A 12-staion transfer-line as shown in Table Q2 has an average downtime of 10 minutes per line stop, and a failure frequency of 0.025 for all stations. The operations manager is of the opinion that this transfer line is not performing as expected; hence there is a decision to improve the line efficiency by introducing a storage buffer with capacity of 20 parts between stations 6 and 7. Using the upper-bound approach, and assuming the downtime is constant, determine: (a) line efficiency and production rate of proposed two-stage configuration and (b) The production engineer also performed the following analysis i) changing the buffer location between stations 3 and 4 and ii) increasing the buffer capacity from 20 to 25 units using the original buffer location between stations 6 and 7. Determine the best solution from parts (a) and (b) with justification. Table Q2 Station Operation Load part 1 2 3 4 5 6 Process time 0.50 min. 1.10 min. 1.35 min. 0.75 min. 1.05 min. 0.80 min. 0.75 min. 0.55 min. 1.35 min. 0.70 min. 0.45 min. 0.90 min. Rough mill top Finish mill top Rough mill sides Finish mill sides Mill surfaces for drill Drill two holes Tap two holes Drill three holes Ream three holes Tap three holes Unload and inspect part 7 8 9 10 11 12