Balance and plan one line for a live order
You have one sewing line of 32 operators and an order of 20,000 basic short-sleeve knit tops to ship in four weeks. Working hours are 8 per shift, 6 days a week. You are the industrial engineer who has to set the SMV, build the operation bulletin, balance the line and commit to a delivery plan. Use your own line's data if you have it; otherwise use these figures and state your assumptions.
Who this is for: Industrial engineers, work-study officers, production planners, line supervisors and factory managers.
What you produce: A production plan pack: the SMV build-up with allowances, the operation bulletin with the bottleneck identified, the balanced line layout, the capacity and delivery calculation, and the first improvement you would make.
Nobody marks this for you. Write your own answer, compare it with the guidance under each task, then mark the capstone done when you are satisfied with it. Your writing is saved on this device, and to your account when you sign in.
Task 1
Build the SMV for this style: list the operations, show how you got from observed time to basic time to standard minute, and state the allowances you applied and why.
What a good answer contains: A good answer shows rating and the allowance percentages separately, explains what each allowance covers (relaxation, contingency, machine delay), and states the number of cycles observed. It does not present a single rounded SMV with no build-up.
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Task 2
Write the operation bulletin: operation, machine, SMV, operators allocated, and the theoretical output per hour at your target efficiency. Identify the bottleneck operation.
What a good answer contains: A good answer allocates operators from the takt requirement rather than by habit, marks the bottleneck by the highest work content per operator, and states the target efficiency it assumed instead of implying 100 per cent.
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Task 3
Balance the line: show the balance before and after, the moves you made, and the balancing efficiency you reached.
What a good answer contains: A good answer gives the arithmetic — total work content, number of stations, cycle time of the slowest station — and names the practical moves: splitting an operation, combining short ones, adding a helper, changing the machine or attachment. It admits which moves need skill the operators do not have yet.
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Task 4
Calculate whether the order ships in four weeks: line capacity per day at your planned efficiency, the learning curve in the first days, and the buffer you keep. If it does not fit, say what you would change.
What a good answer contains: A good answer starts below target efficiency and ramps, allows for absenteeism and quality rework, and reaches an honest answer. If the order does not fit, it names a real change — overtime, a second line, a cut in style variants, a revised date — rather than raising the efficiency assumption to make the number work.
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Task 5
Name the single improvement you would make first on this line, the waste it removes, and how you would measure the gain.
What a good answer contains: A good answer picks one change with a clear before-and-after measure (output per hour, work in progress, rework rate), links it to a named waste, and states the cost of making the change.
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