The assembly of a transistorized clock radio requires a total of 11 tasks. The task times and predecessor relationships are given in the following table.

I mmediate Task T ime (seconds) Predecessors 1 4 2 38 3 45 4 12 1, 2 5 10 2 6 8 4 7 12 5 8 10 6 9 2 7 10 10 8, 9 11 34 3, 10

a. Develop a network for this assembly operation.

b. What is the minimum cycle time that could be considered for this operation? What is the minimum number of stations that could be used with this cycle time?

c. Using the ranked positional weight technique, determine the resulting balance using a cycle time of 45 seconds.

d. Determine by experimentation the minimum cycle time that results in a four-station balance.

e. What is the daily production rate for this product if the company adopts the balance you determined in part (c)? (Assume a six-hour day for your calculations.) What would have to be done if the company wanted a higher rate of production?