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Chapter3 4

This document summarizes chapters 3 and 4 from an operations management textbook. Chapter 3 discusses how product design can provide a competitive edge through quickly bringing ideas to market, better satisfying customer needs, and being easier to manufacture and use. Chapter 4 covers facility layout types appropriate for different contexts like grocery stores, home construction, and universities. It also provides an example problem calculating patient movement flows to design an efficient medical clinic layout. The document concludes with two problems analyzing an assembly line for care packages to determine staffing needs, line efficiency, and maximum output over 4 hours under different volunteer availability assumptions.

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Nyan Lynn Htun
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
16 views

Chapter3 4

This document summarizes chapters 3 and 4 from an operations management textbook. Chapter 3 discusses how product design can provide a competitive edge through quickly bringing ideas to market, better satisfying customer needs, and being easier to manufacture and use. Chapter 4 covers facility layout types appropriate for different contexts like grocery stores, home construction, and universities. It also provides an example problem calculating patient movement flows to design an efficient medical clinic layout. The document concludes with two problems analyzing an assembly line for care packages to determine staffing needs, line efficiency, and maximum output over 4 hours under different volunteer availability assumptions.

Uploaded by

Nyan Lynn Htun
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Operations management

Individual Assignment 2: Chapter 3 and Chapter 4


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Chapter 3

1) Describe the strategic significance of design. How can organizations gain a competitive edge with product or
service design?

Solution:
A firm’s products and services define its customers, as well as its competitors. New products and services often
involve new markets and require new processes. The design process is the most obvious driver of change in an
organization. It capitalizes on a firm’s core competencies and determines what new competencies need to be
developed. Organizations can gain a competitive edge through designs that (1) bring ideas to the market quickly, (2)
do a better job of satisfying customer needs, and (3) are easier to manufacture, use, and repair than existing products.

2) Select a product that you are currently using and discuss about the characteristics of the design of this product.
What are points that you satisfy, and you don’t satisfy. For the dissatisfaction points, please explain how to
improve them.

Solution:
Student responses will vary.

Chapter 4

1) What type of layout(s) would be appropriate for:


a. A grocery store?
b. Home construction
c. Electronics assembly?
d. A university?

Solution
(a) process, (b) fixed-position (c) product, (d) primarily process

2) Marillion Hospital is building a satellite clinic in the Cold Harbor area of Richmond. The design committee
has collected data on patient movement from similar facilities in hopes of making the new facility more efficient
and customer-friendly.

From/To Patient Movement


1 2 3 4 5 6
1. Intake - 50 10 25 10 100
2. Exam room - 30 40 20 20
3. Radiology 40 - 20 60 40
4. Laboratory 10 10 - 10 40
5. Orthopedics 30 20 10 - 30
6. Waiting room 40 60 50 20 50 -

a. Calculate the nonadjacent loads for the initial layout.


b. Which pairwise exchanges of department would most improve the layout? Calculate the nonadjacent
loads of the revised layout.
Solution (a and b)

3) Design a layout on 2x3 grid that satisfies the preferences listed here.

Solution
4) The Henry Street Mission uses volunteers to assemble care packages for needy families during the holiday
season. The mission would like to organize the work as efficiency as possible. A list of tasks, task times, and
precedence requirements follows:
Task Precedence Time (Mins)
A - 6
B A 3
C B 7
D B 5
E C, D 4
F E 5
a. If the mission wants to complete a care package every 10 minutes, how many volunteers should be
called in? Balance the line and calculate the efficiency. How many packages can be assembled in a four-
hour period?
b. Suppose that volunteers are plentiful. Balance the line to maximize output. What is the efficiency of the
line? How many care packages can be assembled in a four-hour period?

Solution

If volunteers are plentiful, set the cycle time to the maximum task time.

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