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Professor Jensen's at Home Bakery Case (with answers)
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Jensen's at Home Bakery

ANSWER KEY

PART 1: Process Mapping

PART 2: Process Flow Time Computations

Average flow time for the current process: 158.525 minutes

Current flow time efficiency: 88.07%

Modifications

A. New equipment, a freezer, allows the cakes to cool in 12 minutes instead of 15 minutes.

        Average theoretical flow time: 155.525 minutes

Discuss the type of improvements being suggested: Using a freezer to cool the cakes instead of a refrigerator allows cakes to cool 3 minutes faster. This change in technology decreases average theoretical flow time from 158.525 to 155.525 minutes.                        

B.  Discover non-stick pans which eliminates the need for greasing and flouring pans.  

        Average theoretical flow time: 157.525 minutes

Discuss the type of improvements being suggested: Discovering non-stick pans eliminates Activity 2 in the cake making process. This improvement in process decreases average theoretical flow time from 158.525 to 157.525 minutes.

C. Improve frosting technique for chocolate frosting, so it takes 9 minutes instead of 11 minutes.

        Average theoretical flow time: 157.025 minutes

Discuss the type of improvements being suggested: Improving the technique for the chocolate frosting step decreases Activity 14-Chocolate by 2 minutes. This change decreases average theoretical flow time from 158.525 to 157.025 minutes.                

                

D: Customers change preference so chocolate frosting is 40% of orders and vanilla frosting is 60%. Orders also change to decorated 50% and not decorated 50%.

Average theoretical flow time: 153.775 minutes

Discuss the type of improvements being suggested: A change in customer order preference changes the product mix the bakery produces. The change in percentages for frosting and decorating results in the average theoretical flow time decreasing from 158.525 to 153.775 minutes. This also changed the longest path from Chocolate Decorated to Vanilla Decorated despite Chocolate Decorated having a longer frosting time.                

                        

Google Sheet Calculations and Spreadsheets:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-J5xa-gSKft_m-HRDkDkecKehLmLOW8ZO5gXcW9HpjM/edit?usp=sharing

PART 3: Process Capacity Computations

Theoretical capacity of the process: 171 cakes a week

Bottleneck resource: Decorator

Modifications

  1.  Install a new oven.

        Theoretical capacity of the process: 171 cakes a week

Bottleneck resource pool: Decorator

Discuss the types of improvements being suggested: The theoretical capacity is still 171 cakes per week. Adding a second oven doubles the capacity of the Oven resource from 175 cakes to 351 cakes, but because the Decorator was the original capacity constraining resource, changing the oven situation does not change the fact that the Decorator is still the capacity constraining resource. Until something with the Decorator changes the bakery cannot produce more than 171 cakes per week.

  1.  Cross-train frosters and decorators.

Theoretical capacity of the process: 172 cakes a week

Bottleneck resource pool: Froster/ Decorator

Discuss the types of improvements being suggested: Cross-training the Froster and Decorator to be able to do each other's job at the same pace allows the resources to interchange with each other. This change resulted in this new Froster/Decorator position to be the new capacity constraining resource with the theoretical capacity being 172 cakes per week. So, by cross-training the positions the bakery can make 1 more cake a week. With the monetary cost of cross-training this modification seems unrealistic and unhelpful until the demand was exactly 172 cakes per week.                

  1.  Hire a second decorator.

        Theoretical capacity of the process: 175 cakes a week

Bottleneck resource pool: Oven

Discuss the types of improvements being suggested: Hiring a second Decorator doubles the capacity of the decorator resource from 171 cakes a week to 342 cakes a week. This new hire changes the capacity straining resource to be the Froster resource with a capacity of 174 cakes per week. This means despite hiring a second Decorator, the bakery can only make 174 cakes a week because the Froster resource is now constrained. The utilization of the Decorator is also only 50.91% which means about 50% of the time the Decorator is not working.

                

Google Sheet Calculations and Spreadsheets:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-J5xa-gSKft_m-HRDkDkecKehLmLOW8ZO5gXcW9HpjM/edit?usp=sharing

Graduate Student: Process Model

Cake Making ProcessModel Map (Original):

Cake Making ProcessModel Map (Modification 1) Answer Key:

Cake Making ProcessModel Map (Modification 2) Answer Key:

Graduate Student Answer Key:

Link to SPG and SFT Files: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gxu8bLDgrc5RsA20IKeoX6qVdyfrjjVB?usp=sharing 

Original Model:

What was the total profit/year? (Total Earnings - Total VC - Total FC = Total Profit)

$322,650 - ($282,202.83 + $212) = $40,235.17

Modifications: