Calculating variant probability

Process Planning for BTO/BTS/CTO uses allocated time to calculate process and station work content. It can also calculate for variant probability, which is a percentage that describes how often the mix of products on a line includes a given variant.

If there are variants:

(station work content) = (time of assigned operations) x (operation’s variant probability)

For example, consider the interior color variant in a certain plant: 40% of the time the interior is brown, 45% of the time the interior is red, and 15% of the time the interior is black. If the insert seat operation time is 20 seconds:

Operation name	Product program (variant)	Product program (variant) probability	Allocated time	Weighted time
Install seat	Brown interior	0.40	20	8
Install seat	Red interior	0.45	20	9
Install seat	Black interior	0.15	20	3

If all three operations are allocated to the same process area:

Operation name	Product program (variant)	Line balancing operation time
Install seat	Brown interior	8
Install seat	Red interior	9
Install seat	Black interior	3
Station work content	20