Operations Management: An Integrated Approach, 5th Edition

Solved Problems

(See student companion site for Excel template.)

• Problem 1

Jeff-Co Industries is a metalworking shop that is redesigning its layout. The from–to matrix of the numbers of trips between departments is shown in Table 10-7.

TABLE 10-7 From–To Matrix for Jeff-Co Industries

The current layout is shown in Figure 10-10. Find an improved layout using trial and error. Which departments should you locate close together?

FIGURE 10-10 Current layout for Jeff-Co Industries

• Before You Begin:

To solve this problem, begin by identifying the departments with the highest number of trips between them from the from– to matrix in Table 10-7. Then redesign the initial layout by bringing the identified departments in close proximity to one another. Compute the ld scores for the initial and proposed layouts and compare.

• Solution

The following departments have the highest numbers of trips between them and should be located close together:

A and F, which have 50 trips between them

C and D, which have 45 trips between them

Using this as our criterion, we can construct the proposed layout shown in Figure 10-11.

FIGURE 10-11 Proposed layout for Jeff-Co Industries

We can now compute the ...