Cards Exercise: The purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate the impact of process variation on rolled throughput yield, product cost, and cycle time. Each team of 4–12 people needs three poster...

Cards Exercise: The purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate the impact of process variation on rolled throughput yield, product cost, and cycle time. Each team of 4–12 people needs three poster chart sheets as targets, one deck of 52 cards, a stopwatch, three pads of paper, and a tally sheet. There are three process steps, during which good products advance to the next process step while defects are recycled. At each process step an operator drops a card, which is held vertically or, as specified by instructor, at arm’s length parallel to the floor at shoulder’s height. If the card lands completely within the poster chart, a material handler moves the card to the next process step. If the card does not land correctly, it is considered a defect and returned to the operator. A recorder documents performance data for the step. Each team will need a timekeeper who measures time to completion, a customer who receives/counts the number of cards completed satisfactory, and a data entry clerk to tally the results. Each team starts with a full deck of 52 cards and stops when 25 good units are received. The following is used within the computations and presented to the group: total good units moved to subsequent step or customer, total drops at each step, total number of cards never used by first operator and total time from first drop to customer order completion. Recycled units will need to be segregated from never-used units. Teams are given a trial run of five units, and cards are returned to first operator. Each team is to maximize yield while minimizing scrap and rework, total cost, and total cycle time. Teams determine these metrics from the following relationships: Yield  materials yield shipment quantity/total input into step 1, RTY  multiplication of yield (units in spec/total drops) for all three process steps costs. Materials cost $5 per unit introduced into step 1, process cost is $2 per drop, scrap is $1 per unit in process at end of game, and cycle time  total time/number of units shipped to customer. Upon completion, give an assessment of the process relative to variability and control. Consider how this affects the metrics (Zinkgraf 1998).