Dr. Lori Baker, operations manager at Nesa Electronics, prides herself on excellent assembly-line balancing. She has been told that the firm needs to complete 96 instruments per 24-hour day. The assembly-line activities are:

a) Draw the precedence diagram.

b) If the daily (24-hour) production rate is 96 units, what is the highest allowable cycle time?

c) If the cycle time after allowances is given as 10 minutes, what is the daily (24-hour) production rate?

d) With a 10-minute cycle time, what is the theoretical minimum number of stations with which the line can be balanced?

e) With a 10-minute cycle time and six workstations, what is the efficiency?

f) What is the total idle time per cycle with a 10-minute cycle time and six workstations?

g) What is the best workstation assignment you can make without exceeding a 10-minute cycle time, and what is its efficiency?

The preinduction physical examination given by the U.S. Army involves the following seven activities:

These activities can be performed in any order, with two exceptions: Medical history must be taken first, and Exit medical evaluation is last. At present, there are three paramedics and two physicians on duty during each shift. Only physicians can perform exit evaluations and conduct psychological interviews. Other activities can be carried out by either physicians or paramedics.

a) Develop a layout and balance the line.

b) How many people can be processed per hour?

c) Which activity accounts for the current bottleneck?

d) What is the total idle time per cycle?

e) If one more physician and one more paramedic can be placed on duty, how would you redraw the layout? What is the new throughput?