1. Atlas Inc. is a toy bicycle manufacturing company producing a five-inch small version of the bike that Lance Armstrong rode to win his first Tour de France. The assembly line at Atlas Inc. consists of seven work stations, each performing a single step. Stations and processing times are summarized here:

• Step 1 (30 sec.): The plastic tube for the frame is cut to size.
• Step 2 (20 sec.): The tube is put together.
• Step 3 (35 sec.): The frame is glued together.
• Step 4 (25 sec.): The frame is cleaned.
• Step 5 (30 sec.): Paint is sprayed onto the frame.
• Step 6 (45 sec.): Wheels are assembled.
• Step 7 (40 sec.): All other parts are assembled to the frame.

Under the current process layout, workers are allocated to the stations as shown here:

• Worker 1: Steps 1, 2
• Worker 2: Steps 3, 4
• Worker 3: Step 5
• Worker 4: Step 6
• Worker 5: Step 7

1. Draw the process flow diagram. Specify the activities, and calculate the activity capacities in finished units/hour. (Note that in a process flow diagram an activity corresponds to a resource; in other words, all tasks performed by the same resource should be grouped as the activity of the resource.) [3']

1. Identify the worker who is the bottleneck in this process. [1']

1. Calculate the capacity of this assembly line, in finished units/hour? [2']

1. What is the new process capacity in finished units/hour, if you add a new worker to the bottleneck activity to work in parallel with the original worker there? [2']

1. Atlas Inc. decides to reallocate the tasks among the workers to achieve maximum process capacity, based on recommendations of a consultant. Assume that if a worker is in charge of two tasks, then the tasks have to be adjacent to each other. Also, assume that the sequence of steps cannot be changed. Can you reallocate the tasks to improve the process capacity? What is the activity time at the bottleneck? [2']

1. Consider the original setup without task reallocation. Atlas faces demand of 42 units/hour. What is the flow time of this process (assuming there is no waiting between the steps)? What is the cycle time of this process? What is the utilization of the bottleneck resource? [3]