4.2 Layout and flow case study Weldon hand tools, one of the most successful of the European hand tool manufacturers, decided to meve inta woodworking tocis market. Previously its products had been confined io car maintenance, hoene decorating. and general tocls. One of the first groducts which it had decided to manufacture was a general purpose smoothing plane, a tool which smooths and shapes wood. Its product designers devisod a sutable design and the company's work measurement engineors estimated the fime it would take in standard minutes to perform each element in the assembly process. The marketing department also estimated the likely demand for the new product. The sales forecast is shown below. The marketing department was not totaly confident of its forecast, however, a substantial. proportion of demand is likely to be export sales, which we find dificull to predict. But whatever demand does turn out to be., we will have to react quickly to meet a the more we enter these parts of the market, the more we are into impulse buying and the more sales we lase il we dan' supply. This plane was fikely to be the frst of several similar planes. A further model had aready been approved for launch about one year ater this, and two of three further models were in the planning stage, Al the planes were similar, merely varying in length and width. Designing the manufacturing operabon-it has been decided to assemble al planes at one of the company's smaller factory sides where a whoie workshop is unused. Within the workshop there is plenty of room for expansion if demand proves higher than forecast. Al machining and finisting of parts would be performed at the main factory and the parts shipped to the maller sne where they would be assembled at the analable workshop. An idea of the assembly task ean be gained from the ilustration below. Some of the tasks are described as peess operations. These use a simple mechanical press that applies sutficient force for simple bending. riveting or focce fiting operations. This type of press is not an expensive or sophisticated piece of technology. The table below gives the standard time for each elernent of the assembly task. Cost and pricing. The standard costing system at the company involves adding a Cost and pricing-The standard costing system at the company involves adding a 150% (5)overhead charge to the direct labour cost of manufacturing the products, and the product will retail for the equivalent of around 35 in Europe where most retailers will sell this type of product for about 70120% more than they buy it from the manufacturer. Write a formal report to Management by answering the following questions. a) What type of facilities and technology will the company need to buy in order to assemble this product? b) Design a layout for assembly operation (to include the fly press work) including the tasks to be performed at each part of the system. c) How would the layout need to be adjusted as a demand for this and similar (5) products builds up