Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani

Distance Learning Programmes Division

Second Semester 2008-2009
Mid-Semester Test (EC-1 Regular)
Course No.
Course Title
Nature of Exam
Weightage
Duration
Date of Exam
Note:
1.
2.

: ET ZC412
: PRODUCTION PLANNING & CONTROL
: Closed Book
: 40%
: 2 Hours
: 08/02/2009 (FN)

No. of Pages
=2
No. of Questions = 7

Please follow all the Instructions to Candidates given on the cover page of the answer book.
All parts of a question should be answered consecutively. Each answer should start from a fresh page.

Q.1

Define product life cycle. Explain briefly about the stages of the product life cycle with
examples corresponding to each stage.
[5]

Q.2

Assume that you are an industrial engineer in a ball-pen manufacturing company. Develop
the precedence diagram for the assembly of a pen. List down all your assumptions clearly.
[4]

Q.3

A company is planning to introduce a new product. It must select one product from three
available and has estimated the data as shown below.
[6]

Factor
Expected sales each year
Unit cost of production ($)
Unit selling price ($)
Fixed cost incurred before production ($)
Expected product life

A
600
680
760
200000
3 years

Product
B
900
900
1000
350000
5 years

C
1200
1200
1290
500000
8 years

Which product would you recommend based on?

a. Break even point
b. Time to break even
c. Life time profit
Q.4

Microcomp is a U.S. based manufacturer of personal computers. It is planning to build a

new manufacturing and distribution facility in South Korea, China, Taiwan, the
Philippines or Mexico. The cost of the facility will differ between countries and will even
vary within countries depending on economic and political climate, including monetary
exchange rates. The company has estimated the facility cost (in $ millions) in each
country under three different future economic / political climate as follows:
[6]
Economic / Political climate
Country
Decline
Same
Improve
South Korea
21.7
19.1
15.2
China
19.0
18.5
17.6
Taiwan
19.2
17.1
14.9
Philippines
22.5
16.8
13.8
Mexico
25.0
21.2
12.5
Determine the best decision using the following decision criteria:
a. Minimin
b. Minimax
c. Hurwicz ( = 0.40)
d. Equal likelihood

ET ZC412

(EC-1 Regular)

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ET ZC412 (EC-1 Regular)

Q.5

Second Semester 2008-2009

Page 2

An automobile manufacturing company has five plants and purchases its components
from different suppliers. The company wants to construct a new central distribution
centre to process and package the components before shipping them to their various
plants. The supplies transport components in truck trailers, each with a capacity of 38,000
lb. The locations of five plants A, B, C, D and E and the annual number of trailer loads
that will be transported to the distribution centre are shown in the following table:

X coordinate
Y coordinate
Annual no. of trailer loads
that will be transported

A
100
300

B
210
180

C
250
400

D
300
150

E
400
200

30

25

15

20

18

5.1 Determine the least-cost location using the center-of-gravity method.

5.2 Plot the five plants and the proposed new distribution center on a grid map.
5.3 The management of the automobile company was not convinced with location
obtained in Q.5.1 and they are considering three potential sites with the following
grid map coordinates as shown in the table below, for its new distribution center.
Determine the best location using the load-distance formula, and plot this location on
a grid map with the five plants.
5.4 How does this location compare with the location determined in Q.5.1
[8]

X - coordinate
Y coordinate

Site 1
350
300

Site 2
150
250

Site 3
250
300

Q.6

What are the different types of layouts? List down the different factors that you will
consider for selection of the best type of layout? Explain each factor briefly.
[6]

Q.7

What are the factors that need to be considered while you do financial analysis for
equipment purchasing?
[5]
*********

ET ZC412

(EC-1 Regular)

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