Mattoo.amit@gmail.

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Individual assignment on
Operations and Production
Strategy (OPS)

Name – Pranay Kapur

Batch –PGCHRM-7

SMS ID – 103382

Name of the center – South Extension, New Delhi

Name of the Assignment – Operations and Production Strategy

(OPS)

Name of the faculty – Prof Rajiv Misra

 Producing 3-Connector Electric Plug

Schematic Process Flow Diagram

(Material Flow, Information Flow, Operators)

Components: 3-connector, one base, one top, 4 big screws, 3 small screws, 1
guider, 1 wire holder

Assembling of components:

In this process flow diagram - flow of material (Black arrow) and flow of
information (Red arrow) works in the same direction.

• Assembling:

We have to manufacture 18,000 to 20,000 connector a day. This can not

be done in a manual process as the manual process will be slow and error-
prone. We will try to automate the process as much as possible and
manual inspection and quality checks will be done. Also wherever manual
labor has been used we try to de-skill the process as much as possible. The
installed capacity has been fixed to around 25,000 in order to account for
the efficiency and utilization factors
Rationale for design

Capacity required = 20,000

Variety required = 1

It is given that over time both the product variety and volumes are
expected to grow. We have not considered time required for quality check
because we have assumed that these are done by random checks done by
inspectors separate from manufacturing line.

Sl# Process Time Taken per

connector
1 Fix the 3 connector on the base 6 sec
2 Put the guider on proper place 1 sec
3 fix guider on the base using small screws 2 sec
4 Fix the top part on the base 1sec
5 Use the 4 big screws to fix the top part above 5 sec
the base
6 Packaging 2 sec

Bottleneck = fixing of 3-connector on the base

Since, connector is a made-to-stock item – we will be considering mainly

cycle time (CT).

CT = time taken at the bottleneck = 6 secs

Number of connectors manufactured per day for one assembly line =

(24*60*60)/6 = 14400 (approx)

Ideal scenario – assuming that the factory works 24 hours a day. However,
there will be some time loss due to various circumstances like
maintenance and setup times. Therefore we consider 20 working hours a
day. For that, number of connectors per day = (20*60*60)/6 = 12000

Therefore, we will have two separate assembly lines working in parallel.

With this production capacity becomes 2*12000=24000. Out of this
20000 is used now – rest of extra capacity is reserved for future expansion
 plans. So effective run time of the plant = (20/24)*20=400/24=16.67
hours on an average.

Alternate process design

• Using manual labor in stead of automated process.

Automated Process Manual Process

1. The process will be faster 1. Process is slow

2. Quality control is easy 2. Quality control is not easy

3. Human error minimized 3. Human-error is there

4. Work in progress inventory will be less 4. Work in progress inventory will be

more

5. Machines don’t get bored! 5. Worker fatigue & boredom

6. Employee related issues will be very less 6. Employee related issues might be
high. Strike will bring whole process to halt.

7. Check of machines has to be done at 7. Check of workers need to be done.

regular interval.

8. High initial investment required. 8. Can start with less fixed cost
investment.

9. Variable cost less 9. High variable cost due to wages of

high number of workers.
 Factors to be considered to ensure quality:

1. IS 1293 : 2005

This IS standard covers connectors and Socket-Outlets of Rated

Voltage Up to and Including 250 Volts and Rated Current Up to and
Including 16 Amperes. We need to follow the above standard to
ensure quality product.

2. Our automated process needs to be calibrated properly and fed with

proper data such as screws, pressure to be applied, rotating
direction etc.
3. The size of all the components must be of standard quality esp.
screws, girders, base etc.
4. Quality checks are put in at appropriate locations i.e.

• After sourcing
• After assembling
• And finally once the product is finished.

After sourcing the raw materials, the components can be inspected if they
are of the IS standard of screws etc. that we are using. During assembly we must
know that the right screws are going to the right hole. The robotic arm of our
automated process will take care of the big and small screws.

5. While fixing the top base, the pressure to be applied must be

optimum so that the plastic doesn’t break or crack.
6. Finally various methodologies such as Kaizen, 5S, and improving
process to Six sigma standards would ensure very good quality
product.

Work method for the assembly of the connector (Automated process)

S. No Description
 1 Move the connector base at machine holder
2 Fix the 3 connector on the plastic base
3 Move the connector base to next Assembly station
4 Put the cable clamp/wire guider in its proper place
5 Fix the cable clamp/wire guider using the screws
6 Move the connector to next Assembly station
7 Place the cover on the connector base
8 Align the cover to the base
9 Put the four big screws in the base and cover to fix them together
10 Package the connector in cellophane and cardboard box
11. Store the connector

Our process is six-sigma.

Our production line would be assembling the 3-connector. Since its an

automated process its efficiency depends upon the sophistication of the
machine. As work is done by robotic arms are quality in nature, we can
expect the quality of around 95%-96%. This is because we are factoring in
workers efficiency .

Now of 24000 capacities, we are using 20000 and the rest 4000 was put
for expansion purpose.

Thus after factoring in the efficiency factor we can expect values of

20000*0.95 = 19000.

Measures to Monitor and Manage the Production Line

• We can begin the measurement by finding out the opportunities so that

the DPMO (Defects per million opportunities) can be calculated. Our
process is six-sigma.

• Our production line would be assembling the 3-connector. Since its an

automated process its efficiency depends upon the sophistication of the
machine. As work is done by robotic arms are quality in nature, we can
expect the quality of around 95%-96%. This is because we are factoring in
workers efficiency .
• Now of 24000 capacities, we are using 20000 and the rest 4000 was put
for expansion purpose.