Matching Supply with Demand: An Introduction to Operations Management

Solutions to End-of-Chapter Problems

Chapter 3
Q3.3. Cranberry
Cranberries arrive at a rate of 150 barrels per hour. They get processed at a rate of 100 barrels
per hour. Thus, inventory accumulates at a rate of 150-100=50 barrels per hour. This happens
while trucks arrive, i.e. from 6am to 2pm. The highest inventory level thereby is 8h*50 barrels
per hour=400 barrels. From these 400 barrels, 200 barrels are in the bins, the other 200 barrels
are in trucks.
(a) 200 barrels
(b) From 2pm onwards, no additional cranberries are received. Inventory gets depleted at a rate
of 100 barrels per hour. Thus, it will take 2h until the inventory level has dropped to 200 barrels,
at which time all waiting cranberries can be stored in the bins (no more truck waiting)
(c) It will take another 2 hours until all the bins are empty
(d) Since the seasonal workers only start at 10:00am, the first 4 hours of the day we accumulate
4hours * 50barrels per hour=200 barrels. For the remaining time that we receive incoming
cranberries, our processing rate is higher (125 barrels per hour). Thus, inventory only
accumulates at a rate of 25 (150-125 barrels per hour). Given that this happens over 4 hours, we
get another 100 barrels in inventory. At 2pm, we thereby have 300 barrels in inventory. After
2pm, we receive no further cranberries, yet we initially process cranberries at a rate of 125
barrels per hour. Thus, it only takes 100 barrels / 125 barrels/hour=0.8 hours=48 minutes until all
bins are empty. From then, we need another 2h until the bins are empty.
Q3.4. Western Pennsylvania Milk
We start the day with 25,000 gallons of milk in inventory. From 8am onwards, we produce 5,000
gallons, yet we ship 10,000 gallons. Thus inventory is depleted at a rate of 5000 gallons per hour,
which leaves us without milk after 5 hours (at 1pm). From then onwards, clients will have to
wait. This situation gets worse and worse and by 6pm (last client arrives), we are short 25,000
gallons.
(a) 1pm
(b) Clients will stop waiting when we have worked off our 25,000 gallon backlog that we are
facing at 6pm. Since we are doing this at a rate of 5,000 gallon per hour, clients will stop waiting
at 11pm (after 5 more hours).
(c) At 6pm, we have a backlog of 25,000 gallons, which is equivalent to 20 trucks
(d) The waiting time is the area in the triangle
- width: beginning of waiting (1pm) to end of waiting (11pm)=10 hours
- height: maximum number of trucks waiting: 20 (see part c above)
Hence, we can compute the area in the triangle as: 0.5*10hours*20trucks=100 truck* hours
The cost for this waiting is 50$/truck* hour * 100 truck hours=5000$

Q3.5. Bagel Store

Available
minutes
per hour
60
60

Grilled
veggie
bagel
3*3
3*10

Veggie
bagel

Total

Implied
utilization

3*11
0

Cream
cheese
bagel
3*4
0

54
30

54/60
30/60

60

3*5

11*5

70

70/60

60

4*4

16

16/60

60

3*2

11*2

4*2

36

36/60

(b) If we want to keep the product mix constant (i.e. keep the ration between the various bagel
types at 3:11:4), we need to scale down demand by 60/70. This leads to the following flow rates:
- Grilled veggie: 3*60/70 bagels / hour
- Veggie: 11*60/70 bagels / hour
- Cream cheese: 4*60/70 bagels / hour
If we try to fulfill as much demand as possible, we encounter a problem with Veggie bagels and
Grilled+Veggie bagels. Given that we have an implied utilization of 70/60% at the bottleneck,
we can only fulfill 60/70% of demand for these two bagel types. We can meet all of demand for
the cream cheese bagels.
Q3.6. Valley Forge Income Tax
Recall that the demand for the 4 groups is:
1: 15%
2: 5%
3: 50%
4:30%
There are three resources, the admin, the junior person, and the senior person. We compute the
minutes of capacity they have available every month as well as their work-load, given that there
are 50 incoming returns to be processed. This leads to the following computations.
Resource

Minutes
1
per month

Admin

9600

0.05*50
*(40+80)

0.5*50
*(20+30)

0.3*50
*(40+60)

0.15*50
*(20+50)

Total
workload
3575

Implied
utilization
0.372

Senior

9600

Junior

9600

0.15*50
*(30+20)
0.15*50
*120

0.05*50
*(90+60)
0.05*50
*300

0.5*50
*(0+5)
0.5*50
*80

0.3*50
*(0+30)
0.3*50
*200

1325

0.138

6650

0.693

(a) The junior person is the bottleneck, her implied utilization is the highest
(b) Implied utilizations (see table)
(c) One should consider: revenue, future revenue (lifetime value of customer), to what extent the
request draws on bottleneck capacity
(d) not at all, since improvements at non-bottleneck steps dont increase capacity
Q3.7. Car Wash Supply Process
a. The implied utilization at wheel cleaning is: 42 minutes of work from package 3 a day,
84 minutes of work from package 4 per day, giving a total of 126 minutes per day.
Relative to 720 minutes of available time, that gives an implied utilization of 17.5%.
b. The highest implied utilization is at step 1 (automated washing machine) where the
implied utilization is 55.55%.
c. The new bottleneck will be the interior cleaning employee with an implied utilization of
111%
d. Every day, we are 80 minutes of work short at step interior cleaning. That corresponds
to four customers with package 4.
Q3.8. Starbucks
a. Time required of the frozen drink maker = 20*2 = 40 minutes. Each worker has 60
minutes available, so the utilization for the frozen drink maker: 40/60
b. Highest implied utilization is for the Espresso Drink Maker with 116.66%
c. Following the promotion, the new utilizations will be 108.89%, 66.66%, and 116.66%
respectively.
Q3.9. Paris Airport
a. The implied utilization levels of the resources are computed as follows
Servers
Security
Agents
Kiosk

4
6
3

Avail. Min/Hr
Requested Imp. Util.
240
150
62.50%
360
440 122.22%
180
160
88.89%

b. The backlog at the bottleneck accumulates at a rate of 80 requested minutes per hour.
After 4 hours this is 4*80 = 320 requested minutes of work from the agents. This takes
6 agents 320/360 = 8/9 = 0.89 hours to complete, or 53.4 minutes after the last arrival

c. When Kim arrives, the backlog is half as long as the final backlog in question 2, e.g.
there are 160 requested minutes of work in front of Kim. This will take the agents
160/360 = 0.45 hours = 26.6 minutes to complete. Kim takes 3 minutes to complete
service with the agent and 30 seconds to pass through security (there is no line at
security) so the answer is 30 minutes and 10 seconds
d. We compute the new utilizations as follows:
Servers
Security
Agents
Kiosk

4
6
3

Avail. Min/Hr
Requested Imp. Util.
240
150
62.50%
360
376 104.44%
180
32
17.78%

Extra work accumulates at a rate of 16 minutes per hour for the agents, for a total of 64
minutes after the last arrival. This takes the 6 agents 64/360 = 0.178 hours = 10.7
minutes to complete, so 8:10 PM is the closest answer.