Introduction: President BC began his career at WC, the world largesst manufacturer of ambulances with only handful of employees. The firm has expanded to 350 and the physical plant has expanded with offices, R&D, final assembly and wiring and other facilities in large building. Due to rapid growth the painting work, aluminium fabrication and body installation into separate and warehousing into another.
Like other manufacturing companies, WC has problem with designing its facility from scratch. The material handling costs are bit higher than the normal layout. The aluminium cutting work is placed adjacent to the body-installation work cell. The product has to be driven across for its completion. The cell construction is flexible, small and movable so that they can be easily rearranged and transported to the assembly line.
Assembly line balancing is one of the key issues facing the company. Balancing the work with the workers is a challenging task and some workers are not able to complete the ambulance in seven days.
To determine: The analytical techniques available to the ambulance manufacturer to address the layout problems.
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Principles Of Operations Management
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