The Colonial House Furniture Company

The Colonial House Furniture Company manufactures four-drawer oak filing cabinets in six stages. In the first stage, the boards forming the walls of the cabinet are cut; in the second stage, the front drawer panels are woodworked; in the third stage, the boards are sanded and finished; in the fourth stage, the boards are cleaned, stained, and painted with a clear finish; in the fifth stage, the hardware for pulls, runners, and fittings is installed; and in the final stage, the cabinets are assembled. Inspection occurs at each stage of the process, and the average percentages of good-quality units are as follows.

Stage | Average Percentage Good Quality | 1 | 87% | 2 | 91% | 3 | 94% | 4 | 93% | 5 | 93% | 6 | 96% | | |
The cabinets are produced in weekly production runs with a product input for 300 units. a. | Determine the weekly product yield of good-quality cabinets. | b. | What would weekly product input have to be in order to achieve a final weekly product yield of 300 cabinets? |

Product yield (without reworking) = Y = (I) (%g1) (%g2)… (%gn)
Where
I = input of items to the production process that will result in finished products g1= good-quality, work-in-progress products at stage i

a. Product yield = 300(87%)(91%)(94%)(93%)(93%)(96%)
= 185.37 or 185 cabinets

b. Weekly product input to yield 300 cabinets
I = Y / (%g1) (%g2) (%g3) (%g4)
I = 300 / (.87) (.91) .94)( .93)( .93)( .96)
I = 300 / (.6179)
I = 485.5 or 486