Test Papers / Previous Question Papers of IGNOU MS5 Management of Machines and Materials December 2005

MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME
Term-End Examination

December, 2005

MS5 : MANAGEMENT OF MACHINES AND MATERIALS

Time: 3 hours
Maximum Marks: 100
(Weightage 70%)

SECTION A

1. (a) Describe the Operations Management decisions and their classifications.

A small gear manufacturing facility is being planned that will feed parts to five heavy manufacturing facilities. The location of the current plants with their coordinates and volume requirements is given in the following table :

Use the cenre of gravity method to determine the best location for this new facility.

2. (a) Identify three disciplines/sub disciplines that will contribute in a major way to the development of Production and Operations Management (POM).

(b) Data for a break-even analysis revealed that total costs at volumes of 600 and 800 units were Rs. 80,000 and Rs. 96,000 respectively. Revenue is Rs. 144 per unit. Based upon this information, compute the following :
(i) The variable costs per unit, and
(ii) The fixed costs

3. (a) Discuss with suitable examples, the process of launching a new product in the market.

(b) Lakeview Lumber uses forklift truck to transport lumber from the mill to a storage warehouse 0.30 km away. The lift trucks can move three loaded pallets per trip and travel at an average of 6 km per hour (allowing for loading, delays, and travel). If 420 pallet loads must be moved during each 8-hour shift, how many lift truck are required ? (10+10)

4. (a) What do you mean by an integrated approach to Materials Management ? Explain.

(b) A company has a monthly demand of 800 units of a product. The company can produce 8 products per hour when it starts a production run. It costs Rs. 3000 for shop set-up to start a production run. The inventory carrying cost amounts to Rs. 1.50 per unit per month. What is the optimal batch size ? Assume 25 working days in a month and eight working hours in a day. How frequently should the production run be undertaken and what should be the length of each run ? (10+10)

5. (a) Explain different types of maintenance giving suitable example. Suggest an organisation structure for the maintenance department of a medium sized company.

(b) There are seven jobs (given in the table below), each of which has to go through machines A and B in that order. The processing time is in hours.

Determine the sequence of jobs that will minimize the total time for completion of all the jobs. (10+10)

SECTION B

6. A small project consists of eight activities for which the relevant data are given below :

(a) Draw the Network digram.
(b) Find the critical path.
(c) Find the project completion time.
(d) Calculate the total float for each of the activities. (8+4+2+6)

7. Write short notes on any four of the following : (4x5=20)
(a) Aggregate planning
(b) Buffer Stock
(c) Kodak system
(d) VED analysis
(e) Producer's risk
(f) Value Engineering