Sonichi Electronics manufactures small electronic consumer items such as portable clocks, calculators, and radios. The company is concerned about the high cost of its product-inspection operation. As a result, it had its industrial engineering department conduct a time study of an inspector who inspects portable radios. The operation consists of seven elements, as follows: (1) The package is opened and the radio is removed; (2) the battery casing cover is removed; (3) two AA batteries are inserted; (4) the radio is turned on, and the inspector tunes to a station and listens briefly to at least two stations; (5) the radio is turned off and the batteries are removed; (6) the battery cover is replaced; and (7) the radio is repackaged. The time-study observations (in minutes) for 10 cycles are shown in the following table.
a. The allowance factor for this job is 15%. Determine the standard time.
b. If management wants the estimate of the average cycle time to be within 0.03 minute with a 95% level of confidence, how many job cycles should be observed?
c. Management is considering putting inspectors on a piece-rate wage system in order to provide them with greater incentive to inspect more items. What effect might this have on the quality-inspection function?
Answers
Answer:
Sonichi Electronics manufactures small electronic consumer items such as portable clocks, calculators, and radios. The company is concerned about the high cost of its product-inspection operation. As a result, it had its industrial engineering department conduct a time study of an inspector who inspects portable radios. The operation consists of seven elements, as follows: (1) The package is opened and the radio is removed; (2) the battery casing cover is removed; (3) two AA batteries are inserted; (4) the radio is turned on, and the inspector tunes to a station and listens briefly to at least two stations; (5) the radio is turned off and the batteries are removed; (6) the battery cover is replaced; and (7) the radio is repackaged. The time-study observations (in minutes) for 10 cycles are shown in the following table.
a. The allowance factor for this job is 15%. Determine the standard time.
b. If management wants the estimate of the average cycle time to be within 0.03 minute with a 95% level of confidence, how many job cycles should be observed?
c. Management is considering putting inspectors on a piece-rate wage system in order to provide them with greater incentive to inspect more items. What effect might this have on the quality-inspection function?