Product Layouts and Group Technologies Essay

A series of workers and machines in a factory by which a succession of identical items is progressively assembled.

line is inherently hard and must be regulated to ensure maximum levels of productivity. Some work is usually highly

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.

Most production-centered managers tend to be focus on the task, manufacturing management is production-centered. The work is ordinarily highly repetitive, many units of output are similar, outputs are occasionally schedule with accuracy, and the job can be defined in detail. In production-centered situation, employees are sometimes assigned to workstations. There are production requirement to keep up with the pace of assembly line, and the employees have little control over how they complete

(The graphic shows the mass production rate of cars by using an assembly line that could have required a larger work force) (Document 4). One method to manufacture a product that became very popular is the assembly line which made the rate of production per person much greater. It required

One of the biggest needs for improvement was the assembly process. Although several changes were made throughout the years, quality and efficiency still fell below expectations. Hinrichs implemented the newly developed assembly which consists of two separate work stations that allowed operators in the adjacent stations to share the expensive balancer machine. These assembly cells were much more efficient as workers were no longer forced to wait for another person or machine in the process. Each cell was built like the other with quick turn set-up which created flexibility in the process while also reducing tooling inventory by almost a half. Now cells

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

“With one workman doing a complete job he could turn out from thirty-five to forty pieces in a nine-hour day, or about twenty minutes to an assembly. What he did alone was then spread into twenty-nine operations; that cut down the assembly time to thirteen minutes” (Ford, 45). Ford had nearly cut the production time of one Ford Model T in half, allowing for more automobiles to be produced in a day. The Ford Motor Company was able to produce 150 Ford Model Ts every day and eventually reached nearly 10,000 Model Ts a day by 1925 (Sandler, 21). Each worker would contribute his skill at assembling a single part of the Model T, and once he completed his task he would pass the Model T on to the next worker in line along the assembly line, similar to the meat production factory in which Ford envisioned his idea. His idea soon caught on and became an idealistic way to mass produce products in America which soon caught on to other industries and continued to inspire the ways Americans would produce goods even to this day.

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.

With assembly-line production, job skills become highly specific to the technology and procedures used in a given plant. Such jobs are considered semi-skilled because they require a specific skill but one that can be learned in a relatively short time... The organizations of production around an assembly line…and other forms of advanced mechanization are organized under scientific management [where]…the worker was to execute diligently a set of motions engineered to ensure the most efficient performance of a given task. (Hodson, R. & Sullivan, T.A., 2008, p. 27)

The third core competency is Boeing’s dynamic assembly line. This was a valuable change to Boeing because it reduced assembly time by 50%, or from 22 days down to 11 days. The planes move 80 feet every shift and lights determine the status of the assembly line. Dynamic assembly lines are costly to imitate and rare due to the size of the plant and the components used in order to pull such a large craft throughout the building. The only substitute of a dynamic assembly line is a static assembly line, and the dynamic one performs much more efficiently.

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.

The process flow chart suggests that the process design of Cadbury World is product-based layout. It is because the equipments are arranged in a logical sequence and the customers pass from one operation to another in a logical sequence. Hence, the operation is very repeatable and predictable.

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