Space Age Furniture Company

BUS 644 Operations Management
Dr. Jamal Batta
February 22, 2014

Space Age Furniture Company
Background
The Space Age Furniture Company manufactures tables and cabinets to hold microwave ovens and portable televisions. These products are made in various sized and with various features, but allow basically the same production and assembly operations. However, two of these products –the Saturn microwave stand and the Gemini TV stand—have a part (no. 3079) that requires machining on a special lathe used only for making that part. At present the machine is run by Ed Szewczak, a machinist who also operates other machines in Space Age’s shop. Once set up and started, the lathe can run nearly unattended. However, the machinist must be present (even if not actually attending the machine) any time one of the machines, including the lathe, is in operation. At present, Ed works a regular 40-hour week. However, due to the workload for producing part 3079, it has been necessary to schedule frequent overtime for him in order to finish necessary parts on time. Coral Snodgrass, operations manager for Space Age, has just heard from Ed’s foremen that Ed is becoming unhappy about so much overtime. As Coral knows, Ed has been with the company a long time and is an excellent, reliable employee. Skilled machinist with Ed’s experience and employment record are extremely difficult to find. Coral wonders what can be done to alleviate this problem. Recently, Space Age began using an MRP system that has helped reduce inventories greatly and improve on-time deliveries. In fact, Space Age carries no finished-goods inventory. Instead, everything in the master schedule is being produced for customer orders, so all products are shipped almost immediately. Previously Space Age had estimated that it cost $1.25 per week to store each Gemini and $1.50 per