Reference no: EM133564815

Question

A small manufacturing company produces custom-made wooden furniture. The company's production process involves several steps, including design, material procurement, cutting, assembly, finishing, and shipping. Recently, the company has been facing some challenges in its operations, and below you can find some of the details about their challenges: Workers frequently move materials and products between different workstations and storage areas, which can be inefficient and time-consuming. Also, they frequently have to search for tools or materials, which leads to unnecessary motion and inefficiencies in the process. There are instances where workers or machines sit idle before they can start a next task as material is not yet available. The company tends to produce furniture in large batches, even when there is no immediate demand for certain designs. There is a significant amount of work-in-progress (WIP) parts at various stages of production. This ties up capital and can result in storage costs and potential damage to unfinished products. The finishing stage involves excessive sanding and polishing, even on parts of the furniture that won't be visible in the final product. Some workers have skills in multiple areas of production, but they are often assigned to specific tasks and get bored or.