| Course | BU 421 Operations Management |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 3 |
| Paper type | Capacity planning worksheet |
| Length | About 1,000 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Herzing University |
| Program | BS in Business Management |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for BU 421 Unit 3
A Third Shift on One Router, Then a Fourth Machine: A Capacity Planning Worksheet for a Composite Cabinet Plant's CNC Routers Facing 52,000 Boxes
Student Name
Business, Herzing University
BU 421: Operations Management
Instructor Name
February 11, 2026
A Third Shift on One Router, Then a Fourth Machine: A Capacity Planning Worksheet for a Composite Cabinet Plant's CNC Routers Facing 52,000 Boxes
Definitions
This worksheet sizes the CNC router capacity that Tallgrass Cabinet Works, the course's composite cabinet maker, needs for its 2027 forecast. The routers cut every side, bottom, back and shelf for the plant's cabinet boxes from sheets of plywood, so no box can be built faster than they cut. Four terms are used, and each has one meaning here.
Design capacity is the most output a router could produce in the hours the plant is scheduled to run, with no allowance for anything going wrong. Effective capacity is design capacity less planned losses, such as preventive maintenance and changeovers, that the operation must accept under its current product mix. Utilization is actual output divided by design capacity. Efficiency is actual output divided by effective capacity. Stevenson (2021) warns that treating design capacity as achievable is the most common cause of overcommitted plans, because it assumes away losses every plant has.
Available Hours per Router
Router time is scheduled across a pair of eight-hour shifts on weekdays, 50 weeks of the year. The table converts that schedule into hours and deducts the planned losses recorded in the 2025 maintenance and production logs, which belong to the composite case.
| Item | Calculation | Hours per router per year |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled hours (design capacity) | 8 hours x 2 shifts x 5 days x 50 weeks | 4,000 |
| Less preventive maintenance | 4% of scheduled hours | 160 |
| Less changeovers (sheet loading, tool changes, nest downloads) | 10% of scheduled hours | 400 |
| Effective capacity | 4,000 less 160 less 400 | 3,440 |
How the Routers Performed in 2025
In 2025 the plant built 48,000 boxes, and each box needs 0.17 router hours on average across the mix, so the three routers produced 8,160 hours of cutting, or 2,720 hours each. Utilization was 2,720 divided by 4,000, or 68.0 percent. Efficiency was 2,720 divided by 3,440, or 79.1 percent. The two figures answer different questions: utilization shows how much of the scheduled time produced parts, while efficiency shows how close the routers came to what they could realistically sustain.
In the best four months of 2025, efficiency reached 85 percent, with losses from unplanned stoppages, operator breaks and waiting for sheets held to 15 percent of effective hours. The worksheet uses that 85 percent as the sustainable planning rate, which gives 3,440 times 0.85, or 2,924 productive hours per router per year. Three routers therefore supply 8,772 productive hours.
Required Capacity for 2027
The demand planning forecast for 2027 is 52,000 boxes. At 0.17 router hours each, that is 8,840 hours of cutting. Unit 1 set a 15 percent capacity cushion as the protection for Tallgrass's first priority, delivery reliability, so required capacity is 8,840 times 1.15, or 10,166 hours.
Current capacity of 8,772 hours falls short of 10,166 by 1,394 hours. Even without the cushion, the routers would run above 100 percent of their sustainable rate in 2027, since 8,840 exceeds 8,772. They are already tight: the 2026 forecast of 50,000 boxes needs 8,500 hours, leaving a cushion of only about 3 percent, which helps explain the missed delivery dates recorded in Unit 1.
Dividing required capacity by productive hours per router gives the machine count: 10,166 divided by 2,924 is 3.48 routers. A fractional router cannot be bought, so the plant needs either a fourth router or more hours from the three it has.
Two Ways to Close the Gap
The first lever is time. A third shift on one router adds 2,000 scheduled hours, 1,720 effective hours after the same 14 percent planned losses, and 1,462 productive hours at 85 percent efficiency, which covers the 1,394-hour gap. It needs one operator on nights at a loaded rate of $34 an hour including shift premium, or $68,000 a year, plus about $12,000 of supervision from the night maintenance lead and $4,000 of added utilities, for a total of about $84,000 a year.
The second lever is equipment. A fourth router costs about $210,000 installed and would be depreciated over seven years, or $30,000 a year. It needs an operator on each of the two existing shifts at $28 an hour, 4,000 hours or $112,000 a year, plus about $6,000 a year of maintenance, for a total of about $148,000 a year. It also adds 2,924 productive hours, raising capacity to 11,696 hours and the cushion to about 32 percent.
The third shift is the cheaper lever by about $64,000 a year and can start within a month, while a new router takes about 16 weeks to arrive and install. But the third shift carries the plant only so far. With 10,234 productive hours, three routers and one night shift can support about 8,899 hours of cutting at a 15 percent cushion, or about 52,300 boxes. Demand has grown by about 2,000 boxes a year since 2024, so the plant will pass that point in 2028.
| Option | Added productive hours | Total capacity | Cushion at 52,000 boxes | Annual cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Third shift on one router | 1,462 | 10,234 | 15.8% | About $84,000 |
| Fourth router | 2,924 | 11,696 | 32.3% | About $148,000 |
Does the Router Set the Line's Capacity?
A plant's output is limited by its slowest resource, and Goldratt and Cox (2004) argue that an hour gained anywhere other than the bottleneck adds nothing to output. The routers were checked against the next two stations for 2027. The three edgebanders need 0.13 hours per box, or 6,760 hours against 8,772 available, a cushion of about 30 percent. The assembly cell needs about 0.48 labor hours per box, or 24,960 hours against 24,000 staffed hours on two shifts, a shortfall of about 4 percent, which the staffing plan and the waste reduction work later in the course will need to close. With routers expanded, the assembly cell becomes the station to watch.
Recommendation
Tallgrass should start a third shift on one router in January 2027 and order a fourth router in the third quarter of 2027 for delivery before demand passes about 52,300 boxes in 2028. That sequence buys time at the lower cost now and adds equipment when growth makes the time lever run out. Heizer et al. (2020) describe this staged approach, adding capacity in steps that lead demand rather than trail it, as the way to protect service when missed orders cost more than idle capacity. The cabinet maker, its routers and all rates and costs in this worksheet were invented for the course.
References
Goldratt, E. M., & Cox, J. (2004). The goal: A process of ongoing improvement (3rd rev. ed.). North River Press.
Heizer, J., Render, B., & Munson, C. (2020). Operations management: Sustainability and supply chain management (13th ed.). Pearson.
Stevenson, W. J. (2021). Operations management (14th ed.). McGraw Hill.
BU 421 Unit 3 instructions, in plain terms
The capacity unit of BU 421 asks students to measure an operation's capacity against a demand forecast and recommend how to close any gap. Typical instructions require definitions of design, effective and actual capacity, a calculation of utilization and efficiency, and a comparison of required with available capacity for a future period. Many versions add a capacity cushion, a break-even or cost comparison between options such as overtime, extra shifts, new equipment or outsourcing, and a look at whether the chosen resource is actually the bottleneck. Expect a worksheet of three to four pages plus tables, cited in APA 7. Figures may come from a supplied case or a composite, but every rate should carry its unit and time base so the arithmetic can be followed.
How this BU 421 Unit 3 example is built
This sample opens with four definitions, each given one meaning for the rest of the worksheet. It then builds available hours per router from shifts, days and planned downtime, and reports how the three routers performed in 2025. Required capacity for 2027 is computed from the forecast and the time per box, which exposes the shortfall. The options section prices a third shift on one router against buying a fourth router and shows when each runs out. A separate section checks the next two stations, since an extra router hour adds nothing if assembly is the true limit, and finds the assembly cell about 4 percent short. The recommendation stages the two options in time, a shift now and a machine before demand passes about 52,300 boxes.
Where the points sit in the BU 421 Unit 3 rubric
The rubric for Unit 3 generally awards points for correct definitions and calculations, a clear comparison of required and available capacity, evaluation of alternatives, and a justified recommendation, plus writing and citation quality. Calculation criteria are strict: utilization and efficiency divided by the wrong base lose most of their points even when the rest is sound. The comparison earns full credit when the gap is expressed in the same unit as the capacity, hours here. Alternatives are judged on whether costs and timing are both considered, since the cheapest option now may fail next year. A recommendation that sequences actions over time, and that checks the bottleneck before spending on capacity, is what separates the strongest papers from those that simply buy another machine.
BU 421 Unit 3 help: mistakes that cost points
Mixing up utilization and efficiency is the error that most often costs points here: utilization compares actual output with design capacity, efficiency compares it with effective capacity. Many worksheets also omit planned downtime, so available hours look larger than they are. Some students compute a single year's gap and stop, without asking how long a proposed fix will last. Others recommend new equipment without pricing the alternatives. A frequent oversight is assuming the studied resource is the bottleneck, when a check of the next station might show the gap lies elsewhere. Finally, keep numbers traceable: each total should be reproducible from figures already on the page, and rounding should happen at the end so that small differences do not compound across tables.
Get a BU 421 Unit 3 example written to your instructions
Send the Unit 3 instructions and rubric from the BU 421 classroom together with whatever demand and equipment figures the assignment sets. We write a custom example that defines both capacities, builds available hours from the calendar, keeps utilization apart from efficiency and costs each lever the same way. First custom sample free, back in 24 to 48 hours.
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BU 421 Unit 3 questions, answered
What separates design capacity from effective capacity?
Design capacity is the maximum output under ideal conditions with nothing stopping. Effective capacity subtracts what the operation knows it will lose to maintenance, changeovers, breaks and product mix. Actual output is lower again. Utilization compares actual against design and efficiency compares actual against effective, so naming the base every time is what keeps the three figures apart.
How large should the capacity cushion be?
It depends on how variable demand is and what a stockout costs, and the worksheet should say so rather than name a number from nowhere. A volatile market with expensive shortages justifies a larger cushion; steady demand with cheap inventory justifies a smaller one. Where the instructions supply a figure, use it and explain what it implies about the composite firm.
Does the bottleneck set the capacity of the whole line?
For the line as a system, yes, and worksheets that compute capacity station by station without identifying the constraint often overstate what can be produced. Find the slowest step in units per hour, and state the line capacity from that. Extra capacity anywhere else only adds inventory in front of the constraint rather than output at the end.
Where can I find a free BU 421 Unit 3 sample paper?
The BU 421 Unit 3 capacity planning worksheet above is a complete free example, with every capacity table and the reasoning behind its recommendation annotated. If your case uses different equipment or a service operation, share your instructions and a free custom worksheet is drafted, usually within two days.
What is a capacity cushion in BU 421 Unit 3?
It is the share of capacity held above expected demand, so the operation can absorb variation without missing orders. The sample reports cushions at the edgebanders and assembly cell to show which resource is closest to its limit, which is where the recommendation focuses.