Line Balancing, Operation Management

Assignment Help:
#What do you understand by “line balancing”? What happens if balance doesn’t exist?uestion..

Related Discussions:- Line Balancing

Explain bottom-up and top-down estimating approaches, What are the differen...

What are the differences between bottom-up and top-down estimating approaches? Determine advantages and disadvantages for using each approach. Under what conditions would you prefe

Explain the nature of leadership and relate leadership, A: Describe the nat...

A: Describe the nature of leadership and relate leadership to management. B: what are the distinctions between management and lead?

forecast of inflation, Aman work at the Bank, to help customers, including...

Aman work at the Bank, to help customers, including retired people, to plan for the future.  Often the value of pensions does not keep up with inflation.  Hence retired people requ

Explain objectives for a crm solution be, Once the organization understands...

Once the organization understands its customer and its market, it can now move on to planning, developing, and implementing a CRM solution. What would some of your objectives for a

Explain arbitration as a quasi judicial process, Examine arbitration as a q...

Examine arbitration as a quasi judicial process in which parties agree to submit unresolved disputes to a neutral third party for binding settlement. Explain the labor- contractual

Explain increased rigidity in organizational culture, According to the expe...

According to the experts, the 2020 organizations will possess one of the following characteristics: a. Heavily analytical approaches to problem-solving b. Increased rigidity in org

Calculate the percent change in the labor ratios, A department employs 3 ty...

A department employs 3 types of workers: laborers earning $5 per hour, machine operators earning $9 per hour and maintenance workers earning $16 per hour. For a certain job over 2

What is the average number of customer waiting, Andrew the barber owns a fo...

Andrew the barber owns a four chai shop. Andrew estimated that each barber would take an average of 30 min to give a haircut in an exponentially distribution fashion. Customers arr

Define conditions which exist globally that are contributing, Please answer...

Please answer both questions fully to have points awarded, Thanks! Decreasing the Incidence of CVD" Please respond to the following: 1. Propose the steps that might be taken

Daina

2/12/2013 7:08:07 AM

Line Balancing
- Line: an assembly line composed of various work stations, at which particular operations are performed.

- To work efficiently, with no work pile-ups between stations, the line must be balanced, for example work must get through each workstation in roughly similar amount of time.
Goals:
1. To meet production goals,
2. Maximize output.

General Approaches to Line Balancing Technique
1. Estimating number of operators for a specific number of stations,
2. Work element sharing: grouping “activities” each work elements into “stations” or jobs performed by a single person (occasionally multiple people work in concert at a single station or machine)

Diana

2/12/2013 7:09:42 AM

Write your Aim – It only applies to assembly lines. It aims at minimizing the idle time along the line by dividing work equally among members. Tasks are grouped in such a way that they have equal time requirement.

When is line Balancing is Done

· When the line is initially set-up

· When the changes are made in process / desired output rate

Difficulty associated with LB – Not feasible to combine certain activities

Necessity of line balancing – In absence of line balancing, it might create morale problem for workers at slower station who work continuously

(Draw Precedence Diagram)

Cycle Time = Longest time at the any of the work element OR (Operating Time / Desired Output Rate)

CT = 1 min

(In Question, it may be given as 480 units per 8-hour day, Hence CT = 8*60 min per day / 480 units per day = 1 minute per cycle)

Theoretical Minimum number of workstations, Nmin = Sum of time at all WS / CT = (0.1+1.0+0.7+0.5+0.2) / 1.0 = 2.5 = 3 Workstations

Rules in Assigning task

1. Choose new WS if

a. All preceding tasks are completed

b. Task Time is less than or equal to Time Remaining

2. Always first assign the task with greatest task time to a workstation, in case there is a choice between work elements. In case task time is same, choose the element having greatest number of followers.

3. For every new WS, always start with cycle time

WS


Time Remaining


Eligible


Assign Task


Revised Time remaining


WS Idle Time

1


1.0


A,C


C(0.7)


0.3 (1.0-0.7)




0.3


A


A(0.1)


0.2


0.2

2


1.0


B


B(1.0)


0


0

3


1.0


D


D(0.5)


0.5




0.5


E


E(0.2)


0.3


0.3

Total Idle time = 0.2 + 0.3 = 0.5 minutes

Balance Delay in % (% of idle time on assembly line) = Total idle time * 100/ (Actual No of WS * Cycle Time)

=0.5*100/(3*1) = 16.7%

Line efficiency = 100% - Balance delay% = 83.3%

Other considerations in line-balancing

1. Technical considerations –

a. Skill requirement of different tasks - If the skill requirements of tasks are quite different, it may not be feasible to place the tasks in the same workstation

b. Incompatible tasks - If the tasks themselves are incompatible (example – Use of fire and flammable liquids), it may not be feasible even to place them in stations that are near to each other

2. Variable tasks by human –

a. Reasons for variation are Fatigue, boredom and failure to concentrate on the task at hand.

b. Absenteeism can also affect the balance

Other approaches to achieve smooth flow of production

1. Make parallel workstations – They increase the workflow and provide flexibility

2. Cross-train workers / Dynamic line balancing – It helps workers perform more than 1 task. In case they are idle, they can assist other workers who are temporarily over-burdened

3. Mixed model line - Design a line to handle more than 1 product on the same line. The different products are similar in many ways and hence, the process applied on them is also samemessage here..

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd