Question: A manufacturing process for a widget has four stages and involves 4 parts. In Section A parts 1 and 2 are assembled. In Section B

A manufacturing process for a widget has four stages and involves 4 parts. In Section A parts 1 and 2 are assembled. In Section B parts 3 and 4 are assembled. In Section C the two assemblies are welded together and finally in Section D the widget is painted and packaged. Sections A and B have 5 assembly machines each. Each assembly machine in Section A has an output of 50 parts per hour and each machine in section B has an output of 60 parts per hour. Section C has 8 welding machines each of which has an output of 40 parts per hour and Section D has 6 painting machines each of which has an output of 75 parts per hour. All machines need one worker each to operate. Purchase costs of the parts are follows:
Cost of purchasing part 1 $0.02
Cost of purchasing part 2 $0.05
Cost of purchasing part 3 $0.01
Cost of purchasing part 4 $0.09
Cost of assembly in section A is 0.30/part, cost of assembly in section B is 0.40/part, cost of welding is 0.35/part and cost of painting is 0.10/part.
At present, the manufacturing process runs for 100 hours a month excluding scheduled maintenance times.
a)What is the output of this process? What is the bottleneck? What is the total cost of the process? What is the cost per unit?
b)If we can add another shift to one section in the process to increase its capacity, where would it be? What is the output of this process? What is the new bottleneck? What is the total cost of the process? What is the cost per unit?
c)If on top of doubling the shift as discussed in part (b), if we add four extra assembly machines to Section B and 3 extra welding machines to section C what is the output of this process? What is the bottleneck? What is the total cost of the process? What is the cost per unit?

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