Quartex Corporation is considering implementation of a JIT inventory system. The company's industrial engineer recently conducted a study to determine the average number of days spent in each activity of the production process. The following table summarizes her findings:

Production Activity Number of Days

Cutting materials . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Rework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Warranty repairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Quality training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Painting finished goods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Bending materials . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Purchasing raw materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Assembling finished products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Instructions

a. Identify Quartex's value-added production activities.

b. Identify Quartex's non-value-added production activities.

c. Calculate Quartex's total cycle time.

d. Determine Quartex's manufacturing efficiency ratio.

e. Which of the above activities might be reduced or eliminated if Quartex implemented a JIT system?

f. List some of the positive and negative consequences of eliminating some of the non- value-added activities.