UNIVERSITY OF SUNDERLAND
FACULTY OF TECHNOLOGY
SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING
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ENX300
Manufacturing Systems Design
Dr Ken Robson
One of one
Assignment 1 – Individual Assignment
October 2023
PLEASE READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS AND INFORMATION CAREFULLY.
This assignment contributes 30% to your final module mark.
Please ensure that you retain a duplicate of your assignment. We are required to send
samples of student work to the external examiners for moderation purposes. It will also
safeguard in the unlikely event of your work going astray.
THE FOLLOWING LEARNING OUTCOMES WILL BE ASSESSED:

To be able to critically appraise the various sub-elements of the Lean/JIT
methodology and their linkages
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
You are required to submit your work within the bounds of the University Infringement
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Your work may be subject to checks for originality.
Where you are asked to submit an individual piece of work, the work must be entirely your
own. The safety of your assessments is your responsibility. You must not permit another
student access to your work.
Submission Date and Time
Submission Location
20th November 2023 23:59pm
Via CANVAS
Question 1
a) ‘Smoothtools’ manufacturing company want to enter the ‘woodworking tools’ market and one
of the first products it has decided to manufacture is a general purpose smoothing plane.
(See Figure Q1a - parts view). After ‘reverse engineering’ the wood plane, the planning
department have arrived at a build sequence and timings for each task which is shown in
Table Q1a (i). Furthermore, the marketing department at ‘Smoothtools’ have produced a
sales forecast for the new planes. This is shown in Table Q1a(ii)].
Assuming staff work a 35 hour week for 48 weeks per year you are required to
determine the following:
i)
ii)
iii)
iv)
Design a product layout (Long thin) for the assembly operation (including the fly
press) which meets the requirements of the 1st quarter production
(15 Marks)
Using this layout, how many people are required to manufacture/assemble the
product? What is the balance loss and potential output of this arrangement?
(6 Marks)
st
If a ‘short fat’ layout is used in the 1 quarter, how many people would be required to
assemble the products? What is the balance loss and potential output of this
arrangement?
(6 (6 Marks)
Which layout is needed to meet the increasing demand in Year 1 and why?
(8 Marks)
v)
What are the advantages and disadvantages of both ‘long thin’ and ‘short fat’ layouts?
(15 Marks)
Figure Q1a Exploded view of wood plane
TASK
ELEMENT
TIME (Seconds)
PRESS OPERATIONS
A
Build poke sub-assembly
7 secs
B
Fit poke assembly to frog
6 secs
C
Rivet adjusting lever to frog
9 secs
D
Press adjusting nut screw to frog
5 secs
TOTAL PRESS OPERATIONS
27 secs
BENCH OPERATIONS
E
Fit adjusting nut to frog
9 secs
F
Fit frog screw to frog
3 secs
G
Fit knob to base
9 secs
H
Fit handle to base
10 secs
I
Fit frog sub-assembly to base
9 secs
J
Assemble blade sub-assembly
5 secs
K
Assemble blade sub-assembly , clamp and label to base and
adjust/inspect
12 secs
L
Make up box and wrap plane, pack and stock
12 secs
TOTAL ASSEMBLY AND PACK TIME
69 secs
Table Q1a(i) Standard time for each task and build sequence
Period
Year 1
Units
1st quarter
98000
2nd quarter
140000
3rd quarter
140000
4th quarter
230000
Table Q1a(ii) Sales forecast Year 1
Question 2
a)
The Directors of ‘Smoothtools Ltd’ are considering the introduction of Lean
Manufacturing to the plant but have number of queries about the concepts involved.
As a result they have requested that you write a short report which clearly explains
the following:
(i)
What is the difference between ‘push’, ‘pull’ and ‘Theory of constraints’
approaches to planning and control? Explain using diagrams, highlighting the pros
and cons of each.
(15 marks)
(ii) What is ‘level scheduling’? and what might be the pre-requisites before we
can introduce it?
(Explain using diagrams where necessary)
(10 marks)
(iii) Will the ‘Autocratic’ culture of the company fit with the philosophy of ‘Lean’?
What is the ‘Lean Philosophy’ in relation to people ? and what ‘working practices’
need to be put in place in order to move to a Lean environment?
(10 marks)
(iv) Recommend and describe a tool or technique which can be used to analyse and
improve the performance of ‘Smoothtools’ manufacturing systems e.g. Rankorder clustering, Ishikawa diagrams, value stream mapping etc. and explain its
basic principle, how it would be applied, the potential benefits and inhibitors to
implementation
(15 marks)
(The expected Word count and references for each part should be: 400
words +/- 10%. 2-3 Harvard references)
[TOTAL 50 marks]
End of Assignment