PROCESS FLOW DESIGN EXERCISE

This is a team exercise. The goal of this exercise is to apply the concepts learnt
in the course to a practical production planning and management problem. Each
team will consist of 8 or 9 students as posted on Blackboard. The overall plan for
this exercise is to develop a process flow and management plan for ramping up
production of an innovative light-flashing circuit board module. The engineering
department has provided the design specifications for three light-flashing module
variations. In the next few days, you must determine how to produce these three
variations to respond promptly to customer demand.

PRODUCT:

There are three different models of the product (Green, Yellow, and Red). Each
product consists of a breadboard, IC chip, a few wire strips, and other electronic
components. The product specifications are given in the appendix (see Appendix
D). Absolutely no deviations are permitted from these specifications including the
exact position of the components on the breadboard. The customer using these
products is extremely quality conscious: no defective units pass the quality
inspection and modules have to be aesthetically pleasing.

GOAL:

Your teams objective is to design and manage a production system to maximize

net cash flow, where

Net Cash Flow = Revenue Material Cost Labor Cost

The cash inflows consist of the revenue generated by products that are sold to
the customer. The cash outflows consist of the cost of materials purchased and
labor costs. See Appendix A for cost and revenue data.

DEMAND:

There will be demand for 54 units to be satisfied in 30 minutes. A sequence for

delivery of the units will be specified by the customer using the form in Appendix
C.
The demand for these units will be in the ratio of 4:4:2 (approximately). A very
important condition in the customer contract mentions that the customer will
accept finished goods only in the sequence specified by the customer.
Acceptance of a unit by the customer hence depends on three conditions: (1) All
preceding orders have been met, (2) The units function properly, (3) There are
no quality problems (e.g., hanging or exposed wire).

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Three Stages of the Exercise
This exercise has three stages: (1) Process Flow and Production Planning
designs and rationale, (2) game, and (3) debrief; and two associated
assignments. Instructions for these stages and assignments are provided below:

STAGE 1: PREPARATION AND PLANNING STAGE

Your teams Process Flow (i.e., physical flow of product) design, Production
and Management Plan (i.e., management system), and rationale for these are
due on the day of your game. (This is Assignment 1.)

Process Flow design: Determine workstations and the number of workers

assigned to different stations. (A workstation could be a task or a group of tasks.)
Then, draw a process flow diagram. Show tasks and stations, storage points, and
number of workers assigned to different stations. The total number of workers
used in manufacturing, both direct and indirect, cannot exceed 7. The remaining
students in your team will be assigned auditor /customer roles described later.

Production and Management Plan: Provide a brief description of your

management system. Be certain to identify whether your system is make-to-
stock, make-to-order, or assemble-to-order; and whether your system is pull or
push. Determine what information is needed for decision making for all the
different operations tasks. Draw an information flow diagram. (You can draw
information flows on the process flow diagram.) A good plan will anticipate the
different risk factors during the actual production process and suggest ways of
efficiently managing these scenarios.

Rationale: Identify major risk factors and explain how your plan addresses
these. Provide as much detailed analysis as possible.

STAGE 2: GAME STAGE

During the game stage, the manufacturing team will make products to satisfy
customer demand. A customer team, consisting of students from other groups,
will be responsible for receipt of orders and quality inspection to determine
accept/reject (orders will be accepted in the sequence specified by the
customer). You (the production team) will be responsible to replace the rejected
units. Duties for the customer will be explained by the instructor during the game.
The duties for the manufacturing team are described below.

The manufacturing team will get a total of 65 minutes on the game day. The
game time will be divided into two intervals: Interval 1 (35 minutes long) and
Interval 2 (30 minutes long). Interval 1 is for preparation and Interval 2 is for
production and delivery of customer orders.

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Interval 1 (Production Set-Up and Get to Know Your Customer): This interval will
start when the instructor announces Interval 1 starts and end after 35 minutes.
In interval 1, you can set up your production layout, produce whatever you want
but within the constraints of the initial inventory supplied to you, and establish
communication with the customer team. You can build up to 10 units total of
finished or partially finished units in this interval. The finished units or partially
finished units built in Interval 1 will be your beginning inventory for the actual
production run (Interval 2). You do not incur any costs or revenues in Interval 1.
The costs and revenues will be accounted for during the actual production run
(Interval 2).

You are not allowed to create stock of cut wires or bent resistors in this interval.
Any cut wires or bent resistors will be removed by the process auditor at the end
of Interval 1. The tasks during Interval 1 are as follows:

Pick up the specified initial inventory from supply table before Interval 1
begins.

Time 0 to 30 minutes: Set up your factory and produce up to 10 units.

Have the customer team inspect up to 5 cut wire pieces to check if the
wires you cut meet the specifications. Also, have the customer team check
up to 5 completed units for the function. You are allowed to fix any
defective units you may have produced. [Instructor will announce 30
minutes are over]

Time 30 to 35: The auditor checks to make sure that you do not have
stock of cut wires and/or bent resisters. There should be no production/no
fixing of defects at this point. Auditors should count the initial inventory for
interval 2 now. This should match the initial inventory at time 0.

Time 35: You can make your first purchase of components for use in
Interval 2.

Note: Customer will not accept any delivery in Interval 1. The units you produce
in Interval 1 should be used to meet the demand in Interval 2.

Interval 2 (The Production Run): This interval is 30 minutes long. An order sheet
specifying the sequence of 54 orders will be provided at the beginning of Interval
2. In this interval, your team needs to: (i) engage in productive work, (ii) ship
finished units, (iii) replace rejected units, and (iv) purchase raw materials. Recall
that customer will accept orders only in the sequence specified by the customer.
Thus, any rejected orders will need to be filled before the customer can accept
any further orders. Also, it is your responsibility to purchase parts. Parts once
purchased cannot be returned. However, any defective parts can be replaced. In

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order to make a purchase, you can just pick up parts from the supply bins; the
supplier has a way to keep track of your purchases.
End of Interval 2: Interval 2 will end when instructor announces Interval 2 is
Over, Stop Production and Delivery. Only the units that have been delivered to
the customer table before the announcement will be inspected after this point, no
further deliveries can be made. The process auditor will count the inventory
and report on the form in Appendix B.

Note that any increase from the starting inventory will be considered inventory
purchase and will be included in the material cost.

[Material Cost = Cost of materials used for making the units you deliver to your
customer + Cost of any materials in excess of the initial inventory in case your
ending inventory exceeds the initial inventory.]

STAGE 3: DEBRIEF STAGE

This involves your teams debriefing presentation and a submission of your

presentation slides (2nd assignment). Your slides should describe:

1) Which concepts from the course did you apply in coming up with your
process flow and production plan designs;

2) What, if anything, you changed during the demonstration relative to your

proposed process flow and production plan designs;

3) What worked well and what did not work well;

4) What would you improve and how you would improve it, and

5) What did you learn through this exercise.

Your team will be asked to make a short (8-10 minutes) presentation with at least
one slide for each of the above 5 questions.

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Appendices:

APPENDIX A: COST AND REVENUE DATA

(a) Material Cost:

Capacitor $0.66 each

Light Emitting Diode (LED) $0.23 each
Breadboard with IC Chip $6.15 each
Wire No charge
Resistors No charge
Buzzer $1.50 each

Your team will be charged for any increase in inventory at the end of
Interval 2 as compared to the starting inventory.

(b) Labor Cost = $6.00 x the number of workers in your team

(This is based on the rate of $12.00 per hour and 30 minutes of production
time. You must pay for all workers, including the ones that purchase parts,
receive customer orders, and/or deliver orders. Any team members not
counted as labor may not provide any physical or communication support.)

(c) Revenue: $12 for each unit of GREEN and YELLOW, and $14 for each
unit of RED. (Revenue for your team will be calculated using the number
of units accepted by the customer.)

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APPENDIX B: PROCESS AUDITOR FORM AND INSTRUCTIONS
Customer Teams names ___________________

Production Team Number ______________________

(a) Number of Workers: Ask the production team to declare the number of
workers who will be involved in the production tasks (both direct and indirect).
Make sure that they do not use more workers than what they declare. Also make
sure that the total number of workers does not exceed 7.

Number of Workers _____________

(b) Inventory at the end of Interval 1: Check to make sure that the production
team does not have any extra inventory of cut wires or bent resistors. Remove
all cut wires and bent resistors, even the ones from breadboards if these are not
for a product. Enter data in the table below.

(c) Ending Inventory: No more deliveries can be made after the end of Interval 2.
Wait for the customer to finish inspection before you count the ending inventory.
Any finished units not accepted by customer will come back to the
production team and will be counted as ending inventory of finished
goods. Enter data in the table below.

Starting Inventory for

Ending Inventory
Item Interval 2 (before
After Interval 2
purchasing anything)
1. Finished Goods: Green
2. Finished Goods: Yellow
3. Finished Goods: Red
4. Breadboards
5. Capacitors
6. LED (any color)
7. Buzzers

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APPENDIX C: SAMPLE ORDER ACCEPTANCE FORM

Order Mark x if Order Mark x if

MODEL MODEL
Number Accept Number Accept
1 YELLOW 31 RED
2 YELLOW 32 GREEN
3 GREEN 33 YELLOW
4 YELLOW 34 YELLOW
5 YELLOW 35 GREEN
6 RED 36 GREEN
7 GREEN 37 GREEN
8 YELLOW 38 GREEN
9 YELLOW 39 YELLOW
10 GREEN 40 YELLOW
11 YELLOW 41 GREEN
12 YELLOW 42 RED
13 RED 43 YELLOW
14 GREEN 44 RED
15 YELLOW 45 YELLOW
16 YELLOW 46 RED
17 GREEN 47 YELLOW
18 YELLOW 48 GREEN
19 YELLOW 49 YELLOW
20 GREEN 50 RED
21 GREEN 51 RED
22 GREEN 52 YELLOW
23 GREEN 53 GREEN
24 RED 54 YELLOW
25 GREEN
26 GREEN
27 GREEN
28 YELLOW
29 RED
30 YELLOW
Reject Incidents:
GREEN YELLOW RED
Check mark for a
reject incident
Number of reject
incidents

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APPENDIX D: INITIAL INVENTORY AND WIRE DETAILS
Initial Inventory: [Your team will be provided with this specified initial inventory at
the beginning of Interval 1. You can use this inventory to make partially finished
or finished units. There is no demand in Interval 1, but any units you make in this
interval can be used to meet the demand in Interval 2. You can get up to five
units tested by the customer team in Interval 1.]

10 breadboards with mounted IC chips + 10 capacitors + 2 buzzers + 5 LEDs of

each color (total 15 LEDs) + many resistors + one spool of wire [Resistors and
wire should last through the end of Interval 2.]

Models:

GREEN (Note: LED should FLASH, and not light up continuously)

YELLOW (Note: LED should light up continuously)

RED (Note: LED should light up continuously and the buzzer should sound
continuously)

Note on Wires:

Each product requires 4 wires: Three short and one long;

Short Wire: Length 50 mm, Splicing at each end 6mm;

Long Wire: 50 mm < Length 60 mm, Splicing at each end 6mm;

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APPENDIX E: TASKS FOR CUSTOMER TEAM
Customer team will have at least 2 members; it will work with one of the
competing teams, and will be responsible for the following tasks:

The customer team will be appointed as process auditor for one of the
competing teams. Process auditor should make sure that the production team
follows all the required rules. Process Auditor collects the necessary data and
completes the auditors form (Appendix B).

The producer will bring the finished units to you. Make space to receive the
units.

Upon receipt of a unit from production, test to confirm that the unit is functional.
You will be provided a battery tester. If the unit is functional, then check the unit
for design specifications. If it meets specifications, then accept the unit and
record. Move the accepted unit to Accepted Units Area. If it does not meet
specifications, then record a reject incidence, and move the unit to Reject Area.

You should accept the units in the sequence specified on the order release
form.

Give the auditors form along with the order acceptance form to the instructor at
the end of the game.

Short wire should fit shorter than Long wire should be shorter than
the red bar below: the red bar, but longer than blue
bar:

60 mm
50 mm >50 mm

Stripped part should be shorter

than the red bar below:

6mm

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 Top view of light emitting diode
(LED):
Round edge - positive
Flat edge - negative

Capacitor Y2-H6

220K
Resistor
A6-B7
Y

J
I
H
G
F

E
D
C
B
A

X




LED Green
5

5
G7-G12


()


10

10

(+)



15

15

3K
Resistor
C6-X13

20

20

Figure F2 Deluxe
Model
Schematic
1K Wire Coordinates
Y

J
I
H
G
F

E
D
C
B
A

Resistor 1: Y1 G5
F12-X17
2: G6 D7
3: X1 D5
4: G8 X15

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 Top view of light emitting diode
(LED):
Round edge - positive
Flat edge - negative

Capacitor Y2-H6

220K
Resistor
A5-B6
Y

J
I
H
G
F

E
D
C
B
A

X




LED Yellow
5

5
G7-G12


(+)


10

10

()



15

15

3K
Resistor
C6-X13

20

20

Wire Coordinates
1K
Y

J
I
H
G
F

E
D
C
B
A

1: Y1 G5
Resistor
I12-Y17 2: G6 D7
3: X1 D5
4: G8 X15

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 Top view of light emitting diode
(LED):
Round edge - positive
Flat edge - negative

Capacitor Y2-H6

220K

1000Hz Buzzer.
Resistor
A5-B6
Y

J
I
H
G
F

E
D
C
B
A

X
Positive pin in J7
Negative pin in Y9




5

5
LED Red
G7-G12
(+)

(+) ()

10

10

()



15

15

3K
Resistor
C6-X13

20

20

Wire Coordinates
1K 1: Y1 G5
Resistor
I12-Y17
2: G6 D7
3: X1 D5
4: G8 X15
Y

J
I
H
G
F

E
D
C
B
A

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APPENDIX G: VIDEO LINKS FOR THE FLOW DESIGN GAME

These are private videos, please enter password: krannert

Harvard 6-minute video on Process Flow Design Exercise:

https://vimeo.com/49088859

YELLOW Model:
https://vimeo.com/49089626

GREEN Model:
https://vimeo.com/49090041

RED Model:
https://vimeo.com/49090042

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