Personal Statement.
Student’s Name.
Institutional Affiliation.
Abstract.
Manufacturing capacity the measurement of the capacity of a company to provide the necessary services or goods to its customers in the amount required and in the time frame required. It can also be described as the highest possible production rate for an enterprise. Capacity can be evaluated by input, output, or by incorporating input and output.
A company that produces motor vehicles e.g., Ford Motor Company, is expected to manufacture and deliver the vehicles in the demanded quantities to meet the customer demands during the various stages of the life cycle of their products. In order to fulfill the customer demand, the company will be required to have acquired physical facilities, hire workers, training of workers, and the acquisition of raw materials required for production to take place.
Capacity planning is important to aid any company due to the large capital investment made, which requires the management to make very good decisions.
Using a case study of Beck Manufacturing Company, which manufacture vehicle steering gears, this essay will analyze the data in figure 1. Then assess the system’s efficiency as well as decide other process capacities that involve milling, boring, drilling, then assembly.
| Operation. | Number of machines. | Run-time per piece (min). | % Reject rate. |
| Milling. | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| Grinding. | 7 | 3 | 5 |
| Boring. | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Drilling. | 6 | 2.5 | 7 |
Fig.1
In this case study,
- It is important to measure the device capacity as well as other machine core.
- An analysis of where the efforts of the company should be if Beck wants to expand capacity, how much extra the manufacturer can get without causing the bottleneck.
- Explaining ways in which Beck can expand its capacity without buying new equipment.
Being cognizant of the fact that each machine demands that a complete product to comply with one operation and that each facility has a two 8-hour shift per day, which does not include a maintenance shift, which is dedicated to being the third shift.
From the data table fig.1:
The milling capacity.
The capacity of each system and device can be calculated using the data given in the above table.
Since the company has two 8-hour shift per day then;
(8 hours x2 shifts)= 16 hours daily.
In an hour, there are 60 minutes; therefore, in 16 hours a day, there would be ( 60×16)=960 minutes. Therefore, with the milling machine producing 2 minutes runtime per piece, one milling machine can produce
(960/2) =480 units.
A total of 5 milling machines are at work, therefore a total of (480x 5) = 2400 combined units can be produced.
Considering the 3% reject rate in the milling machine, there would be a total of;
(3/100* 2400)= 72.
There are 72 units that would be rejected in regard to the reject rate. And thus the manufacture units would reduce to 2328 units.
The Grinding capacity.
In a day, the grinding machine would also be working for 960 minutes, just like the milling machine. Since the machine has 3-minute run-time, one grinder would produce;
(960/3) = 320 units per machine.
There are a total of 7 machines hence (320×7) = 2240 combined units produced.
The grinding machine has rejected by 112 units. When subtracted from 2240 units, 2128 units remain.
The Boring Capacity.
The boring machine operates for 960 minutes in a day. Given a 1 minute run-time, a total of 960 units are produced in a day. As a result of 3 machines, there would be a total of
(960×3)= 2880 combined units produced.
Considering the 2% rejection rate, the rejected units;
(2/100*2880) = 58 units.
Subtracting the 58 rejected units, then 2822 units remain as manufactured units.
The Drilling Capacity.
The drilling machine is also operating 960 minutes in a day under the two shifts. The machine has 2.5 minute run-time per unit.
(960/2.5) =384 units will be produced per machine.
By taking into account the 6 number of drilling machines in operation, then a total of :
(384x 6) =2304 units.
There are 75 rejected units. A total of 2142 units remain when rejected units are deducted.
The system capacity.
This is the lowest unit produced after the rejection rate has been deducted. The system capacity would thus be the units produced by the grinding machine, which is 2128 units.
To boost the capacity, Beck will consider buying the grinder because this system produces the lowest performance and also helps to increase the run-time per piece by 30 seconds on its machines or at least one.
In order to prevent bottlenecks, Beck needs to acquire the extra capacity by reducing units produced with the lowest center, which is the drilling machine.
In order for the organization to increase its potential without buying new equipment, it has to reduce the rate of rejection. Rejected units should be reduced in each capacity.
References
Anderson, S. W. (2001). Direct and Indirect product mix characteristics of product management decisions and operating performance. “International journal of flexible manufacturing systems,” 13(3), 241.
Katz, J. P. (2004). Manufacturing capacity, market share, and competitiveness Review, 14( 1), 60-71.
Klassen, K. J, & Rohleder, T. R(2002). Demand and capacity management decisions in service: How they impact one another. “International journal of operations and production management.” 22(5), 527.
References.
Soto, A., Berry, T., Quill, M., Brabender, T., & Tim Berry. (2019, December 4). What is the Product Life Cycle? Retrieved from https://articles.bplans.com/what-is-a-product-life-cycle
The 2019 Ford Explorer: A Sixth Generation. (2020, January 9). Retrieved from https://solutionford.com/en/2019-ford-explorer/