Step Number of Workers Time Needed (per Unit per Worker) mm " pm; "

Bandai has a production line which produces Doraemon toys. There are three steps: in the molding step, workers transfer plastic into the white figures; in the painting step, worker transfer the white figures into painted figures; in the packing step, workers transfer the painted figures into final boxed toys. Currently, the number of workers and the time needed for each step is listed as follows:

(a) Draw a flowchart to depict the toy production process.

(b) What is the bottleneck of the process?

(c) Suppose the demand for toys is 60 units per hour. What is the flow rate of the process? What is the capacity utilization for each step? What is the implied utilization for each step?

(d) Bandai plans to hire 17 new workers for the Doraemon production line. How should Bandai train and allocate these workers to different steps in order to maximize the capability of the production line? What if there are 34 new workers?