Prof. Mellie Pullman
Online Registration & Game Overview
ISQA 511
Getting on to the game, come
prepared with a credit card, your
team name and password (details on
their format in next slides)
http://lab.responsive.net/lt/pdx/start.html
Obtaining Your Access Code
Click here
Create A New Account
Click here
Follow step–by–step instructions
to purchase your access code
Entering Your Course Code
cash
Enter course code
Registering Your Team
Enter team name
* All lower case letters or numbers
* No punctuation or spaces
example
Registering Your Team
Enter team password
* All lower case letters or numbers
* No punctuation or spaces
example

Enter student’s names
* Caps and spaces are OK
* Please NO apostrophes!
Hannah Lisker
Charlie Wong
Shane O’Brien

Enter student access codes
Hannah Lisker
Charlie Wong
Shane OBrien
akjndk8l
slhfg7wk
hkjft96l
A Brief Overview
Your Laboratory:
Four steps at three stations
1) Sample Preparing
–
Step 1 blood is transferred
to test tubes in the test kit
2) Testing
–
Steps 2 & 4 samples are
tested and information is
recorded
3) Centrifuging
–
Step 3 plasma and blood
cells are isolated
Capacity Costs
• Station #1
SAMPLE PREPARING MACHINES
– $90,000 each
• Station #2
TESTING MACHINES
– $80,000 each
• Station #3
CENTRIFUGING MACHINES
– $100,000 each
• Resale value for any machine
– $10,000 each
Factory Process
• Every step has its own process time
• Littlefield measures average daily
utilization rates at each station
• Queues hold waiting jobs
• The Lab holds a maximum WIP of 100
orders
lead time = process time + wait time
Orders and Kits
• Every arriving customer order is matched
with a new test kit
– test kits cost $600 each
– shipments have a fixed ordering cost = $1,000
– supplier’s lead time is always 4 days
• Three criteria to place an order:
1) Inventory on-hand is lower than the reorder
point
2) There are no shipments of materials in transit
3) Cash on hand is sufficient for the order
quantity
Reorder Point
– Stocks are replenished when they reach some
pre-determined “low point”.
• A system commonly used by squirrels
• Well, also by you, your checkbook vendor, and many
other systems.
–
–
–
–
–
You start with 160 kits in stock
Your reorder point ROP is set at 40 kits
The order quantity Q is set at 120
You can change both ROP and Q
See your inventory chapter for helpful ideas.
Contract Pricing
Three contracts to choose from
< 24 lead
hours
1) quoted
time==$1000
7 days,
max lead time = 14 days,
>
72
hours
=
zero
price = $750
2) quoted lead time = 1 day,
lead time = 3 days,
*max
Factory
must
still
price = $1000 (pictured here)
purchase
inventory
3) quoted
lead time
= 12
for orders
hours,
max lead earning
time = 24
hours,
= $1250!
zeroprice
revenue
An example using Contract 2
≤ 24 hours = $1000 ≥ 72 hours = zero
* Factory must still purchase inventory for orders earning zero revenue !
Logging Into Your Laboratory after the
simulator has been initialized
Today
http://lab.responsive.net/lt/pdx/entry.html
Logging Into Your Laboratory
Enter team name
example
Logging Into Your Laboratory
Enter team’s password
example

Explore Your Laboratory
Click Box: Customer Order Queue
Click “Plot Job Arrivals” and
Download Data
• Click download button
• Save to desktop
• Open with MS Excel or
another spreadsheet
application
• Copy > Paste data columns
to a master worksheet
• Index by Day
Opening the data in Excel
• You will have 50 days
worth of data until it
starts running
dynamically on Feb. 3
• The demand will
increase until around
day 150 and then level
off
• Figure out the demand
point where it levels off
number of jobs
arriving each day
day
1
2
2
2
3
1
4
0
5
2
6
1
7
0
8
2
9
2
10
3
11
1
…
…
48
6
49
9
50
6
Forecasting Demand
(arrival rate of jobs)
•
•
•
•
Overall Linear trend
= SLOPE(known_y's,known_x's)
= INTERCEPT(known_y's,known_x's)
Forecast for the demand at the point where
you think it will level out.
Look at Capacity Problems
(station 1 Queue Box)
Click on Station 1 to see Utilization
Might want to see
what happened
Click on Materials Buffer Box to see
your inventory policy & status
As demand goes up,
What could happen
here?
What can you do?
Completed Job data
Current Job Lead Time through
system & contract information
Key Hints
• Forecasts estimate future outcomes
• They are not known for precision
• A prediction interval should be considered
Arrival Rate * Process Time
Expected Utilization =
# of Machines
Key Hints
• Balance your work stations, reduce bottleneck
• Proactive are better than reactive strategies
• Monitor your inventory and change ROP and
Quantity if you need to. It takes 4 days for part
orders to arrive from your supplier so make sure not
to run out during lead time.
• Watch your completed job lead time/revenue to take
most profitable contract when possible
Deliverable
• No more than 2 written pages (then appendices)
which cover your teams experience
• What did you do (in sequence)?
• Why did you make that decision?
• How did it work out?
• What did you learn during the process?
• Include an Appendix with a “journal” and any
relevant calculations.