Assignment title: Management
Instruction: Refer to the Excel spreadsheet, "Inventory Management," to
complete the "Analytics Exercise: An MRP Explosion - Brunswick Motors," at the
end of Chapter 21 in the textbook. Answer Questions 1-3.
APA format is not required, but solid academic writing is expected.
A n a l y t i c s E x e r c i s e : A n M R P E x p l o s i o n — B r u n s w i c k
M o t o r s
Recently, Phil Harris, the production control manager at Brunswick, read an article on
time-phased requirements planning. He was curious about how this technique might
work in scheduling Brunswick's engine assembly operations and decided to prepare an
example to illustrate the use of time-phased requirements planning. Phil's first step was
to prepare a master schedule for one of the engine types produced by Brunswick: the
Model 1000 engine. This schedule indicates the number of units of the Model 1000
engine to be assembled each week during the last 12 weeks and is shown below. Next,
Phil decided to simplify his requirements planning example by considering only two of
the many components that are needed to complete the assembly of the Model 1000
engine. These two components, the gear box and the input shaft, are shown in the product
structure diagram below. Phil noted that the gear box is assembled by the Subassembly
Department and subsequently is sent to the main engine assembly line. The input shaft is
one of several component parts manufactured by Brunswick that are needed to produce a
gear box subassembly. Thus, levels 0, 1, and 2 are included in the product structure
diagram to indicate the three manufacturing stages that are involved in producing an
engine: the Engine Assembly Department, the Subassembly Department, and the
Machine Shop. The manufacturing lead times required to produce the gear box and input
shaft components are also indicated in the product structure diagram. Note that two
weeks are required to produce a batch of gear boxes and that all the gear boxes must be
delivered to the assembly line parts stockroom before Monday morning of the week in
which they are to be used. Likewise, it takes three weeks to produce a lot of input shafts,
and all the shafts that are needed for the production of gear boxes in a given week must
be delivered to the Sub assembly Department stockroom before Monday morning of that
week. In preparing the MRP example Phil planned to use the worksheets shown on the
next page and to make the following assumptions:
1. Seventeen gear boxes are on hand at the beginning of Week 1, and five gear boxes are
currently on order to be delivered at the start of Week 2.
2. Forty input shafts are on hand at the start of Week 1, and 22 are scheduled for delivery
at the beginning of Week 2.
Q u e s t i o n s
1) Initially, assume that Phil wants to minimize his inventory requirements. Assume that
each order will be only for what is required for a single period. Using the following
forms, calculate the net requirements and planned order releases for the gear boxes and
input shafts. Assume that lot sizing is done using lot-for- lot (L4L).
2 )Phil would like to consider the costs that his accountants are currently using for
inventory carrying and setup for the gear boxes and input shafts. These costs are as
follows:
Part Cost
Gear Box Setup 5 $90/order
Inventory carrying cost 5 $2/unit/week
Input Shaft Setup 5 $45/order
Inventory carrying cost 5 $1/unit/week
Given the cost structure, evaluate the cost of the schedule from question 1. Assume
inventory is valued at the end of each week.
3) Find a better schedule by reducing the number of orders and carrying some inventory.
What are the savings with this new schedule?
Engine assembly master