Quality Technology $($QT$),$ Inc. is a medium$-$sized company that two first$-$year college students founded to produce a customized knockoff real estate board game similar to the popular Parker Brothers game Monopoly. Initially, the partners started the company to make a board game based on popular local landmarks in their small college town to help pay for their college expenses. However, the game was a great success, and because they enjoyed running their own business, they decided to pursue the business 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 a couple of hundred games to an occasional order for several thousand. QT expects to sell $40,000$ units this year and projects that its sales will grow $10\%$ annually for the next three years. Do not use sales to calculate the cycle time.

QT$\text{'}$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 a graphic designer from QT$\text{'}$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, a copy of the computer file containing the design is transferred electronically 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, $19\mathrm{.}25$ inches by $19\mathrm{.}25$ inches, using high$-$quality color inkjet printers. The side of the printed decal is usually light gray, and the other side 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 denomination are printed on each $8\mathrm{.}5-$inch by $11-$inch piece of paper. Money 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 $1919\mathrm{.}25$ inch piece of cardboard in half, yielding two boards, each measuring $19\mathrm{.}2519\mathrm{.}5$ inches. After being cut, game boards, money, and cards are stored in totes in a 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

What process strategy does QT use during the design phase and production?

What is the cycle time of the $19-$station line? What is the efficiency of the current process?

What is the line's maximum daily capacity, assuming it operates for an $8-$hour shift, less two $15$ minute breaks? If QT works $200$ days per year, what is its annual capacity? How does its capacity compare with its projected demand in the next $3$ years? Show the projected demand for the next $3$ years.

Assign tasks to workstations according to the "greatest number of following tasks" approach.

Calculate the efficiency of the new process