Facility Planing

2.4 Doing facilities planning for a manufacturing facility is a positive exercise for a

company in terms of its competitiveness with its competitors. The production flow can be

examined by simulation and potential bottlenecks can be smoothed. Also a facilities plan

for a manufacturing facility outlines the skill levels of employees required to operate the

equipment on the manufacturing floor and it provides for the latest and best equipment to

make the product. Companies that do not engage in facilities planning end up having

uneven production flows improper labor skills and either too much or too little labor on

the floor and outdated equipment that must be heavily maintained. These problems as

well as many others that could be eliminated by facilities planning cause companies to

lose their competitive edge over their competitors.

3.9 Part X requires machining on a milling machine (operations A and B are

required). Find the number of machines required to produce 3500 parts per week.

Assume the company will be operating 5 days per week, 18 hours per day. The

following information is known:

Operation Standard Time Efficiency Reliability Scrap

A 2 min. 95 % 95% 2%

B 4 min. 95% 90% 5%

note: The milling machine requires tool changes and preventive maintenance

after every lot of 400 parts. These changes require 30 min.

OB = 2500 parts per week

I B =

1 0.05

2500

−

=2632 parts per week

O A =I B

I A =

1 0.02

2632

−

=2686 parts per week

H= available time – maintenance

Operation

A

Operation

B

2% 5%

I A O A

O B

available time = 5days/week*18 hours/day*60 min/hour = 5400 min/week