Star case Manufacturing and cells case study

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STAR CASE 1.1.1 Question 1 STAR is a small manufacturing company, located in the county of Bergamo, 40 km from Milano. It is the typical Italian SME, active since almost 50 years, in the production of specialised machines. After the crisis of 2008-2010, the company – thank to some relevant decisions taken by the new manager – is registering a good period, with an increasing demand and a stable portfolio of new orders. For this reason, the board of the company has decided to invest in a new plant, to be installed out of the town in which currently the old plant is (based on the first production department created in the ‘60ies). Part of the new plant should be dedicated to some mechanical products and treatments and the main idea is to organise such part as the conventional job shop layout. In this area the company should produce 6 product types (P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, P6), using 5 main production shops (M1, M2, M3, M4, M5). Processing times are hereafter defined [data in minutes]:  P1: (M1, 5) (M2, 3)  P2: (M3, 4) (M4, 7) (M5, 10)  P3: (M1, 3) (M2, 1) (M5, 2)  P4: (M1, 5) (M2, 2) (M3, 5) (M5, 1)  P5: (M3, 9) (M4, 2) (M5, 8)  P6: (M4, 4) (M5, 11) Setup times are based on the different machines: M1 takes normally 15 minutes/ setup, M2 20 minutes/setup, M3 30 minutes/setup, M4 10 minutes/setup, M5 8 minutes/setup. The company has decided to work with a pre -defined lot dimensions: P1 should be produced in batches of 250 pieces, P2 500 pieces, P3 1.000 pieces, P4 250 pieces, P5 500 pieces, P6 500 pieces. The yearly demand of the different products should be the following: P1 5.000 pieces/year, P2 15.000 pieces/year, P3 20.000 pieces/year, P4 15.000 pieces/year, P5 2.500 pieces/year, P6 30.000 pieces/year. The production system will work 2 shifts of 8 hours per day, 300…