Group technology and processing cycle efficiency Ray Browns company Whisper Voice Systems is trying to increase its processing cycle efficiency (PCE). Because Ray has a very limited budget he has been searching for a way to increase his PCE by using group technology. One of Rays manufacturing managers Maria Lopez has been studying group technology and claims that with minimal cost that includes downtime in the operation she can rearrange existing machinery and workers and improve PCE. Ray is quite sceptical about this and decides to allow Maria to rearrange a small part of his operation. For Ray to be satisfied he has stated that PCE must increase by 12%. PCE data before and after the rearrangement is as follows:
TIME CATEGORY BEFORE REARRANGEMENT AFTER REARRANGEMENT
Inspection 30 minutes 15 minutes
Moving 45 minutes 10 minutes
Processing 70 minutes 30 minutes
Storage 55 minutes 20 minutes