Ans:

Given: Rb =11 switches / hour

To hours
W T Wo r b To switches
a. The WIP is given to be w = 5 switches. At this level, one can estimate the TH of a line operating in the practical
worst-case mode to be:

THPWC w/ Wo w1
= (5 / 2.75 +5-1 )*11 = 8.148 switches per hour

Given that the line's TH is 10.5 switches / hour, the line performance is significantly better than PWC and is also
operating pretty close to capacity (i.e., b r 9 switches / hour). Hence, there isn't much potential for a flexible work
system (or cross training).

b. Here the WIP is given to be w = 8 switches. At this level, one can estimate the TH of a line operating in the
practical worst-case mode to be:

THPWC w/ Wo w1
= (8 / 2.75 +8-1 )*11 = 9.025 switches per hour

Given that the line's TH is just 7 switches / hour, the line performance is even inferior to that of PWC. Hence, there
may be some opportunity for performance improvement by employing a worker cross training program.

c. Since workers are fully crosstrained and equipped to assemble the entire switch, they can assemble one switch
every 18 minutes. Thus, a worker can assemble 60min
18min 3.33 switches per hour. Given that workers are now
able to operate in parallel, this leads to a TH rate of 3.333 10 switches / hour with three workers. This is a
(10-9)/9 = 11.11% improvement in capacity. However, this might require duplicate tooling, extra workspace, or
more complicated material handling (in addition to cross-training) to support the needed truly parallel assembly
environment for the operators (i.e., there can be no delays due to common equipment and so on).