Line Balancing Case 4: -- Quality Technology (QT) Quality Technology (OT), Inc. is a small to medium-sized company that was founded by two first-year college students. They started the company to produce a customized knockoff real estate board game similar to the popular Parker Brothers game Monopoly. Initially, they created the board game baszed on popular local landmarks in their small college town to help pay for their college expenszes. The game turned out to be a great success, and they enjoyed running their own business so much that they decided to pursue it full-time after graduation. QT has grown rapidly over the last couple of years, designing and producing customed real estate trading games for universities, municipalities, chambers of commerce, and recently even some businesses. Orders range from & couple of hundred games to an occasional order for several thousand. QT's orders are either for a new game board that has not been produced or repeat orders for a previously made game. If the order is for a new game, the client first meets with @ graphic designer from QT's art department and the actual game board is designed. The board's design can take a few hours to several weeks, depending on how much the client has thought about the game before the meeting. All design work is done on personal computers. After the client approves the design, 8 copy of the computer file cantaining the design is transferred glectronically to the printing department. Workers in the printing department load the file onto their personal computers and print out the board design on special decals, 19.25 inches by 19.25 inches, using high-quality color inkjet printers. The side of the printed decal is usually light gray, and the other zide contains an adhesive covered by a removable backing. The printing department is also responsible for printing property cards, game cards, and money. The money is printed on colored paper using standard laser printers. Ten copies of a particular denominatian are printed an each 8.5-inch by 11-inch piece of paper. Maoney is then moved to the cutting department, where it is cut into individual bills. The property cards and game cards are produced similarly, the major difference being that they are printed on a material resembling a poster board. In addition to cutting money, game cards, and property cards, the cutting department also cuts cardboard that serves as the substrate for the actual game board. The game board consists of two boards created by cutting a single 19 x 19.25 x inch piece of cardboard in half, yielding two boards, each measuring 159.25 x 155 inches. After being cut, game boards, money, and cards are stored in totes in @ work-in-process area and delivered to the appropriate station on the assembly line as needed. Due to its explosive growth, the QT assembly line was never formally planned. It simply evolved into the 19 stations shown in Table 1. Questions 1. what type of process dees QT use during the Design phase? What process is most likely used for printing? 2. What is the cycle time of the 19-station line? What is the efficiency of the current process? 3. What is the line's maximum daily capacity if the annual demand is 20,000 units, assuming it operates for an B-hour shift with less than two 15-minute breaks? If QT works 300 days per year, what is its annual capacity? How does its capacity compare with a 10% increase in projected demand in the next three years? Show the projected demand for the next three years. 20,000 units should not be used to calculate the cycle time. Assign tasks to workstations according to the "greatest number of following tasks approach. 5. Calculate the efficiency of the new process. Table 1 Time to Workstation Task(s) Performed at Station Perform Immediate Number Tasks Predecessor 1 Get box bottom and place plastic money tray in box bottom. Take 10 seconds two dice bin and place in box bottom in area not take up by tray. Count out 35 plastic houses and place in box bottom. 35 seconds Count out 15 plastic hotels and place in box bottom. 15 seconds Take one game piece from each of eight bins and place them in 15 seconds box bottom. 5 Take one property card from each of 28 bins. Place rubber band 45 seconds around property cards and place cards in box bottom. 6 Take one orange card from each of 15 bins. Place rubber band 20 seconds around cards and place cards in box bottom. 7 Take one yellow card from each of 15 bins. Take orange cards 35 seconds from box and remove rubber band. Place yellow cards on top of orange cards. Place rubber band around yellow and orange cards and place cards in box bottom. Count out 25 $500 bills and attach to cardboard strip with rubber 30 seconds band. Place money in box bottom 9 Count out 20 $100 bills. Take $500 bills from box bottom and 40 seconds remove rubber band. Place $100 bills on top of $500 bills. Attach rubber band around money and place in box bottom. 10 Count out 25 $50 bills. Take $500 and $100 bills from box bottom 40 seconds 9 and remove rubber band. Place $50 bills on top. Attach rubber band around money and place in bottom box. 11 Count out 50 $20 bills. Take money in box and remove rubber band. 55 seconds 10 Place $20 bills on top. Attach rubber band around money and place in box bottom. 12 Count at 40 $10 bills. Take money in box and remove rubber band. 45 seconds 11 Place $10 bills on top. Attach rubber band around money and place in box bottom. 13 Count out 40 $5 bills. Take money in box and remove rubber band. 45 seconds 12 Place $5 bills on top. Attach rubber band around money and place in box bottom. 14 Count at 40 $1 bills. Take money in box and remove rubber band. 45 seconds 13 Place $1 bills on top. Attach rubber band around money and place in box bottom. 15 Take money and remove rubber band. Shrink wrap money and place 20 seconds 14 in box bottom. 6 Take houses, hotels, dice, and game pieces and place in big. Seal 30 seconds 2,3,4 bag and place bag in box. 17 Place two cardboard game board halves in fixture so that they are 90 seconds 5,7,15,16 separated by 14 in. Peel backing off of printed game board decal Align decal over board halves and lower it down. Remove board from fixture and flip it over. Attach solid blue backing decal. Flip game board over again and fold blue backing over front of game board, creating a 14 in. border. Fold game board in half and place in box covering money tray, game pieces, and cards. 18 Place game instructions in box. Place box top on box bottom. Shrink 30 seconds 17 wrap entire box. 19 Place completed box in carton. 10 seconds 18