FAcTory PHYSICS Foundations of Manufacturing Management SECOND EDITION Wallace J. Hopp Northwestern University Mark L. Spearman Georgia Institute of Technology Irwin fe McGraw-Hill Boston Burr Ridge, IL Dubuque, IA Madison, WI New York San Francisco St. Louis Bangkok Bogoté Caracas Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan New Delhi Seoul Singapore Sydney Taipei Torontoc H A P T E R 7 Basic Factory DYNAMICS 1 do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. Isaac Newton, 7.1 Introduction In the previous chapter, we argued that manufacturing management needs a science of manufacturing. In this chapter, we begin the process of fleshing out such a science by examining some basic behavior of production lines. ‘To motivate the measures and mechanics on which we will focus, we begin with a realistic example. HAL, a computer company, manufactures printed-circuit boards (PCBs), which are sold to other plants, where the boards are populated with components (‘‘stuffed”) and then sent to be used in the assembly of personal computers. The basic processes used to manufacture PCBs are as follows: 1. Lamination. Layers of copper and prepreg (woven fiberglass cloth impregnated with epoxy) are pressed together to form cores (blank boards). 2. Machining. The cores are trimmed to size. 3, Circuitize. Through a photographic exposing and subsequent etching process, circuitry is produced in the copper layers of the blanks, giving the cores “personality” (ie., a unique product character). They are now called panels. 4. Optical test and repair. The circuitry is scanned optically for defects, which are repaired if not too severe. 5. Drilling. Holes are drilled in the panels to connect circuitry on different planes cof multilayer boards. Note that multilayer panels must return to lamination after being circuitized to build up the layers. Single-layer panels go through lamination only once and do not require drilling or copper plating. 6. Copper plate. Multilayer panels are run through a copper plating bath, which deposits copper inside the drilled holes, thereby connecting the circuits on different planes. 21324 Part Il Factory Physics 7. Procoat. A protective plastic coating is applied to the panels. 8. Sizing. Panels are cut to final size. In most cases, multiple PCBs are manufactured on a single panel and are cut into individual boards at the sizing step. Depending on the size of the board, there could be as few as two boards made from a panel, or as many as 20 9. End-of-line test. An electrical test of each board's functionality is performed. HAL engineers monitor the capacity and performance of the PCB line. Their best estimates of capacity are summarized in Table 7.1, which gives the average process rate (number of panels per hour) and average process time (hours) at each station, (Note that because panels are often processed in batches and because many processes have parallel machines, the rate of a process is not the inverse of the time.) These values are averages, which account for the different types of PCBs manufactured by HAL and also the different routings (e.g., some panels may visit lamination twice). They also account for “detractors,” such as machine failures, setup times, and operator efficiency. As such, the process rate gives an approximation of how many panels each process could produce per hour ifit ad unlimited inputs. The process time represents the average time a typical panel spends being worked on at a process, which includes time waiting for detractors but does not include time waiting in queue to be worked on. ‘The main performance measures emphasized by HAL are throughput (how many PCBs are produced), cycle time (the time it takes to produce a typical PCB), work in process (inventory in the line), and customer service (fraction of orders delivered to ‘customers on time). Over the past several months, throughput has averaged about 1,100 panels per day, or about 45.8 panels per hour (HAL works a 24-hours a day). WIP in the line has averaged about 37,000 panels, and manufacturing cycle time has been roughly 34 days, or 816 hours. Customer service has averaged about 75 percent. ‘The question is, how is HAL doing? We can answer part of this question immediately. HAL management is not happy with 75 percent customer service because it has a corporate goal of 90 percent. So this aspect of performance is not good. However, pethaps the reason for this is that overzealous salespersons are promising unrealistic due dates to customers. It may not be an indication of anything wrong with the line. ‘The other measures—throughput, WIP and cycle time—are more difficult to deal with. We need to establish some sort of baseline against which to compare them. One TABLE 7A Capacity Data for HAL Printed-Circuit Board Line | Process Rate (parts per hour) | ‘Time (hour) Lamination 191.5 12 Machining 186.2 59 Circuitize 150.5 69 Optical testrepair 1578 36 Driling 1859) 100 Copper plate 1364 15 Procoat 146.2 22 Sizing 1265 24 EOL test 1695 18