• A cost effective alternative to a foodtruck is the “elTACOBIKE”, which requires some assembly. Each year, the manufacturer receives many requests to assemble the elTACOBIKE for their franchise owners, which they are happy to do for an assembly fee.  The manufacturer has hired four workers to do the assembly.  Doug removes the parts from the carton, which takes about two minutes, and lays them out at one end of three long work tables, checking to make sure that all parts are present. The layout and checking process takes about four minutes. When something is missing (about 10% of the time), Doug searches through available spare parts and finds the part or parts that will complete the kit; this takes about five minutes.

Pat removes the plastic caps from the front axle and discards them, then places the metal capnut on one end of the axle and taps it into place with a hammer, which takes about two minutes, on average. He then slides the uncapped end of the axle through one of the front wheels, the holes in the body and the other wheel, then taps the second capnut in place with the hammer and tugs to make sure the axle and wheels are secure. This step takes three minutes.

After Pat’s work is completed, Kate begins the rear wheel assembly, first placing one pedal on the pedal crank, positioning a washer in the pedal slot, and driving the pedal crank through the washer until it is securely fit within the pedal, then pulls on it to make sure it is secure. This takes Kate two minutes. She then slides the crank through a wheel insert, which positions the crank securely, and the rear wheel, then slides on the remaining insert and positions the second pedal. This takes another two minutes.

Lisa completes the assembly by inserting the handlebar post through the hole in the body of the elTACOBIKE, inserting two screws, one through the front and one through the back, then tightening them. She finally places the preassembled metal taco box-container in the front frame between the wheels. This takes, on average, three minutes.

Draw the swim-lane process flow diagram and identify the bottleneck.  Label everything clearly and completely. (10 points)

1. Swim-lane process flow diagram 2. The Bottlenecks occur where a process will stop because there are not enough resources. In this case of eITACOBIKE the bottleneck occurswhere Doug misses parts…