23) Customers demand muffalettas at the rate of 20 sandwiches per hour. Use the information in Table 5.4
to determine the maximum efficiency you can achieve balancing this line with an output rate that meets
demand.
A) 84%
B) 100%
C) 76%
D) 92%
24) Customers demand muffalettas at the rate of 20 sandwiches per hour. Use the information in Table 5.4
to determine which tasks are assigned to station 3 in the most efficient balance that meets the desired
output rate exactly.
A) EGIJ
B) EGI
C) CFHE
D) FHEG
25) Customers demand muffalettas at the rate of 24 sandwiches per hour. Use the information in Table 5.4
to determine the minimum number of work stations needed to achieve exactly the output rate of
customer demand.
A) 4
B) 5
C) 6
D) 7
Table 5.5
Balance the following line for an output rate of 3 units per minute.
Work
Element
Time
(sec)
Immediate
Predecessor(s)
A
12
—
B
6
A
C
12
A
D
4
B
E
14
B, C
F
10
E
G
6
D, F
26) Use the information in Table 5.5. How many stations are required?
A) 3
B) 4
C) 5
D) 6
27) Use the information in Table 5.5. What is the balance delay for your solution?
A) less than or equal to 15%
B) more than 15% but less than or equal to 25%
C) more than 25% but less than or equal to 35%
D) more than 35%
Table 5.6
Balance the following line for an output rate of five pieces per hour. The times are in minutes (not
seconds).
Work
Element
Time
(min)
Immediate
Predecessor(s)
A
7
—
B
5
—
C
3
—
D
4
—
E
2
A, B
F
5
C
G
6
D
H
7
E, F
I
11
F, G
J
4
H, I
28) Use the information from Table 5.6. The theoretical minimum number of stations is:
A) fewer than three stations.
B) three stations.
C) four stations.
D) more than four stations.
29) Use the information from Table 5.6. The highest efficiency for a balanced line is:
A) less than 89%.
B) more than 89% and less than 91%.
C) more than 91% and less than 93%.
D) more than 93%.
30) An assembly line has to perform 10 work elements, whose time requirements follow. An operations
analyst has found a solution using some heuristics, as shown in the table. If the cycle time of the line is 90
seconds, what is the efficiency of the assembly line?
A) less than 85%
B) greater than 85% but less than 90%
C) greater than 90% but less than 95%
D) greater than 95%
31) Given the following data about an assembly line and the knowledge that we are trying to attain an
output rate of 40 units per hour, what is the theoretical minimum number of stations?
Work
Element
Time (sec)
1
90
2
80
3
75
4
70
5
90
6
85
A) four or fewer stations
B) five stations
C) six stations
D) seven or more stations
32) The production of a particular product consists of the following work elements. If the cycle time is 4
minutes and the work-element times are as follows, what is the theoretical minimum number of stations?
Work
Element
Time (min)
1
2.4
2
0.5
3
2.1
4
2.0
5
2.7
6
1.1
7
2.0
8
2.7
9
1.6
10
1.4
A) fewer than or equal to three stations
B) four stations
C) five stations
D) more than five stations
33) Fun Vehicles, Inc. makes beach buggies on an assembly line. The total productive time to make one
buggy is 300 seconds. The current line has a 90-second cycle time and consists of four workstations. The
balance delay of this line must be:
A) 0%.
B) greater than 0% but less than 6%.
C) greater than 6% but less than 12%.
D) greater than 12% but less than 18%.
Table 5.7
The Terminal Company is attempting to balance its assembly line of high-voltage electrical connectors.
The desired output for the line is 50 connectors per hour, and the information on the work elements for
this assembly line is as follows.
Work
Elements
Time (sec)
Immediate
Predecessor(s)
A
40
—
B
36
A
C
20
A
D
25
A
E
30
B, C
F
34
D
G
35
E
H
5
F
I
15
E, H
J
40
H
K
38
G, I, J
34) Use the information from Table 5.7 to balance this line. What is the most efficient solution?
A) more than 90%
B) 80 – 90%
C) 70 – 79%
D) less than 70%
35) Use the information from Table 5.7 and the most efficient line balance possible. What work elements
are included in the first station?
A) A only
B) A and B only
C) A and E only
D) A and D only
36) Use the information from Table 5.7, and assume that the most efficient line balance possible has been
achieved. What is the total idle time for an eight hour work day?
A) less than an hour and a half
B) more than 1:30 but less than or equal to 1:45
C) more than 1:45 but less than or equal to 2 hours
D) more than 2 hours
37) ________ is the maximum time allowed for work on a unit at each station.
38) ________ is the amount by which efficiency falls short of 100 percent.
39) Regardless of the number of tasks or their lengths, a line balance efficiency of 100% is possible if the
number of stations is ________.
40) A(n) ________ line is a product line that produces several items belonging to the same family.
46
41) Describe three ways that line balancing and line flow layouts are similar to project management and
three ways that they are different from project management.
Answer: Answers may vary. Line balancing and project management both rely on the completion of
predefined activities in the proper sequence. A line flow may have multiple feeder lines that supply
42) You have been assigned a line balancing task and given a list of tasks, their precedence requirements,
and the time needed to accomplish them. As you begin to balance the line, you realize that you must
make some assumptions. What are these assumptions and which of them has the greatest impact on the
success of your balance?
Answer: One assumption that is being made is that the task times are invariant, unless a mean and
43) How can Theory of Constraints principles be reconciled with line balancing?
Answer: Line balancing strives to assign work to stations such that the amount of work at each station is
equal. Work flows from station to station based on a cycle time that is determined based on the number
44) Consider the following production process. It is trying to meet a market demand of 500 units per
week.
Step 1: Material release schedule
Step 2: Drilling (capacity is 500 units/week)
Step 3: Tapping (capacity is 450 units/week)
Step 4: Grinding (capacity is 600 units/week)
Step 5: Coating (capacity is 400 units/week)
Step 6: Inspection (capacity is 1,000 units/week)
a. Where should buffers be placed?
b. Which resource is the drum?
c. Where should the rope be placed?
d. Which resource is the bottleneck?
e. Which resource is the CCR?
45) Consider the following production process. It is trying to meet a market demand of 250 units per
week.
Step 1: Material release schedule
Step 2: Drilling (capacity is 300 units/week)
Step 3: Tapping (capacity is 150 units/week)
Step 4: Grinding (capacity is 300 units/week)
Step 5: Coating (capacity is 200 units/week)
Step 6: Inspection (capacity is 500 units/week)
a. Where should buffers be placed?
b. Which resource is the drum?
c. Where should the rope be placed?
d. Which resource is the bottleneck?
e. Which resource is the CCR?
46) Balance the assembly line for the tasks contained in the table. The desired output is 240 units per day.
Available production time per day is 480 minutes. What is the efficiency for the balanced assembly line?
Work Element
Time (Sec.)
Immediate
Predecessor(s)
A
40
—
B
45
—
C
55
A
D
55
B
E
65
B
F
40
C, D
G
25
D, E
47) Balance the assembly line for the tasks contained in the table. The desired output is three units per
hour. Available production time per day is eight hours. What is the theoretical minimum number of
stations? What is the efficiency for the balanced assembly line?
Work Element
Time (Min.)
Immediate
Predecessor(s)
A
5
—
B
8
A
C
12
A
D
11
B
E
5
C
F
6
D
G
4
D
H
12
E
I
14
G, H
J
9
F
K
8
I
L
3
K, J
48) Balance the assembly line using the following task information contained in the table. The desired
output is 360 units per day. Available production time per day is 480 minutes. What is the efficiency for
the balanced assembly line?
Work Element
Time (Sec.)
Immediate
Predecessor(s)
A
30
—
B
20
A
C
50
A
D
45
B
E
30
B
F
55
C, D
G
35
D, E
H
40
F
49) Balance the line in order to achieve maximum output for this ten activity product. Determine the
number of units produced in a seven hour work day and the total idle time in hours.
Task
Time (sec)
Predecessor
Z
40
—
Y
30
Z
X
80
Z
W
75
X, Y
V
15
W
T
55
W
S
35
V
R
40
T
Q
10
R
M
40
S, R
50) Balance the line in order to achieve maximum output for this eight–activity product. Then balance the
line to maximize the efficiency of the operation. How do the levels of output (assume an eight-hour day)
and line efficiencies compare?
Task
Time (min)
Predecessor
1
10
—
2
8
Task 1
3
9
Task 1
4
2
Task 2
5
6
Task 3
6
12
Task 4, Task 5
7
7
Task 5
8
5
Task 6, Task 7