What is a customer order decoupling point? Why is it important?
BUS3500 Operations Management _ Assignment 3
Hanson College _ Spring 2021 1
Unit 4+5: Manufacturing Process
Q1. Short Answers
1. What is a customer order decoupling point? Why is it important?
2. Why is it that reducing moves, delays, and storages in a manufacturing process is a good thing?
Can they be completed eliminated?
3. What does the product-process matrix tell us? How should the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant be
structured?
4. What is the objective of assembly-line balancing? How would you deal with the situation where
one worker, although trying hard, is 20 percent slower than the other 10 people on the line?
Q2. The A call center employs 1,000 agents. Every month 50 employees leave the company, and 50 new
employees are hired.
a. How long on average does an agent work for this call center?
Suppose the cost of hiring and training a new agent is $1,000. The manager of this call center believes
that increasing agents’ salaries would keep them working longer at the company. The manager wants
to increase the average time that an agent works for the call center to 24 months, or two years.
b. If an agent works for the call center for 24 months on average, how much can the company save
on hiring and training costs over a year? Hint: first determine the current annual cost for hiring
and training, then determine the new annual cost for hiring and training.
Q3. An assembly line is to operate eight hours per day with a desired output of 240 units per day. The
following table contains information on this product’s task times and precedence relationships:
a. Draw the precedence diagram.
BUS3500 Operations Management _ Assignment 3
Hanson College _ Spring 2021 2
b. What is the workstation cycle time required to produce 240 units per day?
c. Balance this line using the longest task time.
d. What is the efficiency of your line balance, assuming it is running at the cycle time from part (b)?
Q4. For each of the following variables, explain the differences (in general) as one moves from a work-
center to an assembly line environment.
a. Throughput time (time to convert raw material into product).
b. Capital/labor intensity.
c. Bottlenecks.
Q5. How would you characterize the most important difference for the following issues when comparing a
work-center (job shop) and an assembly line?
