| Course | MGT 240 Operations Management |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 3 |
| Paper type | Setup and batching analysis |
| Length | About 1,091 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Aspen University |
| Program | Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MGT 240 Module 3
Sixty Minutes of Setup for Nine Minutes of Printing: Changeovers, Batch Size and Capacity at a Contract Screen-Printing Shop
Student Name
Business Administration Program, Aspen University
MGT 240: Operations Management
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Sixty Minutes of Setup for Nine Minutes of Printing: Changeovers, Batch Size and Capacity at a Contract Screen-Printing Shop
Front Range Ink, a composite contract screen-printing shop in Denver, Colorado, prints T-shirts, hoodies and tote bags for schools, breweries, races and small businesses. Its main asset is a six-color automatic press that can print about 500 shirts an hour once running. Yet the shop has been turning away about seven orders a week and quoting three-week turnaround while competitors quote one. The owner assumed the press was too slow and priced a second press at $120,000. This paper analyzes the press's setup and run times and shows that the problem is changeovers, not printing speed.
Setup Time and Run Time
Each color in a design requires its own screen. Before printing, workers mount each screen, align it with the others so colors land in the right place, load ink and print test shirts until registration is correct. This takes about 20 minutes per color. The shop's average order is 72 shirts with three colors, so a typical job requires 60 minutes of setup and about 8.6 minutes of printing at 500 shirts an hour. The press is producing for only about an eighth of the time it is in use.
Capacity Depends on Batch Size
Capacity for a job equals the batch size divided by setup time plus run time. For a 72-shirt, three-color job, that is 72 shirts in 68.6 minutes, or about 63 shirts an hour, not 500. In a 40-hour week, the press completes about 35 typical jobs. The shop receives about 42 such orders a week. For a 500-shirt order, capacity would be about 220 shirts an hour, but such orders are rare.
Shingo's Method
Shingo (1985) developed the single-minute exchange of die method while working with Toyota and other Japanese manufacturers. He distinguished internal setup, work that can only be done while the machine is stopped, from external setup, work that can be done while the machine is running. His method has three stages: separate internal from external work, convert internal work to external wherever possible and streamline what remains. Applied this way, changeovers that once took hours fell to minutes.
Setup Steps Before and After
| Setup step | Minutes per color now | Internal or external after change | Minutes per color after, on press |
|---|---|---|---|
| Find and clean screen | 3 | External; screens staged before job | 0 |
| Mount screen on press | 3 | Internal, faster with quick clamps | 1.5 |
| Align screen with others | 7 | Internal, with pallet registration system | 2.5 |
| Mix and load ink | 3 | Mixing external; loading internal | 1 |
| Print test shirts and adjust | 3 | Internal | 2 |
| Paperwork and approvals | 1 | External | 0 |
| Clean up from prior job | Included above | Partly external | 1 |
| Total | 20 | 8 |
Why Small Lots Matter
Holweg (2007) traced the development of lean production and showed that Toyota's emphasis on small lots grew from necessity: the company could not afford the large inventories and dedicated equipment of American mass producers, so it learned to change over quickly and make many products on the same equipment. Quick changeovers made small batches economical, which reduced inventory and exposed problems sooner. Front Range faces a similar situation, with many small orders and no budget for a second press.
Capacity After the Change
With setup at 8 minutes per color, a three-color job requires 24 minutes of setup plus 8.6 minutes of printing, about 32.6 minutes in total. The press can complete about 73 typical jobs a week, well above the 42 now requested, at a cost of about $14,000 for a pallet registration system, quick clamps and a screen staging rack.
Making the New Setup Stick
Shingo stressed that faster changeovers depend on standard methods as much as on equipment. Front Range will write a one-page setup sheet for the press, listing the external steps to finish before the current job ends and the internal steps in order. The press operator and the screen room worker will practice changeovers together during the first two weeks, timing each one and noting what slowed them down. Screens for the next two jobs will always be staged on the rack, coated, burned and labeled with job number and color order. The owner will review changeover times weekly for the first quarter, since gains from setup reduction often fade when busy weeks push workers back to old habits.
Quality as a Side Benefit
Shorter setups also improve quality. Under the current method, misaligned colors are found only after test prints, and about 4% of shirts in a typical job are misprints that must be discarded or sold as seconds. The pallet registration system locates screens in the same position every time, so fewer test prints are needed and fewer shirts are lost. Holweg's account of Toyota notes the same effect: small lots and quick changeovers revealed defects sooner, before large batches were spoiled.
Why Not a Second Press
A second press would have raised capacity too, but it would have doubled the time spent on setups along with the time spent printing, required another operator and filled the remaining floor space. Setup reduction attacks the waste rather than duplicating it.
Batch Size for Stock Designs
The shop also prints 20 of its own Colorado designs, sold to gift shops, each with annual demand of about 2,400 shirts. Harris (1990), in a classic 1913 article reprinted in Operations Research, derived the economic order quantity, which balances the cost of setting up against the cost of holding inventory. At the current setup cost of about $90 for a three-color design and a holding cost of $1.20 per shirt per year, the economic batch is the square root of two times 2,400 times $90, divided by $1.20, or 600 shirts. After the change, setup costs about $36, and the economic batch falls to about 380 shirts. Average inventory per design falls from 300 to about 190 shirts, freeing about 2,200 shirts' worth of shelf space and cash.
Using the Freed Time
The freed press time will first absorb the seven orders now turned away and allow one-week turnaround. The remainder gives room for growth without a second press.
Conclusion
Front Range Ink's press was never too slow; it spent most of its time being set up. Calculating capacity with setup time included shows why, and Shingo's method shows how to move half the work off the press. Shorter changeovers more than double capacity for typical orders, avoid a $120,000 press and, as Harris's formula shows, allow smaller and cheaper batches of the shop's own designs.
References
Harris, F. W. (1990). How many parts to make at once. Operations Research, 38(6), 947-950. https://doi.org/10.1287/opre.38.6.947 (Original work published 1913)
Holweg, M. (2007). The genealogy of lean production. Journal of Operations Management, 25(2), 420-437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2006.04.001
Shingo, S. (1985). A revolution in manufacturing: The SMED system. Productivity Press.
MGT 240 Module 3 instructions, in plain terms
Aspen's MGT 240 covers process capacity, and a module on batching typically asks students to show how setup times affect capacity and what can be done about them. Treat your Module 3 classroom prompt as the source of exact requirements; here one press at one shop is analyzed. Separate setup time from run time and calculate capacity for a realistic batch. Explain why capacity depends on batch size. Apply a method for reducing setup time, listing setup steps and which can be done while the equipment runs. Recalculate capacity after the change. Where products are made to stock, use an order quantity model to show how shorter setups change the best batch size. Close with costs and what the shop gains.
Inside the MGT 240 Module 3 example
The paper opens with Front Range Ink, whose six-color automatic press handles orders averaging 72 shirts with three colors. Setup takes 20 minutes per color, so a typical job needs 60 minutes of setup and about nine minutes of printing, giving roughly 35 jobs in a 40-hour week against demand for 42. Shingo's book on the single-minute exchange of die describes separating internal from external setup, converting internal steps to external and streamlining the rest. A table lists eight setup steps with times before and after a pallet registration system and off-press screen preparation, cutting setup to 8 minutes per color. Capacity rises to about 73 jobs a week. Holweg's Journal of Operations Management article traces Toyota's small-lot thinking. For the shop's 20 stock designs, Harris's formula shows the best batch falling from 600 to about 380 shirts.
MGT 240 Module 3 rubric: what earns full marks
Batching papers are marked on correct capacity calculations that include setup time, a clear application of a changeover method, recalculated results and an understanding of the trade-off between setups and inventory. This example calculates capacity for a typical job before and after the change, so the gain is measurable. The setup table applies Shingo's internal and external distinction step by step. Holweg's history places the method in context rather than treating it as a trick. The order quantity calculation shows that shorter setups justify smaller batches and less inventory, which connects setup reduction to inventory decisions. Costs are stated.
MGT 240 Module 3 help: mistakes that cost marks
Batching papers often calculate capacity from the run rate alone, ignoring setup, which makes equipment look far more capable than it is. Include setup time and show how capacity changes with batch size. Another weakness is recommending shorter setups without explaining how; list the setup steps and which can move outside the stoppage. Recalculate capacity after the change. If the business makes products to stock, connect setup time to batch size with an order quantity model. Keep units consistent, minutes or hours throughout. State the cost of changes. Finally, consider whether more capacity helps only if demand is there, and what the shop will do with freed time.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Aspen University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
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MGT 240 Module 3 questions, answered
What does MGT 240 Module 3 usually ask for?
Aspen's MGT 240 covers setups and batching in this module, so analyzing how changeover time affects capacity and batch size is typical. Read your classroom prompt.
Why do setups reduce capacity?
While equipment is being set up it produces nothing, so with small batches much of the available time goes to setup rather than production.
What is SMED?
Shingo's single-minute exchange of die, a method for shortening changeovers by doing as much setup as possible while equipment is still running.
Where can I find a free MGT 240 Module 3 sample paper?
The example above analyzes setup time on a screen-printing press, applies Shingo's method and recalculates capacity and batch size.
How do shorter setups change batch size?
Lower setup cost reduces the economic order quantity, so a company can make smaller batches and hold less inventory.