Some tasks and the order in which they must be performed according to their assembly requirements are shown in the following table. These are to be combined into workstations to create an assembly line. The assembly line operates 7 1 2 hours per day. The output requirement is 1,000 units per day.

PRECEDING TIME PRECEDING TIME TASK TASKS (SECONDS) TASK TASKS (SECONDS)

A — 15 G C 11 B A 24 H D 9 C A 6 I E 14 D B 12 J F, G 7 E B 18 K H, I 15 F C 7 L J, K 10

a. What is the workstation cycle time?

b. Balance the line using the longest task time based on the 1,000-unit forecast, stating which tasks would be done in each workstation.

c. For

b, what is the efficiency of your line balance?

d. After production was started, Marketing realized that they understated demand and must increase output to 1,100 units. What action would you take? Be specific in quantitative terms, if appropriate.