Discuss the specific changes that were made to the firm`s manufacturing planning and control system as a result of the investment in the new production process.

Question 1. Prepare an analysis of the company with particular reference to the following:
a) the characteristics of the market served by the company;

b) the length of lead time. Prepare an appropriate bill of materials for the company`s traditional factory, find the longest cumulative lead time for the process, and comment on the length of the lead time.

c) A university has ordered for fully tested 50 of the 4620 Alpha terminals for their CAE laboratory to be delivered within 5 months` time. Assuming that, in agreement with reliable subcontractors, the initial plan demanded for 10 finished terminals per week and, with the following starting inventory, determine the latest planned work order releases for the Tablet, Pen, Agid PCBs and Cover Assembly as particular items, and Cable as a general item. The default pre-testing safety stock is 10 unless specified; the safety stock for the fully tested terminal is 2; and the lot size is 10 unless specified differently.

The starting inventories (units) are:

Assume that the factory works 5 days a week and lead times are to be rounded to whole number of weeks for this section.

Question 2. Discuss the specific changes that were made to the firm`s manufacturing planning and control system as a result of the investment in the new production process.

Question 3. Build a Witness model of the traditional Alpha production system. Validate the model, analyse the results and comment on how performances could be improved.

Question 4. Prepare a recommendation on the actions that APPL should take to bring about further new changes in view of the transformation to Industry 4.0.