Mexicana, a subsidiary of Westover Wire Works, a Texas firm, is a medium-sized producer of wire windings used in making electrical transformers. Carlos Alverez, the production control manager, described the windings to Garcia as being of standardized design. Garcia’s tour of the plant, laid out by process type, followed the manufacturing sequence for the windings: drawing, extrusion, winding, inspection, and packaging. After inspection, good product is packaged and sent to finished product storage; defective product is stored separately until it can be reworked.
On March 8, Vivian Espania, Mexicana’s general manager, stopped by Garcia’s office and asked him to attend a staff meeting at 1:00 P.M.
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1. What recommendations should Ron Garcia make, with what justification? Provide a detailed analysis with charts, graphs, and computer printouts included.
2. Discuss the need for temporary workers in the drawing department.
3. Discuss the plant layout.
SOLUTION:
1. Maximize P 34 W75C 30 W33C 60 W5X 25 W7X
Subject to: 1 W75C 1,400 1 W33C 250 1 W5XC 1,510 1 W7XC 1,116 1 W75C 2 W33C 0 W5X 1 W7X 4,000 1 W75C 1 W33C 4 W5X 1 W7X 4,200 1 W75C 3 W33C 0 W5X 0 W7X 2,000 1 W75C 0 W33C 3 W5X 2 W7X 2,300 1 W75C 150 1 W7X 600
1,100 units of W75C—backorder 300 units
250 units of W33C—backorder 0 units
0 units of W5X—backorder 1,510 units
600 units of W7X—backorder 516 units
Maximized profit will be $59,900. By addressing quality problems listed earlier, we could increase our capacity by up to 3% reducing our backorder level.
2. Bringing in temporary workers in the Drawing