Finished goods
D. All of the above

40
 Review Question 2
Great Clothes Company makes men’s
clothes. It had “Cost of Goods Sold” of
$1,000,000 in 2022. The average value of
inventory of 2022 was $200,000. What was
its inventory turn (turnover) in 2022?
A. 0.5
B. 1
C. 3
D. 5 ($1,000,000/$200000)

41
Review Question 3
Great Clothes Company makes men’s
clothes. It had “Cost of Goods Sold” of
$1,000,000 in 2022. The average value
of inventory of 2022 was $200,000.
What was its days of supply in 2022?
A. 365
B. 73 (365/5)
C. 183
D. 200

42
 Review Question 4
Great Clothes Company has several competitors in
selling women’s clothes. These companies have the
following inventory turn (turnover) data for 2022.
Which one has the best performance?
Great Beautiful Value Wonder
Clothes Clothes Clothes Clothes
3.54 4.25 2.54 5.65

A. Great Clothes
B. Beautiful Clothes
C. Value Clothes
D. Wonder Clothes
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 Review Question 5
• Great Skin Company makes medical grade skin care
products. Its competitors include Pretty Skin,
Healthy Skin, Perfect Skin. These companies has the
following days-of-supply. Which one has the best
performance?
Great Skin Pretty Skin Healthy Skin Perfect Skin
50.20 65.27 32.51 45.60

A. Great Skin
B. Pretty Skin
C. Healthy Skin
D. Perfect Skin
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Professor
John Little,
MIT Sloan
School

45
 Little’s Law
⚫ Simple systems can be analyzed quickly using a
principle known as Little’s law.
⚫ Little’s law says there is a long-term relationship
between the inventory, throughput, and flow time
of a production system in a steady state. The
relationship is:
• Inventory = Throughput rate × Flow time
◆ Inventory – materials held by the firm for future
use
◆ Throughput – long-term average rate that items
are flowing through the process
◆ Flow time – the time it takes a unit to flow
through the process from beginning to end.
 You Should Know
1. Little’s law:
• Mathematically relates inventory,
throughput, and flow time.
2. Throughput
• The average rate (e.g., units/day) that
items flow through a process.
3. Flow time
• The time it takes one unit to completely
flow through a process.
47
 Little’s Law
⚫ Consider the factory process in Exhibit 6.2, raw material is
brough into the factory and is transformed and then stored in
finished goods inventory.
⚫ The analysis assumes that the process is operating in “steady
state,” meaning that over a long enough period of time the
amount that is produced by the factory is equal to the amount
shipped to customers.
⚫ The throughput rate is equal to average demand, and the
process is not producing any excess or shortage.

48
 Example of Little’s Law
It takes 3 days (flow time) to make a watch.
The demand is 1 watch a day.
What is the work-in-process inventory?

Raw Material Work-in-process Throughput

(Parts) Inventory Rate
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8 49
 Little’s Law Example
It takes 3 days (flow time) to make a watch.
The demand is 1 watch a day. Demand = throughput rate
What is the work-in-process inventory?

Work-in-process Throughput
Inventory Rate Inventory
=
Day 1 Throughput
rate
Day 2
x
Day 3 Flow time

Day 4 Throughput
rate 1
Day 5 X
Day 6 Flow time 3
=
Day 7 Inventory 3
Day 8 50
 Little’s Law Example
⚫ If demand averages 1,000 units per day and it
takes 20 days for a unit to flow through the
factory, then the expected work-in-process
inventory in the factory would be ?
Inventory = Throughput rate x Flow time
• If you know any two components in the equation, you
can calculate the third.
Work-in-process inventory = 1000 units x 20 days
= 20,000 units

51
 Little’s Law Example
• If work-in-process inventory is 20,000 units per day
and throughput rate is 1,000 units, then the flow
time is?
Inventory = Throughput rate x Flow time
Throughput rate = 1,000 units
Inventory = 20,000 units.

• What is the flow time?

Flow time (T) = 20,000 / 1,000 = 20 days
52
 Little’s Law Example
• If the work-in-process inventory is 20,000 units per
day and it takes 20 days for a unit to flow through
the factory, then the expected throughput rate in
the factory would be ?
Inventory = Throughput rate x Flow time
Flow time = 20 days
Inventory = 20,000 units.
• What is the throughout rate?
Throughput rate = 20,000 / 20 = 1,000 units

53
 Little’s Law
⚫ For the factory, it is common for
accounting systems to capture average
work-in-process in terms of the value (at
cost) of the inventory that is being worked
on in the factory.
⚫ For example, the work-in-process inventory
averages $200,000 and that each unit is
valued at a cost of $10. This would imply
that there are 20,000 units in the factory
($200,000 $10 per unit = 20,000 units)
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Little’s Law Example 1: Car Batteries
⚫An automobile company assembles cars in a plant and
purchases batteries from a vendor in the same city.
⚫The average cost of each battery is $45. The automobile
company takes ownership of the batteries when they
arrive at the plant.
⚫It takes exactly 12 hours to make a car in the plant and the
plant assembles 200 cars per 8-hour shift (currently the
plant operates one shift per day).
⚫Each car uses one battery. The company holds, on
average, 8,000 batteries in raw material inventory at the
plant as a buffer.
Q1: Please find the total number of batteries in the plant
on average (in work-in-process at the plant and in raw
material inventory) per hour.
Q2: How much are these batteries worth?
 Little’s Law Example 1: Car
Batteries Solution
⚫ We can split this into two inventories: work-in-process and raw
material. For the work-in-process, Little’s law can be directly
applied to find the amount of work-in-process inventory:
Inventory = Throughput rate x Flow time
⚫ Throughput is the production rate of the plant, 200 cars per 8-hour
shift or 25 cars per hour. Since we use one battery per car, our
throughput rate for the batteries is 25 per hour. Flow time is 12
hours, so the work-in-process is:
Work-in-process inventory
= 25 batteries/hour x 12 hours = 300 batteries
 Little’s Law Example 1: Car
Batteries Solution (continued)
⚫ We know from the problem that there are
8,000 batteries in raw material inventory, so
the total number of batteries in the pipeline
on average is
Answer to Q1:
Total inventory = 8,000 + 300 = 8,300 batteries
Answer to Q2
⚫ These batteries are worth 8,300 x $45 =
$373,500
 Little’s Law Example 2
Service Industry
• Flow Time = Inventory (WIP) / Throughput
Rate
• Example: Bank Teller
• Average WIP (number of customers being
served at the same time): 6 customers
• Throughput Rate: 12 customers per hours
• Flow time = 6 / 12 = 0.5
• A customer spends on average 0.5 hours in
the bank.
58
 Review Question 1
Good Computer Company makes laptop computers.
Based on the company’s past record, customers
demanded 10 laptops a day. It takes 5 days on
average to assemble one laptop. According to
Little’s law, how many units of laptop are there in
the work-in-process inventory? Each laptop is
recorded at the cost of US$300.
A. 30 Little’s Law
Inventory = Throughput Rate x Flow Time
B. 50 Throughput Rate = 10 units per day
C. 100 Flow Time = 5 days
Inventory (units) = 10 units x 5 days = 50 units
D. 10
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 Review Question 2
Good Computer Company makes laptop computers.
Based on the company’s past record, customers
demanded 10 laptops a day. It takes 5 days on
average to assemble one laptop. Each laptop is
recorded at the cost of US$300. According to
Little’s law, what is the value of the work-in-process
inventory?
A. $3,000
B. $30,000
C. $15,000 (50 x $300)
D. $1,500
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 Review Question 3
We can apply Little’s law to the service industry.
On average, there are approximately 100 customers eating
dinner at Best Food Restaurant per hour every day. There are 50
customers finishing eating and walking out of the restaurant per
hour. What is the average time a customer spends on the dinner?
A. One hour
B. 30 minutes
C. two hours
D. three hours
Little’s law: Inventory = Throughput rate x Flow time
Throughput rate is 50 customers per hour
Inventory = 100 customers (number of customers being
served at the same time)
• Flow time = 100 / 50 = 2 hours
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 Review Question 4

Luxury Hotel provides 500 rooms. On average,

customers check out 100 hotel rooms per day.
What is the average number of nights customer(s)
spent in one room?
[Link] day
B. Three days
C. Ten days
[Link] days (throughput is 100 customers or
groups of customers. Inventory is 500 rooms.
Flow time is 500 / 100 = 5

62
 Review Question 5
You walked into a bank. There are 60 customers who
walk in the bank every 60 minutes. There are 20
customers who walk out the bank every 60 minutes.
What is the average time (minutes) of each customer
being served?
A. 3 minutes Inventory=60, throughput=20, flow
time=3 minutes
B. 5 minutes
C. 1 minutes
D. 20 minutes

63
 How Production Processes are Organized
⚫ Process selection refers to the strategic decision of selecting
which kind of production processes to use to produce a
product or provide a service. For example, in the case of
Toshiba notebook computers, if the volume is very low, we
may just have a worker manually assemble each computer by
hand. In contrast, if the volume is higher, setting up an
assembly line is appropriate.
You should know these terms:
⚫ Project layout: for large or massive products produced in a
specific location, labor, material, and equipment are moved to
the product rather than vice versa.
⚫ Workcenter: a process with great flexibility to produce a
variety of products, typically at lower volume levels.
⚫ Manufacturing cell: dedicated area where a group of similar
products are produced.
How Production Processes are Organized
⚫ Assembly line: area where an item is produced
through a fixed sequence of workstations, designed
to achieve a specific production rate.
⚫ Continuous process: a process that converts raw
materials into finished product in one continuous
process.
⚫ Product-process matrix: a framework depicting
when the different production process types are
typically used depending on product volume and
how standardized the product is. The trade-offs are
depicted in the product-process matrix.
 Organization of Production Processes

Workcenter (job shop) - Manufacturing cell - a

Project – the product
similar equipment or dedicated area where
remains in a fixed location,
functions are grouped products that are similar in
equipment is moved to the
together to make processing requirements
product
dissimilar products are produced

Assembly line - work processes

Continuous process – (assembly
are arranged according to the
line only) the flow is
progressive steps by which the
continuous, such as with liquids
product is made
Product-Process Matrix
Exhibit 6.3
 Project Layout

⚫ The product remains in

a fixed location
⚫ Product is the hub of a
wheel. Material and
equipment arranged
concentrically around
the production point in
the order of use and
movement difficulty.
⚫ A project layout may be
developed by arranging
materials according to
their assembly priority.
Assembly Line

⚫ An assembly line is a
layout design for the
special purpose of
building a product by
going through a
progressive set of steps.
⚫ The assembly steps are
done in areas referred to
as “stations,”, and
typically the stations are
linked by some form of
material handling device.
 Robot
Assembly
Line in
Tesla Car
Factory

[Link]
Continuous Process Layouts
⚫ A continuous or flow
process is similar to an
assembly line except that
the product continuously
moves through the process.
⚫ Often the item being
produced by the continuous
process is a liquid or
chemical that actually
“flows” through the system.
⚫ For example: a gasoline
refinery.
24-hour Continuous Process for
Surgical Face Mask
 Review Question 1
Which one of the following is not a
format by which a production facility is
arranged:
A. project layout
B. supermarket
C. assembly line
D. continuous process
73
 Review Question 2

_______ is an area where an item is produced

through a fixed sequence of workstations,
designed to achieve a specific production rate.
A. project layout
B. workcenter
C. assembly line
D. continuous process

74
 Review Question 3

_______ is a process that converts raw

materials into finished product in one
continuous process.
A. project layout
B. workcenter
C. assembly line
D. continuous process

75
Assembly Line Balancing
 You Should Know
Assembly Line Design
• Workstation cycle time - a uniform time interval
in which a moving conveyor passes a series of
workstations
• Also the time between successive units
coming off the end of an assembly line.
• Assembly-line balancing – The problem of
assigning tasks to a series of workstations so that
the required cycle time is met and idle time is
minimized.
• Precedence relationship - the required order in
which tasks must be performed in an assembly
process.
TASK

15 MIN / UNIT
Assembly Line Balancing

79
Precedence Relationship

80
 Assembly-Line Balancing : 7 steps
1. Specify the sequential relationships among tasks using a precedence diagram.
2. Determine the required workstation cycle time (C).
𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑎𝑦
𝐶=
𝑅𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑎𝑦 (𝑖𝑛 𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑠)
3. Determine the theoretical minimum number of workstations (𝑁𝑡 ).
𝑆𝑢𝑚 𝑜𝑓 𝑡𝑎𝑠𝑘 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠 (𝑇)
𝑁𝑡 =
𝐶𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 (𝐶)
4. Select a primary rule to assign tasks to workstations and a secondary rule to break
ties.
5. Assign tasks (one at a time) to the first workstation until no more tasks can be
added (due to cycle time or sequencing constraints). Repeat for all subsequent
workstations until all tasks are assigned.
6. Evaluate the efficiency of the balance
𝐸𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦
𝑆𝑢𝑚 𝑜𝑓 𝑡𝑎𝑠𝑘 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠 (𝑇)
=
𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑁𝑎 × 𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 (𝐶)
7. If efficiency is unsatisfactory, rebalance using a different rule.
 Example 6.2 Assembly-Line Balancing

⚫ The Car (Model J Wagon) is to be assembled

on a conveyor belt. Five hundred cars are
required per day. Production time per day is
420 minutes (7 hours), and the assembly
steps and times for the wagon are given in
Exhibit 6.5A.
⚫ Assignment: Find the balance that
minimizes the number of workstations,
subject to cycle time and precedence
constraints.
Example 6.2 – Assembly-Line Balancing
Exhibit 6.5 A. Assembly Steps and Times for Model J Wagon
Step 1 Draw a Precedence Diagram
Exhibit 6.5 B. Precedence Graph for
Model J. Wagon
 Step 2. Determine the required workstation
cycle time (C)

Production Time per Day 60 secൗmin × 420 min. 25,200 sec

𝐶= = = = 50.4 secൗwagon
Output per Day 500 wagons 500 wagons
 Step 3. Determine the theoretical minimum
number of workstations required (the actual
number may be greater)

Nt = Sum of task times (T) / Cycle time ( C )

Sum of task time = 45 + 11+ 9+ 12+12+50 + 15 + 12 + 12 + 8 + 9 = 195 seconds

𝑇 195 seconds
𝑁𝑡 = = = 3.87 ⟹ 4
𝐶 50.4 seconds
 Step 4: select assignment rules
a. Prioritize tasks in order of the largest number of following tasks

TASK NUMBER OF
FOLLOWING TASKS
A 6
B or D 5
C or E 4
F, G, H, or I 2
J 1
K 0
 Step 5 Assign Task
⚫ Make task assignments to form Workstation 1,
Workstation 2, and so forth until all tasks are
assigned.
⚫ The actual assignment is given in Exhibit 6.6A and
is shown graphically in Exhibit 6.6B. To understand
this, it is best to trace through the task assignments
in sequence in exhibit 6.6A. See that when an
assignment is made, the feasible, remaining
assignments are updated along with the priority
rules. It is important to meet precedence and cycle
time requirements as the assignments are made.
 Step 4+5: select assignment rules
(same as previous slide)
Our secondary rule, to be invoked where ties exist from our primary rule is:
b. Prioritize tasks in order of longest task time.
Note that D should be assigned before B, and E assigned before C, due to this tiebreaking
rule.
 Step 4+5
B. Precedence Graph for Model J Wagon

47 sec.

44 sec.
 Step 6
Evaluate the efficiency of the balance

𝑇 195 seconds
Efficiency = =
𝑁𝑎 𝐶 5(50.4 seconds)
195
= = 0.77 = 77%
252

T = sum of task time

N = number of workstations
C = cycle time
Step 7 If efficiency is unsatisfactory,
rebalance using a different decision rule.
⚫Evaluate the solution.
⚫An efficiency of 77 percent indicates an
imbalance or idle time of 23 percent (1.0
– 0.77) across the entire line.
⚫From Exhibit 6.6A we can see that there
are 57 total seconds of idle time
(5.4+0.4+3.4+6.4+41.4 second), and the
“choice” job is at Workstation 5.
 Practice Problem 1
The following tasks must be performed on an assembly line
in the sequence and times specified:
a. Draw the precedence diagram b. calculate number of stations
c. Balance the assembly line and evaluate the balancing by
efficiency
TASK TASK TIME TASKS THAT MUST
(SECONDS) PRECEDE
A 50 -
B 40 -
C 20 A
D 45 C
E 20 C
F 25 D
G 10 E
H 35 B, F, G
Total Task Time 245
 Requirements

•Production Time: 8 hours

a day
•Output: 400 units per day

95
a. Draw the precedence diagram
 b. Number of Stations
• The minimum number of stations to meet demand of
400 is calculated as follows:
Sum of task times (T) = 50+40+20+45+20+25+10+35= 245
• Cycle time (C) = production time per day / output per
day = 60 seconds x 8 hours x 60 minutes / 400 units = 72
• The theoretical minimum number of stations to demand
400 is:
Sum of task times (T) / Cycle time (C) = 245/72 = 3.4
station
• The round-up number of station is 4
 C. Use the longest-task-time rule
Use the longest-task-time rule and balance the line in the
minimum number of stations to produce 400 units per day.
TASK TASK TIME REMAINING FEASIBLE
(SECONDS) UNASSIGNED REMAINING
TIME TASK
Station 1 A 50 22 C
C 20 2 None
Station 2 D 45 27 E, F
F 25 2 None
Station 3 B 40 32 E
E 20 12 G
B 10 2 None
Station 4 H 35 37 None

The actual number of stations is 4.

 c. Efficiency

Efficiency =
Sum of task times (T)
Actual number of workstations (Na) X Workstation cycle time (C)

245 = 245 = 85.07%

4 x 72 288
 Splitting Tasks
⚫ Often, the longest required task time defines the
shortest possible workstation cycle time for the
production line.
⚫ This task time is the lower time bound unless it is
possible to split the task into two or more
workstations.
⚫ Consider the following illustration. Suppose that an
assembly line contains the following task times in
seconds: 40, 30, 15, 25, 20, 18, 15. The line runs for
7.5 hours per day and demand for output is 750 per
day.
 Splitting Tasks

• The workstation cycle time required to produce

750 per day is 36 seconds (7.5 hours x 60
minutes x 60 seconds/750).
• Our problem is that we have one task that takes
40 seconds.
• How do we deal with this task?
 Reducing Task Time Requirements
There are several ways that we may be
able to accommodate the 40-second task
in a 36-second cycle.
1. Split the task. Can we split the task so
that complete units are processed in
two workstations?
2. Share the task. Can the task be shared
so an adjacent workstation does part
of the work?
 Reducing Task Time Requirements

3. Use parallel workstations. It may be

necessary to assign the task to two
workstations that would operate in
parallel.
4. Use a more skilled worker. Because
this task exceeds the workstation cycle
time by just 11 percent, a faster
worker may be able to meet the 36-
second time.
 Reducing Task Time
Requirements
5. Work overtime. Producing at a rate of one
every 40 seconds would create 675 per day
(7.5 hour x 60 min x 60 second/40 second),
75 short of the needed 750. The amount of
overtime required to produce the additional
75 is 50 minutes (75 x 40 seconds/60
seconds).
6. Redesign. It may be possible to redesign the
product to reduce the task time slightly.
 Flexible and U-Shaped Line
Layouts
⚫ As we saw in the preceding example,
assembly-line balances frequently result in
unequal workstation times.
⚫ Flexible line layouts such as those shown in
Exhibit 6.7 are a common way of dealing with
this problem.
⚫ In our toy company example, the U-shaped
line with work-sharing at the bottom of the
figure could help resolve the imbalance.
 Flexible Line Layouts

Problem: Operators caged. No Solution: Operators can trade elements of

chance to trade elements of work work. Can add and subtract operators.
between them.

Exhibit 6.7
 Flexible Line Layouts (2)

Exhibit 6.7

Problem: Operators birdcaged. No

chance to increase output with a third
operator.

Solution: Operators can help each

other. Might increase output with a
third operator.
 Flexible Line Layouts (3)

Problem: Straight line is difficult

to balance.
Solution – U-line gives better operator
access and may reduce number of
operators.

Exhibit 6.7
End of
Chapter

109