Question: The required production rate = 50 units/hr for a certain product whose assembly work content time = 1.2 hr of direct manual labor. It is to be produced on a production line that includes four automated workstations Because the automated stations are not completely reliable, the line will have an expected uptime efficiency = 90%. The remaining manual stations will each have one worker. It is anticipated that 8% of the cycle time will be lost due to repositioning at the bottleneck station. If the balance delay is expected to be d = 0.07, determine:
(a) the cycle time;
(b) number of workers;
(c) number of workstations needed for the tine;
(d) average manning level on the line, including the automated stations; and
(e) labor efficiency on the line.