Playing the Paper Game – Simulating a Job, Flow or CMS Shop
Needs of the “Paper Chase Game” in the Job shop:
(a) 5 colors of paper (6 or more sheets of each), each sheet sectioned into “Quarters”
(b) Four Departments with 1 to 3 processors (people!) in each, a scuffled deck of card for each department is required.
The departments: Namers (3 people required: one block writer, one script writer, one Fancy/Flowery script writer), Squares (one (1) specialist w/ blue felt tip), Suits (two processors required 1 with black felt tip pen, 1 with red felt tip pen), “Numberers”, (2 people required)
(c) Two Material Handlers
(d) Quality Inspector in the “quality department”
(e) Process Routing for each paper color (lot size of 1 to 5, typically 3)
a. Salmon Paper Router – note route order – must be adhered to
1st: Block Name Printed in Quadrant 1
2nd:Two (2) Diamonds drawn in Quadrant 3
3rd: Three (3) Interlocking Squares drawn in Quadrant 2
4th: Digits 3 to 7 written in Quadrant 4
b. Orchid Paper Router – note route order – must be adhered to
1st: Script Name written in Quadrant 1
2nd: Four (4) Interlocking Squares Drawn in Quadrant 3
3rd: Three (3) Hearts drawn in Quadrant 2
4th: Digits 2, 4 ,6 ,8 written in Quadrant 4
c. Green Paper Router – note route order – must be adhered to
1st: Digits 8,7,6,5,1 written in Quadrant 1
2nd: Flowery Script Name written in Quadrant 3
3rd: Five (5) Clubs drawn in Quadrant 2
4th: Three (3) Interlocking Squares in Quadrant 4
d. Blue Paper Router – note route order – must be adhered to
1st: Block Name written in Quadrant 1
2nd: Five (5) Interlocking Squares Drawn in Quadrant 3
3rd: Flowery Script Name Written in Quadrant 2
4th: Six (6) Spades drawn in Quadrant 4
e. Yellow Paper Router – note route order – must be adhered to
1st: Digits 1, 3, 5, 7, 6 written in Quadrant 1
2nd: Three (3) hearts drawn in Quadrant 3
3rd: Four (4) interlocking squares drawn in Quadrant 4 (note: Quadrant 2 is blank)
(f) Large envelops for packaging the individual orders as a product “Tote”
(g) Plant Manager/Expeditor
Doing the Simulation:
Start by assigning each Department a “specialist” for each skill eg. a ‘Red Suit drawer’ or a ‘Fancy Script writer’ in their respective departments. Then the lots of colored paper are placed in the envelopes by the expeditor to begin the timing of the game. The expeditor places the envelopes with a “Lot ID” on the production desk and calls the Material handlers to get the lots to the departments. Many times, if there are sufficient attendees, each department can be assigned a “Foreperson” to meet with the expeditor to help schedule the departmental work for the game. Then, after the events are “Planned” the forepeople return to their departments, alert the workers to the expected process flow and then call the material handlers to deliver their lots. One lot per trip!
When a worker is assigned to do a job, they draw one card from the stack to determine quality –if the work is being performed by a “a non-specialist” draws 2 or more cards before determining quality. Making their operation right would be done if they drew a 4-Ace or 3-Ace with a reject made if the drew a 2, 3 or just 2 from the deck. This would be done for each part (sheet of paper) to be produced and the deck reshuffled between each “lot” of product. When a worker in any department completes a typical lot of product (any paper color), s/he alerts their area foreperson who calls for the material handler to pick up their envelope of finished parts for delivery to the next operation on the route. This delivery, assignment, quality draw is performed at each process operation for each of the lots released at random into the system (at least two lots of each color will be released).
Occasionally, it may be that “Special Rush Jobs” need to be dispatched thru the system. These rush jobs, because of their disruptive nature of bumping the job that is currently being worked on, should use a “3 card bogie” draw when determining quality, that means that if a 2, 3 or 4 are drawn the production of a defect is dictated while only 5 to ace means a good part is made. Again this quality is done before any part is worked on.
After each lot is completed, it is brought to the shipping area by the material handler where the quality inspector must open each envelope – the shipping tote. This inspector checks for defectives and if any are found the offending parts must be reworked or remade. The incomplete lot is moved to a holding area and the material handler is recalled and told to bring the defect back to the appropriate workstation for required action. If a complete remake is indicated the lot must be broken and the good pieces held to make up with the next lot in the series. If that color’s second lot has not been released, the manager has the option of adding a 6th part “extra piece” of quartered paper to this lot, otherwise a short lot will have to be “shipped” to the customer. The object of the game is to check time for completion of 10 lots of good product, count up the number of defects and reworks and spot check the level of work in progress (WIP) every 5 minutes once the game has begun. In addition, the “Material Handlers” should record the number and distance of each trip for analysis as well as their total “handles” of each product.
Simulating the Flow Shop
Needs of the “Paper Chase Game” in the Flow Shop:
In this part of the game, we will only produce two colored pieces of paper – The Salmon and Blue ones from the job shop version (at least 25 of each sectioned into quarters). These will be “Routed” as found in the Job Shop:
a. Salmon Paper Router
1st: Block Name Printed in Quadrant 1
2nd: Two (2) Diamonds drawn in Quadrant 3
3rd: Three (3) Interlocking Squares drawn in Quadrant 2
4th: Digits 3 to 7 written in Quadrant 4
b. Blue Paper Router
1st: Block Name written in Quadrant 1
2nd: Five (5) Interlocking Squares Drawn in Quadrant 3
3rd: Flowery Script Name Written in Quadrant 2
4th: Six (6) Spades drawn in Quadrant 4
Form two lines of people organized in these order sets:
For the Salmon Line: 1st desk will have a Block Writer, the 2nd desk a Red Felt Tip Diamond drawer, the 3rd desk an interlocking Square “drawer” and finally the 4th desk will be a “numberer” with a pen.
For the Blue Line: 1st desk is a Block writer, then a Squares drawer with an additional Blue felttip pen, 3rd desk is a Flowery Script writer and finally a Spade Drawer w/ Black felt tip (appears that two may make sense!).
Before the game actually begins, notice that we need to duplicate the ‘Interlocking Square drawer’ but note also the reduction in total workers as well as variety. If desired, using the left over trainees, these people can be placed between each desk along the line to act as transfer resources – they are not workers in this capacity, just ‘stand in’ resources. Note that the mobile and flexible material handlers and the department managers are no longer required in the flow shop.
In the Job Shop game, we processed 5*5*2 = 50 pieces. In the flow shop game we will also process 50 pieces, 25 of each color. The manager will stack the 25 on desk 1 at the head of each line and the workers will pick one, finish it and pass it to the next desk (either directly or via the transfer worker).
The introduction of quality errors can be made by drawing cards periodically for each of the line processors. To build a quality error, move down the line and pull cards off the deck with a “1-eyed Jack” being the onset of an error. If an error card is drawn, the worker continues to make a mistake until the quality checker (at the end of the line) locates the 1st error – thus, many failed parts can be produced once the fail card is drawn.
The time to complete all pieces should be saved for comparison to the Job Shop time span (MakeSpan). Remember that the setup time – time to arrange the line, explain tasks, roles, etc. should be counted as “Setup Time” which should also be recorded. In addition to total Setup and Makespan times, statistics related to WIP, quality control, etc. could be harvested to give a true flavor to the work flow.
Simulating the Cellular Manufacturing (CMS) Facility:
Needs of the “Paper Chase Game” in the CMS:
(a) 5 colors of paper (10 or more sheets of each), each sheet sectioned into “Quarters”
(b) 2 Cells, a red suit cell and a black suit cell, with required operators arranged in each, a scuffled deck of card for each Cell is required.
(c) Process Routing for each paper color (lot size of 1 to 6, typically 5) – here in the Red Suit Cell:
1. Salmon Paper Router
1st: Block Name Printed in Quadrant 1
2nd: Two (2) Diamonds drawn in Quadrant 3
3rd: Three (3) Interlocking Squares drawn in Quadrant 2
4th: Digits 3 to 7 written in Quadrant 4
2. Orchid Paper Router
1st: Script Name written in Quadrant 1
2nd: Four (4) Interlocking Squares Drawn in Quadrant 3
3rd: Three (3) Hearts drawn in Quadrant 2
4th: Digits 2, 4 ,6 ,8 written in Quadrant 4
3. Yellow Paper Router
1st: Digits 1, 3, 5, 7, 6 written in Quadrant 1
2nd: Three (3) hearts drawn in Quadrant 3
3rd: Four (4) interlocking squares drawn in Quadrant 4 (note: Quadrant 2 is blank)
(d) Process Routing for each paper color (lot size of 1 to 6, typically 5) – here in the Black Suit Cell:
1. Green Paper Router
1st: Digits 8,7,6,5,1 written in Quadrant 1
2nd: Flowery Script Name written in Quadrant 3
3rd: Five (5) Clubs drawn in Quadrant 2
4th: Three (3) Interlocking Squares in Quadrant 4
2. Blue Paper Router
1st: Block Name written in Quadrant 1
2nd: Five (5) Interlocking Squares Drawn in Quadrant 3
3rd: Flowery Script Name Written in Quadrant 2
4th: Six (6) Spades drawn in Quadrant 4
Notice here that we have redeveloped our variety but will still move the products through the cells by the “make one pass one” principle that controlled flow in the flow shop. We may find that for efficiency, we would be better served by having more than one ‘suit drawer’ or ‘square drawer’ in each cell but we will try to do the flow without this cost.
The introduction of quality errors can be made by drawing cards periodically for each of the cell processors. To build a quality error, move down the line and pull cards off the deck with 1-eyed Jack being the onset of an error. If an error card is drawn, the worker continues to make a mistake until the error is noted by any of the other cell operators, note since the cell functions as a team, they continuously monitor each other’s performance and progress and provide aid where it is needed. These error effects contrast with a Job Shop where errors are totally random occurrences or the flow shop where any defect once started will continue until it is discovered at the end of the line.
Here, in the CMS, we should consider that each of the workers is multi-functionally “cross-trained” and can perform other functions to speed product through the cellsif the need arises.
Just as with the flow shop, the following information should be collected: the time to complete all production. These times will be compared to the Job Shop and Flow shop time span (MakeSpan). The time to arrange the line, explain tasks, roles, etc. is “Setup Time” and should be recorded. In addition to total Setup and Makespan times, statistics related to WIP, quality control, etc. could be harvested to give a true flavor to the work flow.