Midterm Practice 2: Machining On A Machining On B Machining On C

Midterm Practice 2
1. Below is a flow diagram for the production process of Excellent Manufacturing, Inc.
Currently, the process is being used to make Product Valentine. Production times (per unit)
are included on the diagram.
Machining on A Machining on B Machining on C
Resource A Resource B Resource C

10 min/unit 20 min/unit 15 min/unit
(a) What is the maximum throughput rate for Product Valentine?

(b) What is the theoretical flow time?
(c) Assume that the operator of machine C has come up with an innovation that has
reduced processing time from 15 minutes to 10 minutes. As a result, the throughput rate
will (circle one)
i. increase
ii. decrease
iii. remain the same
(d) Assume that the operator of machine C has come up with an innovation that has
reduced processing time from 15 minutes to 10 minutes. As a result, the flow time will
(circle one)
i. increase
ii. decrease
iii. remain the same
(e) When the demand rate = capacity rate of the process, what are the short run utilizations
of
i. Resource A:
ii. Resource B:
iii. Resource C:
2. A car repair shop has two hoists where cars can be lifted for repair work. Currently,
customers leave the car (after finishing their repairs) at the rate of 4 per hour. On average 8
cars are waiting to be processed.
(a) How long do customers wait on average before being processed?
(b) Some of the customers need routine repairs and other need major repairs. The repair
shop owner feels that he is losing many customers needing routine repair because of the
long wait, and therefore dedicates one hoist for routine repair and one for major repairs.
A study indicates that the throughput rate for routine repairs is 3 per hour and
throughput rate for major repairs is 1 per hour. On average, 5 people are waiting for
routine repairs and 3 on average are waiting for major repairs. How long does each type
of customer now wait before being served?
3. Gracias Restaurant is located in downtown Vancouver. The restaurant has 50 tables at which
it can serve customers. The flow unit through Gracias is a “party”, which is a group of one or
more people who arrive, get seated at a table, eat and depart. On average, a party takes 60
minutes to eat dinner, and then another 20 minutes to eat dessert. (We will use the term
“dessert” to refer to any after-dinner item, such as sweets, coffee, other drinks, and so on.)
The average party generates a contribution margin (revenue minus variable cost) of $80 on
dinner, and $20 on dessert.
(a) If all parties have both dinner and dessert, what is the capacity rate (parties per hour) of
the restaurant?
(b) At what rate (dollars per hour) is margin generated by the restaurant if it is operating at
capacity?
Now assume that Gracias has leased space to open a “dessert bar” next door, and has opened
up the wall between the two to allow inside access from the restaurant to the dessert bar. The
dessert bar has 35 tables. Now, a party arrives and is seated at a table in Gracias as usual.
However, when the party has finished eating dinner, the server asks them if they would
please move to the dessert bar for dessert.
(c) Assuming that all parties eat both dinner and dessert, what is the capacity rate (parties
per hour) of the total system (restaurant and dessert bar)?
(d) At what rate (dollars per hour) is margin generated by the system if it is operating at
capacity?
4. A bank installs an ATM and observes that the customers arrive at a rate of 15 per hour and
the arrivals follow a Poisson distribution. The ATM has a fixed non-random service time of 3
minutes per customer.
(a) Calculate the average time spent by a customer in this system.
(b) What is the percentage of time that the ATM is idle?
(c) Over time, the ATM machine becomes slower. If the ATM machine slows down and
requires 5 minutes per customer, what happens to the utilization?
(d) When this ATM machine breaks down, the bank resorts to a teller system. The teller
takes 1 minute to serve half his customers and 5 minutes for the other half. (Thus, each
customer is requires either 1 minute or 5 minutes of service.) Who is more idle, the
teller or the ATM?
5. Jane Smith has been hired by Wolverine Airlines to redesign their terminal counter
opera- tions, where customers check in (check baggage, receive boarding passes, and
change flight details if necessary). The airline is very sensitive to their customers time
spent waiting for service and being served; many customers dislike waiting in these
queues, anxious about missing their flights, etc. Wolverine currently has three counters,
each sta↵ed by a single employee, and a single FCFS queue for all customers to join.
Seeing how Wolverine currently configures their queues, Jane thinks that they have got
it all wrong. Jane redesigns the queues so that there is a dedicated queue and a dedicated
server for each of the customer classes (economy, business, and first class). No customers
cross between servers.
Economy class (E) passengers arrive at a rate of 19 per hour; Business class (B)
passengers arrive at a rate of 13 per hour; First class (F) passengers arrive at a rate of 4
per hour. Each of the three serving employees takes an average of 3 minutes to check in
customers. Assume arrivals follow a Poisson process and service time is exponentially
distributed. Compare the total time (waiting and service) customers spend in the two
system designs.

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Midterm Practice 2: Machining On A Machining On B Machining On C

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Midterm Practice 2

Machining on A Machining on B Machining on C

Resource A Resource B Resource C

(a) What is the maximum throughput rate for Product Valentine?

(b) What is the percentage of time that the ATM is idle?

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