Line A Current production capacity is 315 units/day This capacity now has to be increased to 420 units/day. No.

of workers working on Line A are 7

Activity 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Total Activity Time 30 50 40 50 20 10 10 20 10 40 20 30 50 50 10 40 480 Predecessor None None 1 1 2 3 4,5 2 6 9 7 7 9 10 11 8,12

Workstation cycle time = 7*60*60/420 = 60 Minimum number of workstations = 8 Assuming that we require 1 worker per workstation, we then require to hire one extra worker to meet the minimum requirement Considering that we make use of 8 work stations,
Activity 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 No. of tasks followed 12 7 5 5 5 4 4 1 3 1 1 1 0 0 Activity Time 30 50 40 50 20 10 10 20 10 40 20 30 50 50 Predecessor None None 1 1 2 3 4,5 2 6 9 7 7 9 10

15 16 Total

0 0

10 40 480

11 8,12

Following the precedence table, we are able to identify that the distribution across the work stations will be as follows:
Work Station 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Activities 2 1,5 4 3,6,7 8,9,12 10,11 13,15 14,16 Actual Time 50 50 50 60 60 60 60 90 Idle Time 10 10 10 0 0 0 0 -30

Using the Ideal cycle time as 60 seconds, we can see that an extra 30 seconds of work is required at Station 8. This is unfavourable and we will require employees to either work overtime or we could add one more work station to the list. If we add another workstation, we will then require a total of 2 new hires, to meet the demand of 7+2 = 9 work stations, which would need 9 employees.
Work Station 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Activities 2 1,5 4 3,6,7 8,9,12 10,11 13,15 14 16 Actual Time 50 50 50 60 60 60 60 50 40 Idle Time 10 10 10 0 0 0 0 10 20

Hence, hiring of 2 new employees would help Line A achieve its new target

Line B New output required = 210 units/day No. of workers on Line B = 2 Currently, tasks are organized as follows:
Activity a b c d e f g h Total Activity Time 40 50 70 20 50 40 60 30 360 Predecessor None None a a a b,c e d,f,g

Cycle time = 7*60*60/210 = 120 Minimum workstations required = 360/120 = 3 Assuming that 1 worker is need per workstation, we will need to hire 1 additional worker to meet the minimum requirements. Using a precedence table to analyse the process flow for Line B
Activity a b c d e f g h Total No. of tasks followed 6 2 2 1 2 1 1 0 Activity Time 40 50 70 20 50 40 60 30 360 Predecessor None None a a a b,c e d,f,g

Following this precedence table, we are able to see that the distribution of activities across these work stations would be
Work Station 1 2 3 Activities a,c b,d,e f,g,h Actual Time 110 120 130 Idle Time 10 0 -10

Now we can re-assign the tasks on the last workstation and increase the total number of workstations to 4. But this would require hiring of two additional workers, which would not be possible since only 3 workers can be hired in total for Lines A and B, and given that Line A will already be hiring 2 more people, only 1 more can be hired for Line B which is already been taken in to meet the minimum production requirement. Hence, the three employees on Line B will have to work overtime. If we change the cycle time to 130, then we get the equation, 130 = New time required * 60/210 New time required = 455 mins or 7 hours and 35 mins This would imply that due to the inability to introduce an extra worker, all the three workers on Line B will have to work an overtime of 35mins to meet the minimum requirements of Line B.