Case Study Questions
THEORY OF CONSTRAINS July 22, 2013 Authored by: Karan Goenka
Q 1. What steps you will take to reduce waiting time? M/c waiting for raw material ◦ Availability of raw material The organization can adopt various techniques such as cyclic inventory or can bring suppliers close by (e.g. JIT)
◦
Reduce the transportation time between inventory warehouse and the machine The Location of the warehouse should be near to the warehouse They can adopt JIT wherein suppliers deliver the raw material as when required.
◦
Increase efficiencies of the earlier process A finished good for one process can be the raw material for another process, therefore improving efficiencies of earlier process will help reduce the waiting time of the other process for the input as raw material
◦ ◦
M/c waiting for operator Availability of Skilled Labour More skilled labours can be bought in for a machine to reduce the setup time
◦
Dedicating an operator to a bottleneck Dedicating a operator to a bottleneck will reduce the idle time of a machine This will also help in processing the raw materials faster than what it was been processed earlier The setup time will reduce as the operator can be available as and when the machine needs it.
◦
Break Time The Break time should be synchronized with the process time of the machine which will provide a constant check on the availability of an operator at the machine at the end of a process.
◦
M/c waiting for tools/dies Unavailability of Tools Insufficient amount of tools (In case where the tools is used at more than one machine) Assign a dedicated tool for the machine so that there is no lag in any other machine reducing waiting time.
Maintenance of the tools There should be timely check on the machines for their maintenance and repairs. Maintenance schedules should be such that it do not disturb the production process.
Q 2. What actions