Kase 4: -- Quality Technology (QT) Quality Technology (QT), Inc. was founded by two first-year college students to produce a knockoff real estate board game similar to the popular Parker Brothers game Monopoly. Initially, the partners started the company to produce a board game based on popular local landmarks in their small college town as a way to help pay for their college expenses. However, the game was a great success, and because they enjoyed running their own business, they decided to pursue the business full-time after graduation. QT has grown rapidly over the last couple of years, designing and producing custom real estate trading games for universities, municipalities, chambers of commerce, and recently even some businesses. Orders range from a couple of hundred games to an occasional order for several thousand. QT expects to sell 50,000 units this year and projects that its sales will grow 25% annually for the next five years. Do not use sales to calculate the cycle time. QT's orders are either for a new game board that has not been produced before or repeat orders for a previously produced game. If the order is for a new game, the client first meets with a graphic designer from QT's art department and the actual game board is designed. The board's design can take anywhere from a few hours to several weeks, depending on how much the client has thought about the game before the meeting. All design work is done on personal computers. After the client approves the design, a copy of the computer file containing the design is transferred electronically to the printing department. Workers in the printing department load the file onto their own personal computers and print out the board design on special decals, 19.25 inches by 19.25 inches, using high-quality color inkjet printers. The side of the decal that is printed on is usually light gray, and the other side contains an adhesive that is covered by a removable backing. The printing department is also responsible for printing property cards, game cards, and money. The money is printed on colored paper using standard laser printers. Ten copies of a particular denomination are printed on each 8.5 -inch by 11 -inch piece of paper. Money is then moved to the cutting department, where it is cut into individual bills. The property cards and game cards are produced similarly, the major difference being that they are printed on a material resembling a poster board. In addition to cutting money, game cards, and property cards, the cutting department also cuts cardboard that serves as the substrate for the actual game board. The game board consists of two boards created by cutting a single 1919.25x inch piece of cardboard in half, yielding two boards each measuring 19.25x 19.5 inches. After being cut, game boards, money, and cards are stored in totes in a work-in-process area and delivered to the appropriate station on the assembly line as needed. Due to its explosive growth, the QT assembly line was never formally planned. It simply evolved into the 19 stations shown in Table 1. Questions 1. What type(s) of process strategy (i.e., transformation system(s)), does QT use? 2. What is the cycle time of the 19-station line? What is its efficiency? 3. What is the line's maximum capacity per day, assuming that it operates for one 8-hour shift, less two 15-minute breaks? If QT operates 200 days per year, what is its annual capacity? How does its capacity compare with its projected demand in the next 5 years? Show the projected demand for the next 5 years. 4. Assign tasks to workstations according to the "greatest number of following tasks" approach. 5. Calculate the efficiency of the new nrocess