Plane ExerciseThe goals of this exercise are to illustrate the significant reduction in WIP and throughput time using the pull system, to explain and illustrate the concepts of push, pull, kanban, bottleneck, cycle time, idle time, line balance, and to illustrate worker behavior in an operational setting. This exercise utilizes four students in an assembly line to build a paper airplane. The work center tasks are assigned in such a way as to place the bottleneck at the third workstation. The student’s first work is in a standard push approach: each student works at their own comfortable pace as long as inventory is available, and they do not worry about inventory buildup. The second run requires a pull of 3 units at a time, and the third run requires a pull of one unit at a time. The reduction in inventory and throughput time is readily evident to all, providing a powerful learning experience. In addition, student discussion of a multitude of lean concepts and behavioral issues is easily elicited. This exercise can be completed in about 50 minutes, making it feasible to do in a standard 1 hour class time block. The basic multi-fold paper airplane using blank, standard 8 ½ x 11 inch paper is used. The basic folds are easily explained, as shown inFigure 1. Material required:- 100 sheets of white paper (probably more than you will actually use)- 3 sheets of colored paper- Color marker- Forms for data collection:o Task time sheets (12) – one for each work center for each of three runs – observer indicates times for 20 units. See Form 1.o Cycle time sheet (3) – one for each run of the game – observer indicates cycle time for 20 units that come off the end of the assembly line. See Form 2.o Throughput time sheet (1) – observer indicates the throughput time for thecolor sheet to move from raw material inventory to the end of the production line; time once each run of the game. See Form 3.The four work centers are set in a line at tables in the classroom, with chairs for the workers to sit, as shown in Figure 2. About 12 linear feet of table space is required to insure sufficient space for beginning raw material, WIP between each student, and finished goods inventory. A stack of paper is placed before the first work center (raw material). WEC 09/07 MET 345 1Four students are asked to work on the production line. The students are given the instruction sheet, Figure 1, and start a practice run to get any learning effects out of the way, insure correct folding, and to push some inventory into the system. Since the objective in this exercise is the push and pull concepts, the quality is monitored by the instructor only to insure that they are not rushing improperly to try to balance the line. During the practice, the instructor can correct any quality problems. If the instructions are “work at a comfortable pace, do not speed, this is not a contest for maximum output,but quality will be monitored by the instructor,” students will work accordingly.Seven students are asked to time the activities and collect WIP quantities. Work centers one to four will have task times monitored using Form 1. It is important to instruct students to time only the actual hands-on task time for the worker, since work center 4 will have idle time and will not be working all the time. One student will collect the cycle time at the end of the line, the time between completion of successive units, using Form 2. The student should be instructed to start timing when a plane is finished by work center 4, count the production of the next 20 planes, then stop timing when this last, 21st, plane is finished. Dividing by 20 will give the average cycle time. The sixth student will note the throughput time of the color sheet using Form 3, discussed below. The seventh student will count WIP on each run.The remaining students should gather around and be instructed to keep an eye on the workers and the action, with knowledge that they are to provide insightful discussion at the conclusion. The first run is the push run: let them make inventory as fast as they want and push to the next work center. After a few minutes, as the inventory builds, have the observing student count the WIP without stopping the line. We have found that writing the results in a table on the board will provide easy comparisons, as shown in Figure 4.At an opportune time, insert the colored sheet onto the top of the raw material paper. Make sure in the push run that this sheet is not conveniently placed on the top of subsequent piles of inventory, thus resulting in a relatively fast throughput. Insist on a FIFO type of process between work centers; the instructor can easily move the sheet tothe bottom of a pile if the students try to use LIFO. The student observer is instructed totrack the throughput time: the time from when the first worker takes the sheet from the raw material pile, to the time when the last worker completes the plane and places it in the finished goods inventory. This throughput time should be written on the board as shown in Figure 4. When the colored sheet is out of the line and the throughput time noted, the run can be stopped if at least 21 units have made their way through the end of the line and all the data collection has been completed. At the conclusion of each run, the observers are asked to find their average task times, cycle time, and throughput time. These results will be added to the table on the white board as shown in Figure 4. The tasks times should indicate that work center 3 is the WEC 09/07 MET 345 2bottleneck, and since the bottleneck is really the deciding factor in throughput, and thus the cycle time should be about the same as the bottleneck’s task time for each run. A discussion at this point should result in the identification of the bottleneck, the piles of inventory, and observation that work center 4 is idle some of the time while the other work centers worked continuously. This is a good time to reinforce the concepts of bottleneck, cycle time, throughput time, push, line balance and worker behavior.The second run is a pull 3 run. Designate a space between each work center as an imaginary kanban box where inventory will be held as shown in Figure 3. Place 3 units of WIP in each of the 3 kanban areas. Indicate that one worker’s in box is the previous worker’s out box. A worker can start work at their work center only when 1) there are 3 units in