Case Study: Manufacturing

Case Study: Manufacturing

The following case about a Woodworking Job Shop addresses a manufacturing problem at a small production facility. As you read through the case, think about how you would organize the shop and how the teams of workers move around. What types of problems will Lauren face as the job shop gets more business?

Before we get started, you should know that making a good table is harder than it looks!

Lauren keeps moving around her workshop as you talk. She started woodworking in her garage years ago, making custom furniture for friends and family. She posted some of her work on Facebook, and orders started coming in from the community. Soon she needed to move out of her garage and into a proper workshop, and LoLos Custom Furniture was born.

Today she has three employees, one of which is also a trained woodworker. The other two are experienced apprentices, and the four of them work in teams of two to ensure the work goes smoothly and safely. Looking around the workshop, you notice several power tools and workstations. Lauren shows you around: In the middle of the shop here Ive got a circular saw, a table saw, and a mitre saw. I use the circular saw for rough cuts, the table saw to cut the wood down to workable pieces, and the mitre saw for precision cutting.

Over on the left I have a jointer and a planer. The jointer is for cutting the sides of boards so I can join them together into table-tops, and the planer is for flattening the wood to the desired thickness. You walk over together to the right-side of the shop, and she continues This is the drill press, for making holes in the wood for the hardware (screws, nails or bolts). And at these worktables we do sanding, assembly and staining. The two worktables are cluttered with power-sanders, power drills and stain brushes.

Lauren definitely doesnt need your help making tables, so why are you here you wonder? I put one of my side-tables on Instagram, and my order page blew up! Ive got to make like 300 of these tables, and every day I check, the number keeps going up. It takes hours to make a table, how am I going to make 300?

You look around the shop. Its a little messy, but there is also room to put more tools and worktables. You start discussing options. Lauren thinks the apprentices are ready to lead teams of their own, so she could hire up to 4 new apprentices and have 4 teams working in the shop. She has a few thousand dollars to buy new equipment. You could re-organize the shop if it makes sense.

Lauren walks you through the steps of making the side table. Her time estimates and the tools required are in the table below. She notes making custom furniture the first time takes a lot longer; there is a lot of calculations, measurements and dry fitting. The times she gives you are her estimates for mass-producing one table by a team of two people.

How long do you think it will take LoLos Custom Furniture to make 300 tables? Where should Lauren invest her money to speed up the batch? Do you have any recommendations for organizing the shop?

Step	Task	Task Time (mins)	Dry time	Tool/Area
(1) Rough Cuts	1. Rough cut all wood pieces	5 to 10		Circular Saw
(2) Size and Prepare Table-top boards, skirts and legs	2.1 Saw pieces to size	10 to 20		Table Saw
	2.2 Joint top-boards and table leg halves	10		Jointer
	2.3 Plane boards, skirts and legs	10 to 15		Planer
(3) Rough-fit and Laminate	3.1 Glue top-boards and table leg halves together	15 to 25		Worktable
	3.2 Check fit of other pieces	10		Worktable
DRYING	DRY-1 Allow table-top to dry overnight		8 hours	Drying area
(4) Precise cut pieces	4. Re-measure and carefully cut all pieces to size	5 to 10		Mitre Saw
(5) Final joint and plane	5.1 Re-Joint remaining pieces	5 to 10		Jointer
	5.2 Re-Plane remaining pieces	5 to 10		Planer
(6) Taper legs	6. Plane bottom part of table legs for tapered finish	15		Planer
(7) Drill hardware holes	7. Drill hardware holes	20 to 30		Drill Press
(8) Sanding	8. Power or hand sand, as required	40 to 60		Worktable
(9) Glue and Final assembly	9. Glue and assemble pieces, insert hardware	20 to 40		Worktable
DRYING	DRY-2 Let glue dry after final assembly		30 mins	Worktable (dry in place)
(10) Stain and Finish	10.1 First coat of stain	20 to 30		Worktable
	DRY-3 Let stain dry		1 hour	Drying area
	10.2 Second coat of stain	20 to 30		Worktable
	DRY-4 Let stain dry		1 hour	Drying area

Chapter 6 Case: LoLos Custom Furniture 1. Each case must have answers to the following: a. What is the problem/issue addressed in the case? b. Give at least two pros and two cons to your preferred solution. 2. Answer the question at the end of the case using the data from the case. 3. Create a Gantt chart showing how you would schedule production. a. Create a scheduling activity chart determining which tasks have dependencies and which can be done in parallel. b. Create a scheduling chart for two to four teams of workers working on tables at different stages of completion. 4. Create an assembly line for manufacturing the tables