Do a proactive capacity management : Machines. 185 The first was that the area be implications of the growing role of private military companies (PMCs) for governing global politics The company has been functioning well in terms of generating profit and demand so far. The mission of our team is to complete all aspects of the team assignment on time and to the full requirements set forth by Professor McNickle. The case was given one day in advance. While selling capacity was the correct financial decision to combat our emergency loan, we were then left with stock outs in all of our product lines. pratt10. To increase the process speed by 10% with 5 new machines by the end of this month., Our first plan (Plan A) includes hiring 4 new employees in January to cover the 2100 units of demand but firing them in February, we will fire these additional employees because the production would be covered. Processing in Batches We wanted machine 3 to never be idle and thus, kept the priority at 2. Overall results and rankings. As our utilization was remaining at a constant 100%, our lead times were also increasing. PLEASE DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE FINAL SECONDS TO MAKE YOUR CHANGES. Initially we set the lot size to 320, attempting to take advantage of what we had learned from the goal about reducing the lead-time and WIP. Current State of the System and Your Assignment The decision making for the machines is typically based on the utilization of machines. Learn faster and smarter from top experts, Download to take your learnings offline and on the go. demand Traditional military (or defense) contractors manufacture the weapons of war, provide the supplies that are required by armed forces, or perform other services that do not directly involve their personnel in combatant roles. We made no further changes after switching to contract 3. The profit parameter was considered as an average. Ranking This button displays the currently selected search type. We used to observe revenues. 225 On day 50 of the simulation, my team, 1teamsf, decided to buy a second machine to sustain our $1,000 revenue per day and met our quoted lead time for producing and shipping receivers. 17 Please refer to the appendix (Exhibit I) for detailed financials., The Elijah Heart Center needs to make changes on cost-cutting, funding options for equipment, and funding options for capital expansion. Costs such as Research and Design, materials, and production serve as an important factor in the pricing of Eries products. Because all stations were at times operating at full, we knew that all would create a bottleneck if left to operate as is. LITTLEFIELD SIMULATION REPORT To be able to give right decision and be successful in the simulation, we tried to understand the rules in a right way and analyzed yearly forecasts to provide necessary products to the customers on time (lead time) for maximizing our profit. As sales continued to grow over the next few simulated weeks, the process was able to keep up with demand and the lead times stayed well below 1 day, confirming that the addition of this machine was the correct decision.. They believe a more responsive laboratory will increase revenue and they understand well-balanced inventory policies ought to minimize costs. Your write-up should address the following points: A brief description of what actions you chose and when. To ensure we are focused and accomplish these set goals, the following guidelines Running head: Capacity Management Please make sure to read our rules and wiki before posting. Since the demand was fairly constant, it was not essential to change the reorder point. What new decisions will you make regarding production levels and pricing for your Widget facility? However, in July, and August, unit demand picks up and we will hire 5, and 7 employees respectively. A huge spike, in demand caused a very large queue at station 3 and caused our revenues to drop, significantly. This weeks key learning areas have been eye opening and worthwhile. DEMAND 25000 We noticed that the bottleneck was not just at station 1, but at all stations, and that buying a new machine would not be the right choice to make, but rather, changing the way in which the stations processing is queued would be the better option. Total But we did not know if it was the reason for the full utilization of the machinery. A summary of the rationale behind the key decisions made would perhaps best explain the results we achieved. The simulation provided five options for cost cutting at the hospital with only two of the options available to select from, in hopes of the best result. This meant that machine 1 was not able to keep up with the incoming demand and lacked the proper capacity. So, after 360 days, plant will shut down and the remaining inventories and machines will be disposed of. We did less messing around with the lot size and priority since these were definitely less important to the overall success of your factory than the number of machines you had. At our first meeting we analyzed the first given 50 days so that we could get the daily average demand and SD (Standard Deviation). We will work to the best of our abilities on the Littlefield simulation and will work as a team to make agreed upon manufacturing changes as often as is deemed needed. In September we fire 4 employees and October we fire 2 employees cutting our labor cost, but still reaching our unit demand. 20 Click here to review the details. Since production volume variance indicates whether the materials and production management staff is able to produce goods in accordance with long-range planned expectations, we, Elijah Heart Center is experiencing a cash flow problem, to help improve this dilemma, the goal is to save the Hospital $900,000 in the first year. | Should have bought earlier, probably around day 55 when the utilization hits 1 and the queue spiked up to 5 |, Our next move was to determine what machines need to be purchased and how many. The demand during the simulation follows a predefined pattern, which is marked by stable low demand, increasing demand, stable high demand and then demand declining sharply. Whenever revenues reduced, we use to change the scheduling and observe if the revenue problem is resolved. Pre-production market research suggested that the average daily demand level would be somewhere between 10 orders/day and 14 orders/day. We will calculate costs associated with running a production facility. However, once the initial 50 days data became available, we used forecasting analyses to predict demand and machine capacity. Background The electronic kits are acquired from the supplier. Knowing this, I then take my output per hour and divide it by 16-hour days to find the actual production rate., 1st stage, we knew there will be bottleneck at station 1 and 3 so additional machines must be purchased. Now customize the name of a clipboard to store your clips. In the game, teams are challenged to optimize the system and maximize cash flow for Littlefield Technologies, a factory that assembles Digital Satellite System Receivers from electronic kits. There were three questions posed in our case study: What are the highest three unit profits? This was determined by looking at the rate of utilization of the three machines and the number of jobs in the queue waiting for these machines. Customer demand continues to be random, but the expected daily demand will not change during the labs life span. Tan Kok Wei This enabled us to get even high revenues of 240 $ per day. With full utilization, we were unable to produce enough product to meet our order demands, further increasing the queues at each station and increasing our lead times (as shown)., When the simulation began, we quickly determined that there were three primary inputs to focus on: the forecast demand curve (job arrivals,) machine utilization, and queue size prior to each station. Thanks. tuning Littlefield Technologies is a factory simulator that allows students to compete with each other over the web while developing operations management skills. To minimize this threat, management policy dictates that new equipment cannot be purchased if the remaining cash balance would be insufficient to purchase at least one order quantity worth of raw materials. Page | 5 1.0 Introduction Littlefield Simulation is a game widely used in management courses that replicates a manufacturer's decision making mechanism. Initially we set the lot size to 3x20, attempting to take advantage of what we had learned from the goal about reducing the lead-time and WIP. Seeing that the machines could process a lot more inventory faster than we expected, we decided to change our reorder points and order quantities, to 6000 units and 24,000 units, respectively. Littlefield Technologies mainly sells to retailers and small manufacturers using the DSSs in more complex products. We were afraid to go to the 5 by 12 because of the large setup time at stations one. Faculty can choose between two settings: a high-tech factory named Littlefield Technologies or a blood testing service named Littlefield Labs. Do not sell or share my personal information, 1. Starting at 5 PM on Wednesday, February 27, the simulation will begin The game will end at 9 PM on Sunday, March 3. Team We did not have any analysis or strategy at this point. In Littlefield, total operational costs are comprised of raw material costs, ordering costs and holding costs. Despite this, not many teams were aware about what had to be done exactly - which I think hurt their chances. This means that the last 50 days of the simulation period cannot be influenced through any decision-making either. The winning team is the team with the most cash at the end of the game (cash on hand less debt). They include five articles on basic research in learning and teaching principles for system dynamics, three articles on interactive learning, Purpose Operations Policies at Littlefield Eventually, demand should begin to decline at a roughly linear rate. Littlefield simulation game is an important learning tool for understanding operations principles in production environments, and therefore it is widely used by many leading business schools. We've updated our privacy policy. Enjoy access to millions of ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, and more from Scribd. ; What are the lowest percentage mark-up items? However, this space currently was leased to another company on a year-to-year basis and was generating annual rent of. In case you can't find a relevant example, our professional writers are ready $400 profit. Preparation is necessary to have an advantage. The purpose of this simulation was to effectively manage a job shop that assembles digital satellite system receivers. My reasoning for using this strategy is that my products will be extremely useful and beneficial to its consumers; products like BIC and McDonalds are in extreme demand with the situation of todays economy. The simulation ends on day-309. Copyright 2023 service.graduateway.com. PMC personnel providing security services must be prepared to engage in combatant roles; however, much of their duties will be as guards to prevent breeches of security. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. 161 Operations Policies at investment in the machine. In case of our plant, I have performed a detailed analysis of every activity and deduced a proposed cost structure. 177 Decision 1 We debated whether or not these few exceptions we okay to ignore. It is now nine months later, and Littlefield Technologies has developed another DSS product. Correct writing styles (it is advised to use correct citations) 2 | techwizard | 1,312,368 | But we knew that this time we needed to act faster than before to acquire new machinery. B6016 Managing Business Operations A detailed data analysis and how the game progressed. Littlefield Laboratories has opened a new blood testing lab. Anteaus Rezba When the exercise started, we decided that when the lead time hit 1 day, we would buy one station 1 machine based on our analysis that station 1 takes the longest time which is 0.221 hrs simulation time per batch. This proved to be the most beneficial contract as, long as we made sure that we had the machines necessary to accommodate the, The first time our revenues dropped at all, we found that the capacity utilization at, station 2 was much higher than at any of the other stations. Clear role definitions avoid confusion and save time. We were interested in allocating the money towards marketing as opposed to production. I then multiplied that by the obvious 60 minutes per hour to determine the output from each machine center each hour. 1 . Other solution was to set the EOQ and the reorder points close to the initial simulation starting levels. Very useful for students who will do the simulation for the first time. 25 However, it was because we did not create a safety margin for production which came from our over estimating our carrying costs. 65 However, we observed, that the option-1 due to curved graph and decreasing inventory consumption would have left us with lesser inventory than the current levels. On Fire . This enables you to see the amount produced each minute from each machine center. As a result, we continued to struggle with overproduction and avoiding stock outs, but made improvements resulting in less drastic inventory swings in the later. Information about the two alternatives follows. Uploaded by zilikos. Littlefield Simulation Solutions and analytical decisons made. 4. They have purchased the recommended machinery, but are not entirely pleased with the lead time performance. However, the difference in choosing between the priorities seemed minimal and is probably only important during times of high demand. The best two options for the hospital to reach their goal in my opinion are, reducing the agency staff and changing the skill mix. Check out my presentation for Reorder. We knew that we needed to increase capacity and the decision was made to purchase another machine 1., In order for our strategy to be effective, our optimal timing for planned investments will be when demand is predicted to be high. And then we applied the knowledge we learned in the class, did process analysis and modified our strategies according to the performance results dynamically. Weve updated our privacy policy so that we are compliant with changing global privacy regulations and to provide you with insight into the limited ways in which we use your data. As day 7 and day 8 have 0 job arrivals, we used day 1-6 figures to calculate the average time for each station to process 1 batch of job arrivals. 9, Interstate Manufacturing is considering either replacing one of its old machines with a new machine or having the old machine overhauled. Second, we controlled the inventory level with finding right QOPT (Optimal Order Quantity) and reorder point according to continuous review system method. On many occasions, we questioned each others assumptions and methods to sharpen the other persons thinking and this improved our decision-making. This meant an increased level of production and increased pressure on machines; therefore naturally the breakdown of machines was increasing. In particular, if an Littlefield Technologies Assignment 193 By continuing well Youre not the guy? Activate your 30 day free trialto continue reading. ev highest profit you can make in simulation 1. us: [emailprotected]. Furthermore, implementation of these changes would not affect in any of the daily operations schedules. Managing Capacity and Lead Time at Littlefield Technologies Team 9s Summary Consequently, we lost revenues when the demand neared its peak. This, combined with the fact that queues were not growing in front of either Station 2 or 3, suggested that Station 1 was the bottleneck in the process. This product also is expected to have a 268-day lifetime. . for EOP and ROP. In complex simulation-based learning environments, participants learning and performance may suffer due to demands on their cognitive processing, their struggle to develop adequate mental models, Background. Littlefield Stimulation field paper group strategies for the little field simulation game our primary goal for the little field simulation game is to meet the DismissTry Ask an Expert Ask an Expert Sign inRegister Sign inRegister Home Ask an ExpertNew My Library Discovery Institutions Southern New Hampshire University StuDocu University Capacity Management at Littlefield Technologies From there we let the simulation run for another six days before lead times went down to less than 1, at which time we switched to contract 3. Management is currently quoting 7-day lead times, but management would like to charge the higher prices that customers would pay for dramatically shorter lead times. Littlefield Simulation Strategy Hello Everyone! Day 53 Our first decision was to buy a 2nd machine at Station 1. 0 6 comments Best Add a Comment camcamtheram 2 yr. ago View Assessment - Littlefield_1_(1).pptx from MS&E 268 at Stanford University. We tried not to spend our money right away with purchasing new machines since we are earning interest on it and we were not sure what the utilization would be with all three of the machines. at Littlefield Technologies Spring 2007( I was mainly responsible for the inventory management. We also reorder point (kits) and reorder quantity (kits), giving us a value of 49 and 150., 66 | Buy Machine 3 | Both Machine 1 and 3 reached the bottleneck rate as the utilizations at day 62 to day 66 were around 1. The sales revenue decreased from 9 million to 6 million in 12 years and also they incurred operating losses. The Littlefield Technologies management group hired Team A consulting firm to help analyze and improve the operational efficiency of their Digital Satellite Systems receivers manufacturing facility. On day 97, we changed Station 2s scheduling rule to priority step 2. The goal of the symposium is to investigate how research in system dynamics is contributing to simulation-gaming, and how the more general field of simulation-gaming is influencing work in system dynamics. We had three priority scheduling choices at station-2: FIFO, Items from station-1 and Items from station-3. It is necessary to manage mistakes made in strategy during the game, which can resolve issues down the road to have a successful business plan. 5 | donothing | 588,054 | In addition, the data clearly showedprovided noted that the demand was going to follow an increasing trend for the initial 150 days at least. Chu Kar Hwa, Leonard board Start decision making early. It should not discuss the first round. Thus we decided to change the most pressing variable, inventory, and see where it went from there. As explained on in chapter 124, we used the following formula: y = a + b*x. We decided to purchase an additional machine for station 1 because it was $10,000 cheaper, utilization was higher here, and this is where all the orders started. In order to expand capacity and prepare for the forecasted demand increase, the team decided to immediately add a second machine at Station 1. In my opinion, I can purchase more machines in stations 1,, 2. While ordering and setting the next reorder points, I kept in mind that the demand is increasing and I should have sufficient safety stock (buffer), so as not to lose revenues due to inventory shortages. Part 1: Reasoning for Decisions regarding contract management and machine additions quite early, e.g.