alculate Lead Time

Flint Fabricators Inc. machines metal parts for the automotive industry. Under the traditional manufacturing approach, the parts are machined through two processes: milling and finishing. Parts are produced in batch sizes of 80 parts. A part requires 3 minutes in milling and 8 minutes in finishing. The move time between the two operations for a complete batch is 9 minutes.

Under the lean philosophy, the part is produced in a cell that includes both the milling and finishing operations. The operating time is unchanged; however, the batch size is reduced to 4 parts and the move time is eliminated.

Determine the value-added, non-value-added, and total lead times, and the value-added ratio under the traditional and lean manufacturing methods. If required, round percentages to one decimal place.

	Traditional Philosophy		Lean Manufacturing Philosophy
Value-added time	fill in the blank 1	min	fill in the blank 2	min
Non-value-added time	fill in the blank 3	min	fill in the blank 4	min
Total lead time	fill in the blank 5	min	fill in the blank 6	min
Value-added ratio (as a percent)	fill in the blank 7	%	fill in the blank 8	%

Question 2

Reduce Setup Time

Hammond Inc. has analyzed the setup time on its computer-controlled lathe. The setup requires changing the type of fixture that holds a part. The average setup time has been 135 minutes, consisting of the following steps:

Turn off machine and remove fixture from lathe	10	minutes
Go to tool room with fixture	15
Record replacement of fixture to tool room	18
Return to lathe	20
Clean lathe	15
Return to tool room	20
Record withdrawal of new fixture from tool room	12
Return to lathe	15
Install new fixture and turn on machine	10
Total setup time	135	minutes

a. Why should management be concerned about improving setup time?

A

longshortlong

setup will result in a

smalllargelarge

production batch, which

decreasesincreasesincreases

work in process inventory and

decreasesincreasesincreases

lead time.

SmallLargeLarge

work in process inventory commits working capital that could be used for other purposes. Long lead times

decreaseincreasedecrease

the companys ability to respond to changes in customer demand.

b. Which of the following are the ways to improve Hammond Inc.'s setup time?

1. limit the trips to the tool room to one round trip, rather than two.
2. change the location of the fixtures to reduce lathe setup time.
3. eliminate the tool room and instead locate the tools in a visible location near the lathe.
4. change the entire lathe room layout, so that fewer steps are required to turn the lathe on and off, as well as clean the lathe and change fixtures for the lathe.
5. All of these are ways to improve setup time.

abcdee

c. How much time would be required for a setup, using your suggestion in (b)? $fill in the blank 8 minutes

Feedback

a. Review the relationship of batch size to setup effort spent preparing an operation or process for a production run.

b. Recall that a setup is the effort spent preparing an operation or process for a production run. If setups are long and costly, the batch size for the related production run is normally large in order to spread this cost.

Learning Objective 1.