Inspecting Component-level Operation

This operation models visually inspecting the finished part. This is an operation of the Bench Operation Process. Inspection is assumed to be a labor-dependent task (see Labor-dependent and Labor-independent Tasks). Cycle time is given by the formula below.

Cycle Time =

(Labor Dependent Process Time / Number of Operators) +

Labor Independent Process Time

Cycle time depends on the following:

• Labor-dependent process time (see formula)

• Number of operators: by default this is specified by the machine property Number of Operators. Users can override the default with the setup option Number of Operators.

• Labor-independent process time: this is the time to move the part to the work cell. By default, it is assumed that tool breakdown and inspecting occur at the same work station (see Tool Breakdown Component-level Operation). So this is 0 unless Tool Breakdown and Inspecting use different work cells (machines) as a result of manual machine selection. In such a case, labor-independent process time is given by the formula for Part Handling Time, below.

Labor Dependent Process Time =

Component Surface Area / Final Inspection Rate

• Component surface area: specified by the geometric property Surface Area.

• Final inspection rate: specified in area per unit time by the cost model variable finalInspectionRate (28,000mm2/sec in starting point VPEs).

Part Handling Time =

Tool Load Time + Tool Unload Time

Labor-independent process time is the sum of the following:

• Tool load time: looked up by tool length and tool width in the Tool Handling Time column of the lookup table tblHandlingTimes. Tool length and width is estimated based on part length--see Tool Length, Width, and Area.

• Tool unload time: this is the same as tool load time.