I.E.

503: Operations Analysis

Autumn 2015

Tutorial number 3: August 17,2015

Instructor: Mallikarjuna Rao K.S.

T.A.: Akash P.B.

Some basic questions to be remembered

1. What is the Objective or the process?- The objective of any process is the creation of value (or
make profits) and not utilization of every resource employed.
2. How to properly utilize the resources?- We can properly utilize given resources by reducing the
excess utilization at some steps which is not contributing much in increasing value of the process or by
increasing the capacity of bottleneck step.

Some formulas to be used while solving problems related to

estimation and reduction of labor costs
1. Activity time- Time required to complete any activity is called as activity time.
2. Capacity of a resource- We write
Capacity =

N umber of resources
Activity time

(1)

3. Time through an empty worker paced process= Sum of all the activity times.
4. Time to finish X units starting with an empty system- It is given asT ime to f inish X units starting with an empty system = T ime through an empty process+

X 1 units
F low rate
(2)

5. Time to finish X units starting with an empty system in continuous flow process- It is
given asX units
F low rate
(3)

T ime to f inish X units starting with a continuous f low process = T ime through an empty process+

6. Labor content = Sum of activity times with labor

7. How fast the process is creating output is captured by cycle time and we represent it as belowCycle T ime =

1
F low rate

(4)

8. Idle time for a single worker where every activity is staffed with exactly one worker is given asIdle time = cycle time Activity time of the single worker
1

(5)

9. Average labor utilization of labourers used in the process is given asAverage labor utilization =

Labor Content
labor content + Idle time

(6)

Practice questions-

Q-1 Consider the same table as we have discussed in previous tutorial question number 1, and assume that
the wage rate is 10$ per hour. Assume that there is unlimited demand for the product.
a How long does it take the process to produce 100 units starting with an empty system?
b What is the average labor content ?
c What is the average labor utilization ?
d What is the cost of direct labor?
Q-2 Consider the following six tasks that must be assigned to four workers on a conveyor-paced assembly
line. Each worker must perform atleast one task.
Tasks
1
2
3
4
5
6

Time to complete task (Seconds)

30
25
35
40
15
30

The current conveyor paced assembly line configuration assigns the workers in the following way:
Worker 1: task 1
Worker 2: task 2
Worker 3: tasks 3,4
worker 4: tasks 5,6
a What is the capacity of current line ?
b Now assume that tasks are allocated to maximize capacity of the line, subject to the following
conditions:(1) a worker can only perform two adjacent operations
(2) all tasks need to be done in numerical order.
c Now assume that tasks are allocated to maximize capacity of line and that tasks can be performed
in any order. What maximum capacity can be achieved ?