Problem Statement

The problem as stated earlier, is that the door assembly process is taking about 10 hours a day, and is often working 6 days a week, rather than 5, to keep up with the cabinet room schedule. Plant management wants to determine how to improve the process so that the schedule can be accomplished in 5 days during the normal 7.6 hour shift. After observing the process, a time study was performed and the following process data was collected. Also a representative door assembly schedule was generated which represents the door demand generated by a daily cabinet room build schedule. In addition, a simulation model of the process was generated.

During the observation and time study of the process, the assembly operation itself ran smoothly. There were times when the clamp was not functioning properly, and times when the quality of the incoming parts impacted production. But in general, when the assembly team was producing parts, the workload appreared balanced and they produced at a constant and adequate rate. What became readily apparent was that the setup process was an extremely time consuming task. Since setup time is essentially non-value added from the standpoint of producing parts, reducing setup time could dramatically increase the throughput of this process.

Your Assignment:

1) Use the simulation model to analyze each of the three scenarios below to determine the impact on setup time and time to produce the schedule.

2) Provide a brief write up (no more than 1 page) on each scenario that includes data from the simulation to support your conclusions.

3) Make a final recommendation which gives the most cost effective solution for assembling doors during the normal shift.