In Problem 19.18, determine
(a) The utilizations of each station in the system for the specified production requirements, and
(b) What is the maximum possible production rate of the system if the bottleneck station were to operate at 100% utilization?
Problem 19.18
A flexible machining system is being planned that will consist of four workstations plus a part handling system. Station 1 will be a load/unload station. Station 2 will consist of horizontal machining centers. Station 3 will consist of vertical machining centers. Station 4 will be an inspection station. Four the part mix that will be processed by the FMS, the workloads at the four stations are as follows: WL1 = 7.5 min, WL2 = 22.0 min, WL3 = 18.0 min, and WL4 = 10.2 min. The workload of the part handling system WL5 = 8.0 min. The FMS will be operated 16 hours per day, 250 days per year. Maintenance will be performed during nonproduction hours, so uptime proportion (availability) is expected to be 97%. Annual production of the system will be 50,000 parts. Determine the number of machines (servers) of each type (station) required to satisfy production requirements.