M2 L3 X-Opoly Inc. Case Report Vserion PDF

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Supply Chain management operations X-opoly case study...

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SCM 842 – Spring 2019 March 31, 2019 Question 1: What kinds of transformation systems does X-Opoly use? The kinds of transformation systems X-Opoly utilizes are flow shop and job shop. First, XOpoly’s manufacturing process operates as a flow shop because the company produces a high volume of a small variety of outputs, which are either the board game X-Opoly invented, or a special request board game designed by a customer. X-Opoly’s computer designing of the board games is the most complicated part of the board game production process. But, once designing the board game is complete, X-Opoly must only, print, cut, assemble, and then package the manufactured board game—all steps that are simple and likely to be automated. From the reading, it was unclear whether X- Opoly’s cutting and packaging processes involved specialized automated equipment, but considering their daily output of 200 boards games, we find it hard to imagine that cutting and packaging is done manually. Although, it was clear from the description of X-Opoly’s operations in the reading that the designing and printing processes included specialized computers, software, and printers, and that after the board and some of the pieces were cut, the manufacturing process functioned as an unplanned assembly line, which further suggests a flow shop transformation element used by X-Opoly. Some other characteristics of X-Opoly that suggest the company uses a flow shop system, are that their board games are low cost per unit due to its specialized high-volume printers, cutting, and packaging process; bulk purchasing of supplies and materials; lower labor rates because most work requires very little skill; and low in process inventories. Because X-Opoly’s machines are specialized and the assembling of the games requires very simple sorting and counting techniques, labor is cheap and paced at a constant continuous rate. As for X-Opoly’s job shop transformation element, the company offers one board game that is its signature product, but the company can also offer custom games per the customer’s request, which opens up the variety of outputs to more than one or two products. So, we would not say that X-Opoly has a wide variety of outputs, but the company is flexible and can create new and unique board games if need be which adds a little job shop element to the company’s processes. Furthermore, X-Opoly’s manufacturing processes do consist of a grouping of staff and equipment according to function. Moreover, there can be at times, some custom design work that is involved in producing X-Opoly’s outputs, therefore suggesting a minor job shop element in the company’s processes. Question 2: What would be involved in switching the assembly line over from the production of one game to the production of another? X-Opoly produces custom board games in a job shop. This transformation system is ideal for XOpoly because it allows for great amount of flexibility in what is produced and how it is produced. Switching the assembly line over from the production of one game to the production of another would require little change to the assembly line. Custom board game production goes through four phases: design, print, cut, assemble. At the design phase, if the game is new, the customer must give requirements to the graphic designer. The design of the game goes through an approval process with the customer before it is released to the printing department. If the game is not new, and no changes are to be made to design, the

SCM 842 – Spring 2019 March 31, 2019 file is sent directly to the printing department, where individuals load the files onto their own computers for printing. There are two breakpoints in the process where it makes sense to switch the assembly line from production of one game to another and would not require extensive setup/teardown. One is after design, and one is after cutting. Switching the assembly line post design board production is ideal because the file is required for printing, cutting, and assembly. A new job can be sent to the printer to generate the board decals, property cards, game cards, and money. The output is then transferred to the cutting department where the items are cut and placed in totes. The disadvantage to this approach is costly. Assembly line people could remain idle for the time it takes to print and cut the game pieces unless there is WIP already at the end for them to assemble. The second breakpoint is after cutting, assuming there is WIP before the assembly line. The assembly line workers would simply finish any assembly already in the pipeline, which would be 10 minutes multiplied by the number of units and locate a WIP tote of different game. The assembly would start with the new game. Question 3. What is the cycle time of the 19-station line? What is its efficiency? X-Opoly is poised to sell 50,000 board games during 2019 in 250—7 hour work days. Demand = 50,000 / 250 = 200 board games per day Cycle time = available work time/demand • •

7 hours * 60 min / 200 board games per day = 420/200 = 2.1 min = 126 seconds Cycle time = 2.1 min

Time required to produce 1 output = 10.83 min = 650 seconds Efficiency = output/input = total task time / (# of stations) * cycle time = 650 seconds / 19 * 126 seconds = 650 seconds / 2394 seconds = .272 * 100 = 27.2% Efficiency = 27.2 %

Question 4: On#the#basis#of#the#task#descriptions,#develop#a#precedence#graph#for#the# assembly#tasks.#Using#these#precedence#relationships,#develop#a#list#of#recommendations# for#rebalancing#the#line#in#order#to#improve#its#performance.#

SCM 842 – Spring 2019 March 31, 2019

Precendence Graph X-Opoly In order to rebalance the line, I would start by grouping like tasks together. Tasks like counting hotels, houses, dice and game pieces could be grouped together. The whole thing of counting the money, then banding it at each station is also eating up valuable time. If we eliminate banding all together it would cut task time out of stations 8-14 and station 15 given, they have to un-band the money and shrink wrap everything. The last recommendation I have is to not utilize the box at every station, trays could be utilized, and boxes could be moved to task 17 that has the station placing the game board in the box as well. This would allow stations to work simultaneously and combine trays into the game box when all preceding tasks of 17 are complete. Question 5: What#would#be#the#impact#on#the#line's#efficiency#if#your#recommendations# were#implemented?...