Chapter D, Problem 1.2CS

Summary Introduction

Introduction:

Company NEFI is involved in the manufacturing wood stoves for more than 75 years. The company manufactures four models of stoves namely W1, W2, W3 and W4 of which W3 had outsold other products due to its performance.

The company uses wooden pattern for manufacturing stoves. The wooden pattern is covered with sand molding in which the molten iron is poured to form the shape of a stove. Later, the molten iron is cooled and taken to next stages like cleaning, grinding and preparation. Finally, the product is tested to identify any defects.

The company has its maintenance and pattern shop in the same room, which increases the time for people from other department to fetch products. Person P and Person B can serve 10 people per hour. Average of 4 people from casting and 3 from molding arrive at the counter each hour.

It takes average of 3 minutes for the people from casting department and 1 minute for people from molding department to reach the pattern shop and maintenance room. The layout is shown in the diagram.

The company has restructured the layout, which is shown below. After restructuring, it takes 1 minute to reach pattern shop and maintenance from casting, while the time from molding department remains same.

With new improved layout, Person B can serve 6 people per hour from the casting department and Person P can serve 7 people per hour from the molding shop.

To determine: The saving per hour with the new factory layout.