
Concept explainers
Question
☆New England Foundry
For more than 75 years, New England Foundry, Inc. (NEFI), has manufactured wood stoves for home use. In recent years, with increasing energy prices, president George Mathison has seen sales triple. This dramatic increase has made it difficult for George to maintain quality in all his wood stoves and related products.
Unlike other companies manufacturing wood stoves, NEFI is in the business of making only stoves and stove-related products. Its major products are the Warmglo I, the Warmglo II, the Warmglo III, and the Warmglo IV. The Warmglo I is the smallest wood stove, with a heat output of 30,000 BTUs, and the Warmglo IV is the largest, with a heat output of 60,000 BTUs.
The Warmglo III outsold all other models by a wide margin. Its heat output and available accessories were ideal for the typical home. The Warmglo III also had a number of other outstanding features that made it one of the most attractive and heat-efficient stoves on the market. These features, along with the accessories, resulted in expanding sales and prompted George to build a new factory to manufacture the Warmglo III model. An overview diagram of the factory is shown in Figure D.6.
Figure D.6 Overview of Factory
The new foundry used the latest equipment, including a new Disamatic that helped in manufacturing stove parts. Regardless of new equipment or procedures, casting operations have remained basically unchanged for hundreds of years. To begin with, a wooden pattern is made for every cast-iron piece in the stove. The wooden pattern is an exact duplicate of the cast-iron piece that is to be manufactured. All NEFI patterns are made by Precision Patterns, Inc. and are stored in the pattern shop and maintenance room. Next, a specially formulated sand is molded around the wooden pattern. There can be two or more sand molds for each pattern. The sand is mixed and the molds are made in the molding room. When the wooden pattern is removed, the resulting sand molds form a negative image of the desired casting.
Next, molds are transported to the casting room, where molten iron is poured into them and allowed to cool. When the iron has solidified, molds are moved into the cleaning, grinding, and preparation room, where they are dumped into large vibrators that shake most of the sand from the casting. The rough castings are then subjected to both sandblasting to remove the rest of the sand and grinding to finish some of their surfaces. Castings are then painted with a special heat-resistant paint, assembled into workable stoves, and inspected for manufacturing defects that may have gone undetected. Finally, finished stoves are moved to storage and shipping, where they are packaged and transported to the appropriate locations.
At present, the pattern shop and the maintenance department are located in the same room. One large counter is used by both maintenance personnel, who store tools and parts (which are mainly used by the casting department), and sand molders, who need various patterns for the molding operation. Pete Nawler and Bob Dillman, who work behind the counter, can service a total of 10 people per hour (about 5 per hour each). On average, 4 people from casting and 3 from molding arrive at the counter each hour. People from molding and casting departments arrive randomly, and to be served, 1hey form a single line.
Pete and Bob have always had a policy of first come, first served. Because of the location of the pattern shop and maintenance department, it takes an average of 3 minutes for an individual from the casting department to walk to the pattern and maintenance room, and it takes about 1 minute for an individual to walk from the molding department to the pattern and maintenance room.
After observing the operation of the pattern shop and maintenance room for several weeks, George decided to make some changes to the factory layout. An overview of these changes appears in Figure D.7.
Figure D.7 Overview of Factory after Changes
Separating the maintenance shop from the pattern shop would have a number of advantages. It would take people from the casting department only 1 minute instead of 3 to get to the new maintenance room. The time from molding to the pattern shop would be unchanged. Using motion and time studies, George was also able to determine that improving the layout of the maintenance room would allow Bob to serve 6 people from the casting department per hour; improving the layout of the pattern department would allow Pete to serve 7 people from the molding shop per hour.
1. How much time would the new layout save?

Want to see the full answer?
Check out a sample textbook solution
Chapter D Solutions
Operations Management
- Employee In-Service Training ASSIGNMENT: In-Service Training. The intern is required to plan and implement two in-service training sessions for employees. Each in-service should last at least 10 but not more than 30 minutes and should be given to all employees affected. The preceptor or supervisor/unit manager must approve all in-service topics. 1) One presentation should be related to a policy or procedure of any kind (e.g. proper use of equipment); 2) The second presentation must be related to sanitation or safety. For each in-service presentation, the intern must develop a written class plan and a visual aid (may be a handout, poster, PowerPoint slide presentation, etc.) appropriate to the life experiences, cultural diversity and educational background of the target audience. The intern must also measure behavior change. Note, this cannot be measured by a written pre- and post- test. That would be measuring knowledge. The intern mustactually observe and document that the learners…arrow_forwardFor a dietary manager in a nursing home to train a dietary aidearrow_forwardDietary Management in a Nursing Home. As detailed as possible.arrow_forward
- For dietary management in a nursing home. As detailed as possible.arrow_forwardA small furniture manufacturer produces tables and chairs. Each product must go through three stages of the manufacturing process – assembly, finishing, and inspection. Each table requires 3 hours of assembly, 2 hours of finishing, and 1 hour of inspection. The profit per table is $120 while the profit per chair is $80. Currently, each week there are 200 hours of assembly time available, 180 hours of finishing time, and 40 hours of inspection time. Linear programming is to be used to develop a production schedule. Define the variables as follows: T = number of tables produced each week C= number of chairs produced each week According to the above information, what would the objective function be? (a) Maximize T+C (b) Maximize 120T + 80C (c) Maximize 200T+200C (d) Minimize 6T+5C (e) none of the above According to the information provided in Question 17, which of the following would be a necessary constraint in the problem? (a) T+C ≤ 40 (b) T+C ≤ 200 (c) T+C ≤ 180 (d) 120T+80C ≥ 1000…arrow_forwardAs much detail as possible. Dietary Management- Nursing Home Don't add any fill-in-the-blanksarrow_forward
- Menu Planning Instructions Use the following questions and points as a guide to completing this assignment. The report should be typed. Give a copy to the facility preceptor. Submit a copy in your Foodservice System Management weekly submission. 1. Are there any federal regulations and state statutes or rules with which they must comply? Ask preceptor about regulations that could prescribe a certain amount of food that must be kept on hand for emergencies, etc. Is the facility accredited by any agency such as Joint Commission? 2. Describe the kind of menu the facility uses (may include standard select menu, menu specific to station, non-select, select, room service, etc.) 3. What type of foodservice does the facility have? This could be various stations to choose from, self-serve, 4. conventional, cook-chill, assembly-serve, etc. Are there things about the facility or system that place a constraint on the menu to be served? Consider how patients/guests are served (e.g. do they serve…arrow_forwardWork with the chef and/or production manager to identify a menu item (or potential menu item) for which a standardized recipe is needed. Record the recipe with which you started and expand it to meet the number of servings required by the facility. Develop an evaluation rubric. Conduct an evaluation of the product. There should be three or more people evaluating the product for quality. Write a brief report of this activity • Product chosen and the reason why it was selected When and where the facility could use the product The standardized recipe sheet or card 。 o Use the facility's format or Design one of your own using a form of your choice; be sure to include the required elements • • Recipe title Yield and portion size Cooking time and temperature Ingredients and quantities Specify AP or EP Procedures (direction)arrow_forwardASSIGNMENT: Inventory, Answer the following questions 1. How does the facility survey inventory? 2. Is there a perpetual system in place? 3. How often do they do a physical inventory? 4. Participate in taking inventory. 5. Which type of stock system does the facility use? A. Minimum stock- includes a safety factor for replenishing stock B. Maximum stock- equal to a safety stock plus estimated usage (past usage and forecasts) C. Mini-max-stock allowed to deplete to a safety level before a new order is submitted to bring up inventory up to max again D. Par stock-stock brought up to the par level each time an order is placed regardless of the amount on hand at the time of order E. Other-(describe) Choose an appropriate product and determine how much of an item should be ordered. Remember the formula is: Demand during lead time + safety stock = amount to order Cost out an inventory according to data supplied. Remember that to do this, you will need to take an inventory, and will need to…arrow_forward
- Practical Management ScienceOperations ManagementISBN:9781337406659Author:WINSTON, Wayne L.Publisher:Cengage,
