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

Case an American Tragedy: How a Good Company Died?, Do you think that inade...

Do you think that inadequate strategic planning was a factor that resulted in the company''s asking for trade protection?

Explain and identify the product subject to recall, The paper must be four ...

The paper must be four to five pages, excluding the title page and references page Address all of the following parts of this assignment 1. Visit the Consumer Product Safety

Explain consumption behaviours which you consider unethical, Compile a list...

Compile a list of consumption behaviours which you consider unethical. For each behaviour listed, explain why you view it as wrong

Explain common-size financial statement, What is a "common-size financial s...

What is a "common-size financial statement" and how would it assist you to manage your business successfully?

Explain how they demonstrate their leadership characteristic, Provide two e...

Provide two examples of current leaders and describe how they demonstrate their leadership characteristic. What separate these characteristics from management techniques? How effec

Describe the importance of correctly stating the objective, Explain the imp...

Explain the importance of correctly stating the objective function and constraints in linear optimization problems. Provide a few examples of the problems that could result if the

Explain what is framing and how frames work in negotiation, What is framing...

What is framing and how frames work in negotiation. Describe an example

Find annual carrying costs, Garden Variety Flower Shop uses 740 clay pots a...

Garden Variety Flower Shop uses 740 clay pots a month. The pots are purchased at $2 each. Annual carrying costs per pot are estimated to be 30 percent of cost, and ordering costs a

Describe who are the stakeholders in this case, YP11-6 Giant Airlines opera...

YP11-6 Giant Airlines operates out of three main "hub" airports in the United States. Recently Mosquito Airlines began operating a flight from Reno, Nevada, into Giant's Metropolis

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