10.4 Disadvantages Of Cellular Layout

The assembly line needs to produce 6 units per hour and there is room for only four workstations. The tasks and the order in which they must be performed are shown in the following table. Tasks cannot be split, and it would be too expensive to duplicate any task.

He knew that if he could reconfigure the plant away from assembly lines and into individual work stations, workers would be able to take more ownership of their work, producing better quality parts and be self-motivated by being able to measure their individual output, increasing job satisfaction. The new cells turned out to be a hit. Workers were excited about having more control over their output and being part of the new process.

The current workflow needs to address how to best organize the assembly line so that it is most efficient,

By utilizing work cells in my manufacturing facility I would have been able to reduce travel distance in production due to the fact that all equipment in work cells is modular. This allows the work cells to be easily arranged or moved as needed. The implementation of work cells versus straight line manufacturing would have been beneficial also because it provides an organized workplace and reduced space for inventory or production materials. Also by using the work cell method of production defects would be easily detected early, this is because with work cells products are tested at the end of each production cycle making it easier to detect and fix any defects that may arise.

The production-line approach allows companies, such as fast-food restaurants, to use a workstation approach and/or an

b) The quality is increased because there is more time to perform the task in a higher quality fashion.

In the era of consumerism, abundance of essential products is critical to supply the high demands. This would have been very difficult without Henry Ford and his excellence in operating the assembly line. Assembly line is one of the most reliable and durable production techniques ever invented. In the 20th century, assembly line was amongst one of the most remarkable technological advancements. Nearly all the products that we use nowadays, we would not have it in the amount we need and at the prices we have it without the assembly line. The assembly line has played a major role in modifying the world and it is the main force behind every industry on earth. The use of assembly line in industries such as automotive, arms, and food has played a key role in supplying the world with essential products while minimizing the total cost. The operation of assembly line in various industries has assisted the world in providing crucial products that we need to make our lives easier.

It remoulds the manufacturing industries with optimized productivity by making a radical departure from traditional mastery of a craft and rationalizing work, skills and routines. It is the most common strategies conducted in nowadays large scale secondary industries as its outputs are easily quantifiable and predictable. Also, other industries are adhered to the principles of assembly line (Whitfield, 2004). McDonald is one of the typical examples that demonstrates the incorporation of it into the service industries. Staff mechanically repeat the same specialized task, frying French fries, making hamburgers, filling cups with soft drinks and etc. Customers also inherently conform to the rationalized business mode of McDonald by filing forward in queues to get the meal as if on a conveyor belt. This illustrates that the influence of the assembly line is wide-ranging, profound and long-lasting.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a tool that is used to define the work elements of a project and identify its entire scope. It is the map of the project which identifies all elements of the project and allows managers to keep track and control of it. It is made of a hierarchy which facilitates the evaluation of cost, time and performance at all levels of the project life-cycle and organization. The structure illustrates the smaller units and allows for adaptation and quick communication if there a problems which need to be addressed. Definitions of each task should be clear and avoid overlapping in

The fourth chapter is titled “Standardize Work.” The theme is “to identify how the work is well defined and how the effective team effort is exerted on the maintenance of the same repetitive work in sequence”. Thus, the standardization and the effort towards lean production is important (Ballé and Ballé).

Since the current assembly line layout should achieving 100% line efficiency when running at maximum capacity of 215 units. Thus, to operate at target 300 units/day, the current assembly line needs to redesign.

Boeing made use of lean techniques in their production system and increased its production by 50% and also reduced its floor space by 40%. Assembling a Boeing 737 is a typical job. Workers should take 367,000 parts, an same number of bolts, rivets, other equipment and 36 miles (58 kilometres) of electrical wire and then keep them all combined to make an airplane [2]. Engineers to machinists were involved in lean (reducing waste) in the factory. By creating an assembly line, aircraft will pass through the workers were they going to concentrate on assembling. Allocating all employees in the factory building and organising special teams helped a lot to solve the errors in the assembly line [2]. In the assembly line, there are eight beacon lights which reflect the production status. If everything is good it shows green colour. If an error occurs, the worker will press a button and the green light will changes to yellow and the panel board will shows the category of the problem(which category it is related to). The worker will pass on to a computer and writes about the problem in a brief manner and the problem should be assigned to special team to solve it within 30 minutes if not, the light turns to purple and the assembly line will shuts down. This moving assembly is the icon of factory’s lean strategies.

Although production needs are being met, improvements in productivity are always at the forefront of management’s thoughts. Doing more with less is a constant effort for middle management and hourly laborers. Over all the

We analyzed a Toshiba assembly line plan for a new subnotebook computer.  The engineering section manager, Toshihiro Nakamura, wants to make changes to the line process as designed by the engineers.  The basic assembly line equipment and space already exist within the Toshiba plant, so the subnotebook assembly process must conform to those preexisting constraints.  Specifically, the assembly line is a straight 14.4-meter conveyor system that can accommodate 8 to 12 workers plus one supporter to aid in the assembly process.  The employees work at assembling for 7.5 hours a day.  The computers are assembled from

decided to change the traditional process to increase productivity – 1> Increased parallelization of design tasks, 2> Elimination of