A company produces specialized smoke detectors for sale to restaurants and schools. The company is developing production plan for the coming year. The company produces the detector, buzzer, detector case and motherboard. The Semiconductor chips are purchased from a chip manufacturer and the batteries are purchased from Eveready. The smoke detector is assembled from a case, a detector, a battery, 2 chips, a buzzer and a motherboard. The case is produced by injection moulding. Cases are manufactured in lots of up to 100 units. Each lot of cases (regardless of the lot size) requires 2 days to produce, dry and cure. The detectors are produced in lots of up to 100 units requiring 4 hours per lot. The boards are manufactured by the company in lots of up to 50 units. Manufacturing one lot of boards requires 4 hours. Buzzers are manufactured in lots of up to 100 units. It takes 2 hours to produce a lot of buzzers. Note that the same equipment is used to manufacture detectors and buzzers. The assembly requires that the detector, buzzer, and 2 semiconductor chips be soldered to the mother board creating a board assembly. Due to the low number of smoke detectors the company manufactures, this is done by hand. A skilled technician can solder 20 board assemblies per hour. Once the boards are complete, they are installed into the case and the wires to connect the battery are attached. A skilled assembler can complete 40 smoke detectors per hour. The finished smoke detector is tested in the smoke box which protects the employees from the effects of smoke. Smoke detectors must be tested one at a time and it requires 30 seconds to test a smoke detector.

MPS Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 200 240 250 300

1. Schedule the work based on the information provided above. Display this using the format used in class. Hint: plan for 100 units each on Wednesday and Thursday of the first week to compensate for lead time. 2. Plan the orders for semiconductor chips for the smoke detectors for 4 weeks using the information below. Assume each shift is 8 hours and work is conducted 5 days per week. Order lead time is 3 working days Chips can be ordered in lots of 50 Maximum allowable inventory 700 Safety stock level 200 Starting inventory 434 Each detector uses 2 chips

3. The company is concerned about its inventory turnover ratio. Starting inventory for last year was 128,000 AED and ending inventory was 142,500 . The cost of goods sold last year was 698,000 . Calculate the inventory turnover ratio and comment on it. Considering the type of product and the information provided in the case, what should the company do if it wants to increase its inventory turnover ratio? a. inventory turnover ratio b. comment on inventory turnover ratio c. plan to improve inventory turnover ratio