In Problem 16.18, determine (a) the utilizations of each station in the system for the specified production requirements and (b) the maximum possible production rate of the system if the bottleneck station were to operate at 100% utilization.
Problem 16.18
A flexible machining system is being planned that will consist of four workstations phis a part handling system. Station 1 will be a load/unload station. Station 2 will consist of horizontal machining centers. Station 3 will consist of vertical machining centers. Station 4 will be an inspection station. For the part mix that will be processed by the FMS, the workloads at the four stations are: WL1 = 7.5 min, WL2 = 22.0 min, WL3 = 18.0 min, and WL4 = 102 min. The workload of the part handling system WL5 = 8.0 min. The FMS will be operated 16 day, 250 day/yr. Maintenance will be performed during nonproduction hours, so uptime proportion (availability) is expected to be 97%. Annual production of the system will be 50,000 parts. Determine the number of machines (servers) of each type (station) required to satisfy production requirements.