Analysis Of Dooly County Doughnuts Manufacturing Process

Purpose of Report

Purpose of Report

The report seeks to analyse the current manufacturing process of drougnuts and to identify the bottleneck in the process. Further, the report explores out various manufacturing process that may be amended to get the desire results. Further, it also inks out various mechanisms to match demand and supply requirement of the company. Thus, in brief the report has been written for Dewey Johnson inking out various solution and identification of bottleneck in the current process.

Background Information

Mr. Dewey Johnson is the owner of Dooly County Doughnuts which has its operation spread in Vienna, Georgia. The Business is performing well on account of focus on marketing strategies by the owner. There has been strong demand of Doughnuts and the business has an average sale of 132000 pcs of Doughnuts everyday. However, the current production is not able to meet the required demand and Mr. Dewey is exploring various alternative proposal to increase its production capacity so as to match demand with supply.   

Manufacturing Process

The current Manufacturing process of Doughnuts has four steps involved. The same has been listed here-in-below:

• Batching;
• Mixing;
• Production
• Extruding;
• Frying;
• Glazing;
•  

Batching

Under the first step of manufacturing doughnuts, all the ingredient required for manufacturing a doughnut are kept in a mixing bowl. The machine involved for the said process has a capacity of 2 Lb to 20 lb and takes 2 minutes to place the ingredients in the bowl by the operator. Further, the weight of each doughnuts is 2 ounces

Weight of Each Doughnut: 2 ounces

Maximum Capacity: 20 Lb

1 LB =16 ounces

Maximum Doughnut that can be Produced: (20*16)/2= 160 Doughnuts 

Current Capacity: 8 Lb

1 LB =16 ounces

Current Doughnut that can be Produced: (8*16)/2= 64 Doughnuts 

Doughnut Produced per Minute: 64/ 2= 32 Doughnuts 

Mixing

Under the second step of manufacturing doughnuts, all the ingredient once combined, the batch has been placed in the mixer. The process of mixing takes 2.5 minutes to mix the ingredients required for manufacturing a doughnut. Further, there are two mixers at the disposal of the business.

Weight of Each Doughnut: 2 ounces

Maximum Capacity: 20 Lb

1 LB =16 ounces

Maximum Doughnut that can be Produced: (20*16)/2= 160 Doughnuts 

Time taken for processing the same: 2.5 Minutes

Doughnuts processed per minute: 320/2.5=128

Current Capacity: 8 Lb

1 LB =16 ounces

Current Doughnut that can be Produced: (8*16)/2= 64 Doughnuts 

Doughnuts processed per minute: 128/2.5=51.2 Doughnuts

Production

Under the third step of production, there are three steps involved encompassing extruding, frying and glazing:

Extruding

Under this process, the dough is cut into small sizes through cutters. The cut nuts are eventually converted into finished product after frying and glazing. Further, there are three cutters at the disposal of the business currently and they cut at the speed of 18 doughnuts per minute totalling to 54 doughnuts per minute. Further, the setup time of each batch is 1.5 Minutes.

Weight of Each Doughnut: 2 ounces

Maximum Capacity: 20 Lb

1 LB =16 ounces

Maximum Doughnut that can be Produced: (20*16)/2= 160 Doughnuts 

Background Information

Time taken for Cutting the same: 160/54= 2.96 Minutes

Set up time: 1.5 Minutes

Doughnuts Cut per minute: 160/4.46=35.88 Doughnuts

Current Capacity: 8 Lb

1 LB =16 ounces

Current Doughnut that can be Produced: (8*16)/2= 64 Doughnuts 

Time taken for Cutting the same: 64/54= 1.18 Minutes

Set up time: 1.5 Minutes

Doughnuts Cut per minute: 160/2.68=23.8 Doughnuts

Frying

Under this stage, the doughnuts cut from the extruder are fried in a long and narrow fryer. The fryer runs continuously and has an unlimited capacity and generally takes 90 secs for doughnuts irrespective of number of doughnuts fired at any moment.

Glazing

Post frying the doughnuts are cooled on a conveyor for 45 seconds before the nuts are passed though glazing machine . It is similar to glazing and an intermittent process that works out continuously and any number of doughnuts can be glazed and hence has an unlimited capacity.

Customisation

The last step involves in the doughnut manufacturing is that they are packed in boxes for specific customer order or to be sold to customer at counter. There are different range of toppings added to the product at this stage encompassing sprinkles to unique toppings. One employee is engaged in this process and generally takes 3.5 Seconds for 2 doughnuts to be ready for sale.

No of doughnuts made ready for sale in 3.5 secs= 2 doughnuts

No of doughnuts ready in 1 min= 60*2/3.5= 34.28 doughnuts

Bottleneck

The term bottleneck shall mean a limiting factor in the manufacturing process which restrict the production of a particular product or commodity beyond a certain point. In other words, it is a process in the chain which reduces the capacity of the whole chain on account of its limited capacity. Further, the same slows down the business.

(Burch, 2018) 

The bottleneck in the above manufacturing process of the company has been identified through analysis which has been detailed here-in-below:

Current Manufacturing Process
Sl No	Particulars	Information	No of Doughnuts in 8 hours	Comment
1	Shift	Single
2	Time	8 Hours
3	Time period	7 days
4	Sale per Day	13200
5	Batching Capacity	160
a	Time taken to place ingredient	2 Min
b	Size Range	2 lb to 20 lb
c	Batch Size	8 lb
d	Doughnut required in cookie	2ooz
e	No of doughnuts in Batch(c*16/d)	64
f	No of doughnuts per minute(e/a)	32	15360	2nd Bottle Neck
6	Mixer
a	Number	2
b	Time Taken	2.5
c	Number of Doughnuts per 2.5 Minute	128
d	No of Doughnuts per Minute(c/b)	51.2	24576	4th Bottle Neck
7	Production
A	Extruding
a	Number	3
b	No of doughnuts in batch	64
c	Time taken for 54 doughnuts	1 Min
d	Time taken for 64 Doughnuts	1.185
e	Cleaning Time	1.5 Min
f	Total Time taken	2.685
g	No of Doughnuts produced per Minute	23.8	11440.55172	1st Bottle Neck
B	Frying
a	Capacity	Unlimited	Unlimited
b	Time Taken	1.5 Minutes
C	Glazing
a	Capacity	Unlimited	Unlimited
b	Time Taken	.75 Min
8	Customising
a	Time Taken	3.5 Sec
b	No of Doughnuts	2
c	Total doughnuts in a minute	34.2857143	16457.14286	3rd Bottle Neck

Thus, on perusal of the above, it may be inferred that the Extrusion process is the bottleneck first bottleneck in the manufacturing process and restrict the per day production capacity of doughnuts to 11440 Units (Fraction shall be ignored). Further, the 2^nd bottleneck in the manufacturing process encompass the batching unit which restricts the capacity to 15360 which is tough higher than the average demand per day. Hence, the analysis is limited to 1^st Bottleneck in the manufacturing.

Thus, the capacity of overall system is restricted to 11440 units subject to assumption that the process is continuous and there has been product at each stage when the manufacturing started as otherwise the production shall reduce.

Alternatives

In order to overcome, the bottleneck various alternatives have been identified the same has been detailed here-in-below:

Doubling the batch size to 16 lbs

Under the first proposal, Mr. Dewey can double the batch size which shall help the company to meet its demand requirement, however the asset may diminish prematurity as the fear has been expressed in the report. The detailed computation of the same has been presented here-in-below:

Doubling Batch Size to 16 lbs
Sl No	Particulars	Information	No of doughnuts in 8 hours	Comment
1	Shift	Single
2	Time	8 Hours
3	Time period	7 days
4	Sale per Day	13200
5	Batching Capacity	160
a	Time taken to place ingredient	2 Min
b	Size Range	2 lb to 20 lb
c	Batch Size	16 lb
d	Doughnut required in cookie	2ooz
e	No of doughnuts in Batch(c*16/d)	128
f	No of doughnuts per minute(e/a)	64	30720	3rd Bottle Neck
6	Mixer
a	Number	2
b	Time Taken	2.5
c	Number of doughnuts per 2.5 Minute	256
d	No of doughnuts per Minute(c/b)	102.4	49152	4th Bottle Neck
7	Production
A	Extruding
a	Number	3
b	No of doughnuts in batch	128
c	Time taken for 54 doughnuts	1 Min
d	Time taken for 64 Doughnuts	2.370
e	Cleaning Time	1.5 Min
f	Total Time taken	3.870
g	No of Doughnuts produced per Minute	33.1	15874.44976	1st Bottle Neck
B	Frying
a	Capacity	Unlimited	Unlimited
b	Time Taken	1.5 Minutes
C	Glazing
a	Capacity	Unlimited	Unlimited
b	Time Taken	.75 Min
8	Customising
a	Time Taken	3.5 Sec
b	No of Doughnuts	2
c	Total doughnuts in a minute	34.2857143	16457.14286	2nd Bottle Neck

On perusal of the above, it may be inferred that the first bottleneck stands at 15874 Units of doughnuts (Fraction ignored). Hence, the company shall be able to meet its demand requirement and thus the alternative step shall be able to provide the remedy to the solution. However the solution is short lived as when sales increase, the problem shall emerge again but it is at no extra cost to company.

Batch Size of 8 lbs and reduction in Extrusion Set up Time

The second alternative proposed under the current mechanism is to reduce the set up time of extrusion to meet the demand requirement. The detailed computation of the reduction in time required has been presented here-in-below:

Batch Size of 8 lbs and reducing Extrusion Set up time
Sl No	Particulars	Information	No of doughnuts in 8 hours	Comment
1	Shift	Single
2	Time	8 Hours
3	Time period	7 days
4	Sale per Day	13200
5	Batching Capacity	160
a	Time taken to place ingredient	2 Min
b	Size Range	2 lb to 20 lb
c	Batch Size	8 lb
d	Doughnut required in cookie	2ooz
e	No of doughnuts in Batch(c*16/d)	64
f	No of doughnuts per minute(e/a)	32	15360	3rd Bottle Neck
6	Mixer
a	Number	2
b	Time Taken	2.5
c	Number of doughnuts per 2.5 Minute	128
d	No of doughnuts per Minute(c/b)	51.2	24576	4th  Bottle Neck
7	Production
A	Extruding
a	Number	3
b	No of doughnuts in batch	64
c	Time taken for 54 doughnuts	1 Min
d	Time taken for 64 Doughnuts	1.185
e	Cleaning Time	1.14
f	Total Time taken	2.327
g	No of Doughnuts produced per Minute	27.5	13200	1st Bottle Neck
B	Frying
a	Capacity	Unlimited	Unlimited
b	Time Taken	1.5 Minutes
C	Glazing
a	Capacity	Unlimited	Unlimited
b	Time Taken	.75 Min
8	Customising
a	Time Taken	3.5 Sec
b	No of Doughnuts	2
c	Total doughnuts in a minute	34.2857143	16457.14286	2nd Bottle Neck

Computation of time to be taken for Set Up
Sl No	Particular	Brief
1	No of Doughnuts demanded	13200
2	Working Hours	8
3	Doughnuts Required per Minute	27.5
4	Donut Batch Size	64
5	Time that can be allotted (4/3)	2.33
6	Time required by Cutter	1.19
7	Set Up Time(5-6)	1.14

On perusal of the above, it may be inferred that the first bottleneck stands at 13200 Units of doughnuts (Fraction ignored). Hence, the company shall be able to meet its demand requirement and thus the alternative step shall be able to provide the remedy to the solution. However the solution is short lived as when sales increase, the problem shall emerge again but it is at no extra cost to company.

Batch Size of 8 lbs and Increase in Cutters to 6 from 3

The third alternative proposed under the current mechanism is to increase the number of cutter to 6 to meet the demand requirement. The detailed computation of the same has been presented here-in-below:

Batch Size of 8 lbs and Cutters increased to 6
Sl No	Particulars	Information	No of doughnuts in 8 hours	Comment
1	Shift	Single
2	Time	8 Hours
3	Time period	7 days
4	Sale per Day	13200
5	Batching Capacity	160
a	Time taken to place ingredient	2 Min
b	Size Range	2 lb to 20 lb
c	Batch Size	8 lb
d	Doughnut required in cookie	2ooz
e	No of doughnuts in Batch(c*16/d)	64
f	No of doughnuts per minute(e/a)	32	15360	3rd Bottle Neck
6	Mixer
a	Number	2
b	Time Taken	2.5
c	Number of doughnuts per 2.5 Minute	128
d	No of doughnuts per Minute(c/b)	51.2	24576	4th Bottle Neck
7	Production
A	Extruding
a	Number	6
b	No of doughnuts in batch	64
c	Time taken for 108 doughnuts	1 Min
d	Time taken for 64 doughnuts	0.593
e	Cleaning Time	1.50
f	Total Time taken	2.093
g	No of doughnuts produced per Minute	30.6	14680.35398	1st Bottle Neck
B	Frying
a	Capacity	Unlimited	Unlimited
b	Time Taken	1.5 Minutes
C	Glazing
a	Capacity	Unlimited	Unlimited
b	Time Taken	.75 Min
8	Customising
a	Time Taken	3.5 Sec
b	No of doughnuts	2
c	Total doughnuts in a minute	34.2857143	16457.14286	2nd Bottle Neck

On perusal of the above, it may be inferred that the first bottleneck stands at 14680Units of doughnuts (Fraction ignored). Hence, the company shall be able to meet its demand requirement and thus the alternative step shall be able to provide the remedy to the solution. However the solution involves an additional outlay for 3 more cutters.

Best Solution

Under the present scenario, the best solution for Mr. Dewey Johnson shall be proposal one as the same provides an effective solution compared to other two on account of the following reasons:

• No additional outlay;
• 1^stbottleneck is above the demand;
• It has idle capacity;

Scenario Analysis

The analysis has been based on four scenarios:

• Scenario 1: Present Situation;
• Scenario 2: Alternative Proposal 1 described above;
• Scenario 3: Alternative Proposal 2 described above;
• Scenario 4: Alternative Proposal 3 described above.

References

Burch, J. (2018). Examples of Company Bottlenecks. USA: azcentral.