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value 4.00 points PA 3-11 The local driver\'s license center processes... The lo

ID: 399812 • Letter: V

Question

value 4.00 points PA 3-11 The local driver's license center processes... The local driver's license center processes applications for driver's license renewals through the following three steps. First, the customer registers with one of 1 receptionist(s), who updates the customer's information in the database. This first step takes 1 minutes per customer. Then the customer visits one of 3 cashiers to pay the associated fees for the license renewal. This takes 9 minutes per customer because several forms must be printed from the computer and signed by the customer. Finally, the customer visits one of 1 license processing stations where the customer's picture is taken and the license is printed. This final step takes 1 minutes per customer. Assuming unlimited demand, what is the flow rate of the process a. per hour in customers per hour? (Round to nearest integer) Assuming unlimited demand, what would the new flow rate be if to nearest integer) b. the center added one server to the bottleneck resource? (Round per hour

Explanation / Answer

Solution:

Flow rate is defined as the number of customers processed per hour. Bottleneck resource is the process in the system that takes maximum processing time per customer or processes least number of customers per hour. In order to find the flow rate of the process, the processing capacity of each of the given steps needs to be calculated.

Step - 1:

Number of receptionist = 1

Processing time = 1 minute per customer

Process capacity = 60 minutes / 1 minute = 60 customers per hour

Step - 2:

Number of cashiers = 3

Processing time = 9 minutes per customer

Process capacity = (60 minutes / 9 minutes) x 3 cashiers

Process capacity = 20 customers per hour

Step - 3:

Number of processing stations = 1

Processing time = 1 minute per customer

Process capacity = 60 minutes / 1 minute = 60 customers per hour

(a) From the above calculations, step 2 is the bottleneck resource as it processes minimum number of customers per hour. Therefore, the flow rate of the process will be equal to the capacity of the bottleneck resource.

Flow rate of the process = 20 customers per hour

(b) If one server is added to the bottleneck resource, new process capacity will be,

Number of cashiers = 4

Processing time = 9 minutes per customer

Process capacity = (60 minutes / 9 minutes) x 4 cashiers = 26.67 or 27 (Rounding off to the nearest integer)

Process capacity = 27 customers per hour

New flow rate of the process = 27 customers per hour