1.

Process Analysis Consider a production flow line with 3 steps or workstations in series (1 2 3) and ample buffer storage between steps/ stations. Every unit has to flow through all three stations before it is completed. A concrete environment from electronics manufacturing is: station 1 is "board stuffing, station 2 "testing, station 3 tuning. The average unit processing times at the three stations are 4.4 hours, 3.2 hours, and 3.1 hours, respectively. There are 24 working hours in a day, and 5 working days per week. Currently there is a single machine at each station and the current demand is 4 units per day. Demand is expected to grow in the future and then stabilize; peak demand is estimated to be 14 units per day. Demand Growth, Capacity Expansion: By definition, station implied utilization = demand rate / station capacity. As daily demand increases, implied utilization increases and can exceed 100% for high enough demand rate. In such cases when implied utilization exceeds 100%, we have insufficient station capacity and one way to rectify this is to increase station capacity by adding machines to a station. Suppose your goal is to keep implied utilization under 100% at all stations. How many machines will be needed at stations 1, 2, and 3, to meet the peak demand of 14 units / day? Calculate the corresponding process capacity in units/day