Chapter 2: Manufacturing and Service Processes

“If line employees are required to work on quality improvement activities, their productivity will suffer.” Discuss.

In an agreement between a supplier and a customer, the supplier must ensure that all parts are within specification before shipment to the customer. What is the effect on the cost of quality to the customer?

Are service operations with a high degree of customer contact more or less difficult to control than those with a low degree of customer contact?

Question: S. L. P. Craft would like your help in developing a layout for a new outpatient clinic to be built in California. From the analysis of another recently built clinic, she obtains the data shown in the following diagram. This includes the number of trips made by patients between departments on a typical day (shown above the diagonal line) and the lettered weights (defined in Exhibit 8.8C) between departments as specified by the new clinic’s physicians (below the diagonal). The new building will be 60 feet by 20 feet. (Assume distances are measured from

the center of the departments and a “straight line” to the other department centers.)

a.Develop an interdepartmental flow graph that considers patient travel trips.

b.Develop a “good” relationship diagram using systematic layout planning.

c.Choose either of the layouts obtained in (a) or (b) and sketch the departments to scale within the building.

d.Will this layout be satisfactory to the nursing staff? Explain.

A layout where the work to make an item is arranged in progressive steps and work is moved between the steps at fixed intervals of time.

Variation that can be clearly identified and possibly managed.

This is the ratio of the time that a resource is activated relative to the time it is available for use.

Question: Dell Computer’s primary consumer business takes orders from customers for specific configurations of desktop and laptop computers. Customers must select from a certain model line of computer and choose from available parts, but within those constraints may customize the computer as they desire. Once the order is received, Dell assembles the computer as ordered and delivers it to the customer. What type of manufacturing process is described here?

How should the line is redesigned to operate at the initial 250 units per day target, assuming that no overtime will be used? What is the efficiency of your new design?

Make a list of pizza delivery process design requirements. Associate with each requirement a measure that would ensure that the process meets the requirement