Calculate the Cycle and Production Rate for Single-Machine Robotic Cell

Determine the cycle and production rate for a single-machine robotic cell for an 8-hr shift if the system availability is 85%. Also find out the percent utilization of machine and robot. On average, the machine takes 35 sec. to process a part. The other robot operation times are as follows:

Robot moves the shaft to the lathe                                            1.5 sec

Robot unloads the shaft from the lathe                                       0.5 sec

Robot picks a shaft from the conveyor                                        4.0 sec

Robot loads the shaft onto the lathe                                          1.0 sec

Robot moves the conveyor                                                        1.5 sec

Robot puts the shaft on the outgoing conveyor                            0.5 sec

Robot moves from the output conveyor to the input conveyor        5.0 sec

Description of Solution Approach

The total cycle time of 49 seconds is achieved by adding all of the activities of the robot by including the machining time and other related activities. The production rate is the reciprocal of cycle time. The production rate considering system availability is therefore

Production rate = 1 unit /49 sec. (60 s / min) (60 min / h) (  8 h/ shift) (0.85% uptime)

                       = 500 units per shift

Machine Utilization = Machine cycle time /Total cycle time

                           = 35/49 = 0.7142 or 71.42%

Robot utilization = Robot cycle time /Total cycle time

                        = 14/49 = 0.2857 or 28.57