Discussion Questions:

1. Samples of daily bottlenecks include traffic conditions (congestion). The traffic

congestions, the bottlenecks are due to car flow during peak hour (coming to
workplace & going back home). All the car users are using the road at one-time
from various location. The road capacity cannot handle with the overflowing cars
that flooding the road.
2. A change in weather and holiday can easily shift bottlenecks. For instance, in the
raining season, more cars will use he road compared to dry season due to avoiding
from getting wet. More motorcyclist will change to driving a car and resulting in
adding the quantity if cars using the road. In the dry season, more motorcyclists
are using the road, so that the car quantity will be reduced and help ease the traffic
condition. For holiday factor, normally during school holiday, traffic will less
congested due to less car on the road due to housewife not sending the kids to the
school during the same peak hour of 7.30am with workers.
3. Multiple working-hours can help improve the efficiency of the traffic. For instance,
rather than all of the company set the working hours from 8am to 5pm, the time
can be change to 7.30am to 4.30pm or 9am to 6pm. The different working time
can reduce quantity of the overflowing cars at the same time. The cars will go down
the road at a different time phase by phase. The other initiatives that can be
implemented to reduce the traffic congestion are using public transport to lessen
the car quantity on the road, increase lane quantity, re-route the road to avoid
nearing the housing estate, develop highways as alternatives and urge public to
do car-pool or use Grab Var or Uber service and share with colleague to decrease
the traffic congestion.
Problem 2: Melissa’s Photo Studio

a. 5 + max (5, 7) + 20 + 7 = 39 min for group portrait

b. Group portraits is the bottleneck for the whole process. Only 3 group portraits can be
taken per hour.

c. Groups bottleneck is taking the portrait process the bottleneck time is 20 min which
produces a capacity of 60/20 or 3 portraits per hour. Individuals bottleneck is taking the
portrait process which has a processing time of 15 min, which produces a capacity of
60/15 or 4 portraits per hour.

Problem 5: Super Fun Industries

a. Since the plant is open for [(16 hours x 5 days) +8 hours] x 60 mins =5280 mins/week

A-148 takes 6 minutes at Processing Station 1: 5280/6 = 880 units (6 minutes as the
highest time needed to produce one unit of toy A-148.

b. Station 1 is the bottleneck with a utilization of (4850/5280) = 91.9%. Super Fun is able
to produce all the toys demanded.

A-148 B-356 B-457 C-843

WEEKLY
200 250 250 300 TOTAL LOAD
DEMAND
Processing
Time at 6 x 200 5 x 250 0 x 250 8 x 300 4850
Station 1
Processing
Time at 4 x 200 4 x 250 5 x 250 2 x 300 3650
Station 2
Processing
Time at 5 x 200 7 x 250 4 x 250 2 x 300 4350
Station 3
Processing
Time at 3 x 200 0 x 250 10 x 250 1 x 300 3400
Station 4
Problem 8: CKC

a. Traditional Method: Product B has the higher contribution margin/unit

Product A Product B
Price 55 65
Raw and Purchased Parts 5 10
Contribution Margin 55-5=50 65-10=55

Work Station Minutes at Start Mins left after Mins left after Can only make 70
Making 85 Bs Making 90 As As
W 2400 1210 310
X 2400 700 700/10=70
Y 2400 1465 115
85 units of B and 70 units if A (Product B used 1700 minutes at Station X and only 700
minutes left for Product A to be produced.

Product Overhead Raw Mat Labour Purchased Total Costs Revenues

Parts
A 70x2=140 70x3=210 70x55=3850
B 85x5=425 85x5=425 85x65=5525
Totals 3500 565 3 x $6 x 40 635 5420 9375
hrs = 720

Profit=Revenue – Cost

$9375-$5420= $ 3955
 b. Bottleneck-based approach: Product A has the higher contribution margin/unit at
the bottleneck
c. Product A Product B
Margin 50 55
Time at bottleneck 10 minutes 20 minutes
Contribution Margin per minute 50/10= 5 55/20=2.75

Work Station Minutes at Start Mins left after Mins left after Can only make
Making 90 As making 85 Bs 75 Bs
W 2400 1500 310
X 2400 1500 1500/20=75
Y 2400 1050 115
Make 90 units of A that used 900 minutes and only1500 minutes left that can produce 75
units of B.

Product Overhead Raw Mat Labour Purchased Total Costs Revenues

Parts
A 90x2=180 9x3=270 90x55=4950
B 75x5=375 75x5=375 7 85x65=4875
Totals 3500 555 3 x $6 x 40 640 5415 9825
hrs = 720
Profit=Revenue – Cost

$9825-$5415= $ 4410

$4,410- $3,955 = $455 increase using bottleneck method, which is a 12% increase.
Problem 15: Johnson Cogs

D
20
B H
4
20 E 8

A
G J
21
10 20
C
30 I
F
12
15

a. Before calculating the theoretical minimum number of stations, we find the cycle
time as c= (3600 sec/hr) / (60 units/hr) = 60 sec/unit,
Then TM= Σt / c = 160/60 = 2.67 ≈ 3 STATIONS
b. Task assignments using longest work-element time rule:
Station Choice Work- Cumulative Idle Time
Element Time (C=60S)
Time
S1 A 21 21 39
B 20 41 19
S2 D 20 20 40
E 4 24 36
H 8 32 28
S3 C 30 30 30
S4 F 15 15 45
G 10 25 35
I 12 37 23
S5 J 20 20 40

5 Stations are required

 c. Efficiency with 5 workstations:
Efficiency= Σt / nc (100) = 160/ 5x60 x 100 = 53.3%

Problem 19: Calculators

a. Maximum hourly output rate.

Station Total Time per Cycle Idle Time

S1 2.7 0.3
S2 1.5 1.5
S3 3.0 0
S4 2.3 0.7
S5 2.2 0.8
S6 2.4 0.6
Total 14.1 3.9
The full of activity station is S3, which takes 3.0 minutes per unit. Therefore, the maximum

output of the whole line is: (60 min/hr)/ (3.0 min/unit) = 20 units/hr

b. The cycle time would be 3 minutes, allowing no idle time for the “bottleneck” station
S3.
c. Idle time is 3.9 minutes per cycle. Because 20 units are made each hour, the total
idle time lost over a 10-hour shift is: (3.9 min/unit) (20 units/hr) (10 hr/shift) = 780
min/shift, or 13 hr/shift.
d. Efficiency = [(l4.l)/(6)(3)]l00 = 78.3%