Arriving at JFK airport in New York from overseas requires a sequence of immigra

Question

Arriving at JFK airport in New York from overseas requires a sequence of immigration and customs-clearing activities before a passenger can board a domestic flight for home. The table below lists the activities and their average times. Each activity is performed in the sequence noted and there is one clerk assigned to each activity to help in the process. Once one passenger has finished an activity, the next passenger can start that activity.

Activity

Average time, sec.

1. Deplane

20

2. Immigration

50

3. Baggage claim check inspection

40

4. Customs

16

5. Check baggage

24

6. Board domestic flight

15

Look at this as a process you have been asked to analyze.

a) What is the activity that is limiting the hourly output and what is the maximum number of passengers who can be processed per hour?

b) Suppose that steps 3 and 4 are combined. In addition, the two clerks previously doing each step separately will both be assigned to perform these two activities. What is the activity that is limiting the hourly output and what is the maximum number of passengers who can be processed per hour?

Activity

Average time, sec.

1. Deplane

20

2. Immigration

50

3. Baggage claim check inspection

40

4. Customs

16

5. Check baggage

24

6. Board domestic flight

15

Explanation / Answer

1. The hourly output is limited by bottleneck or the activity taking the maximum time. In this case it is Immigration. Since each activity can only be done by only passenger at a time the max hourly output will be given by below formula

Hourly Output = (Total seconds in 1 hour) / (Average time per passenger in seconds)

= 3600/ 50 = 72

So 72 passengers can be processed in 1 hour

2.Since now activity 3 and 4 are comined and also there is only 1 clerk assigned to it the average time taken to complete it will be given by below :  

Average for Activity 3 & 4 Combined= Average time for activity 3 + Average time for activity 4 = 40 + 16 = 56 seconds

Now since all activity have time lower than 56 seconds this has become the bottleneck or the slowest activity.

Hence hourly output after this changes = 3600/56 = 64.2

After rounding off the hourly output comes to 64 passengers.

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