Beck Manufacturing and Plant Capacity

Beck Manufacturing and Plant Capacity

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BUS644: Operations Management (NAK1512A)

Introduction

Beck Manufacturing and Plant Capacity produces steering gears for auto manufacturers.

The President of Beck Manufacturing and Plant Capacity, Al Beck, wants to find out the capacity of the facility. The business is a product layout that generates substantial numbers of almost identical products. The operation includes assembling, boring, drilling, grinding and milling. Each completed product demands one operation on each type of machine. The Manufacturing and Plant facility runs two 8-hour shifts per day, including a third shift for maintenance. The industrial engineering unit has given the below data on present operations:

The purpose of this paper is to compute the capacity of each machine center and the capacity of the system using the data above. I will also discuss where the President, Mr. Beck should target the efforts of the plant if he came to a conclusion to increase capacity and how much added capacity he can get without creating another operation to become the bottleneck, and without buying new equipment

Capacity of Boring

The capacity of boring’s run time is 1 minute per piece. This means that in 960 minutes, 960 units can be produced by each machine. There are a total of 3 machines, which equals 2,880 units. Boring consists of a percent reject rate, which equals 58 units and if 58 units are subtracted from the 2,880 units produced by the 3 machines this calculation will give a new total of 2,822.

Capacity of Milling

To solve the capacity, it is imperative to simplify the operating time into minutes. The plant runs two 8-hour shifts, which equals16 hours in a day and with 16 hours a day, 60 minutes in an hour equals a total of 960 minutes. Milling’s run time per piece is 2 minutes and that equals 1 machine producing 480 units per machine. With a total of 5 machines, a total of 2,400 units can be produced by all 5 machines. There is a 3 percent reject rate, which will be approved or rejected per standards. The reject rate of 3 percent equals 72, which reduces the total to 2,328.

Capacity of Grinding

Grinding’s run time is 3 minutes per piece; this means that in a total of 960 minutes each machine can produce 320 units. There are a total of 7 machines, which equals 2,240 units and grinding consists of a 5 percent reject rate, which equals 112 units. By subtracting the 112 units from the 2,240 units produced by each machine this will give a new total of 2,128.

Capacity of Drilling

Drilling’s run time is 2.5 minutes per piece, which means that in a total of 960 minutes each machine can produce 384 units. There are a total of 6 machines, which equals 2,304 units and drilling consists of a 7 percent reject rate, which equals 162 units. By subtracting the 162 units from the 2,304 units produced by each machine, this calculation equals a total of 2,142 units.

Capacity of the System

Each completed product needs one operation on each type of machine to be considered a finished product. Based on this information, the lowest number of units after the reject rate should be considered, which are 2,128 units produced by grinding. If additional units are unable to be produce, this means that the capacity will not allow for additional products to go thru the completed cycle. The total capacity of the system computes to 2,128 units.

Focus on Expanding Capacity

If, the President, Mr. Beck decides to expand the capacity of the system, he can install additional machines for grinding which will equal the output of the other machines. Another way to increase the capacity would be to explore ways to improve/increase the run time per unit. The volume of units will go up if one machine is capable of doing 1 unit 30 seconds faster. The added capacity that the company can get without provoking another operation to become the bottleneck would be restricted to the number of units produced by the subsequent lowest center which would be the drilling at 2,142 units.

Expanding Without New Equipment

In the best interest of the plant, the best way for Mr. Beck to expand capacity without buying new equipment is to reduce the rejection percentage of the production caused by the company. When the reject rate goes decreases the number of units produced will increase.

Conclusion

Concluding, locating the capacity of the system is equivalent to the lowest output produced by all of the machines based on the information that each unit must go thru all the machines once to in order to be considered completed. It is very important to increase capacity by being productive and decreasing the reject rate. Adding new equipment appears to be the best and less complex answer to maximizing production while also keeping in mind that adding too many machines will result in a decrease in capacity. The decision that Mr. Beck should make and a decision that any company should make should be it’s more important to expand capacity in-house or purchase additional machines to increase capacity. If there is no demand, then of course, additional machines will have an outcome of a significant loss.

References:

Vonderembse, M.A. & White, G.P. (2013).Operations Management San Diego, CA

Bridgepoint Education, Inc.