Q1 (20 points) At a local Subway, there are five sandwich assemblers and one cas
ID: 414353 • Letter: Q
Question
Q1 (20 points) At a local Subway, there are five sandwich assemblers and one cashier. Each sandwich assembler can assemble a sandwich in 1 minute. It takes the cashier 15 seconds to collect payment. Assume that each customer orders one sandwich. a) 4 points) What is the capacity of Subway in customers per minute? What is the bottleneck? b) c) d) e) (2 points) The manager estimates that 300 customers per hour show up on average during the peak hours. Does Subway have enough capacity to serve its customers during the peak hours? (3 points) Would hiring one more sandwich assembler solve the capacity problem? What is the new capacity of Subway if one more sandwich assembler is hired? (3 points) Disregarding part c), would hiring one more cashier solve the capacity problem? What is the new capacity of Subway if one cashier is hired? (8 points) Disregarding part c) and d), the manager claims that she can solve the capacity problem by promoting "Order Online", which eliminates the need to collect payment. What is the minimum number of customers per hour that should order online (among 300 customers per hour) to solve the capacity problem?Explanation / Answer
Number of sandwiches which can be assembled per minute using 5 sandwich assembler = 5 sandwiches
Since number of payment which can be collected per minute < Number of sandwiches which can be processed per minute,
“Payment collection” is the bottleneck
Capacity of subway in customers per minute will be determined by the capacity of the bottleneck activity which is “payment collection” activity. Therefore capacity of subway will be 4 customers per minute
CAPACITY OF SUBWAY IN CUSTOMERS PER MINUTE WILL BE 4
BOTTLENECK ACTIVITY WILL BE PAYMENT COLLECTION
Therefore, maximum number of customers it can serve per hour = 4 / minute x 60 minutes = 240
Therefore, subway does not have enough capacity to serve its customers during peak hours
Thus number of sandwiches which can be assembled by 6 sandwich assembler per minute = 6
However, number of payments which can be collected per minute continues to remain at = 4
Thus , “Payment Collection” continues to remain as Bottleneck
Thus,
HIRING OF ONE MORE SANDWICH ASSEMBLER WILL NOT SOLVE THE CAPACITY PROBLEM
CAPCITY OF THE SUBWAY WILL REMAIN AT 4 PER HOUR
The number of cashiers = 2
The number of sandwich assemblers = 5
Number of sandwiches which can be processed by 2 cashiers per minute = 4 per cashier x 2 cashiers = 8 sandwiches
Number of sandwiches which can be processed by 5 sandwich assemblers per minute = 5 sandwiches
Since capacity of sandwich assemblers per minute < capacity of 2 cashiers per minute,
“Assembly of sandwich “ is now the bottleneck process which decides overall capacity of the process.
Therefore, revised capacity of subway is 5 sandwiches per minute
HIRING ONE MORE CASHIER WILL SOLVE THE HIRING PROBLEM
NEW CAPACITY OF SUBWAY IF ONE CASHIER IS HIRED = 5
Therefore , number of sandwiches which can be assembled per hour = 5 x 60 = 300 numbers
Therefore, quantity which should be ordered online should not go below capacity of sandwich assembler in order to solve the capacity problem.
Therefore, minimum quantity which should be ordered online per hour = 300 sandwiches
MINIMUM NUMBER OF CUSTOMERS WHICH SHOULD ORDER ONLINE WILL BE 300 PER HOUR
CAPACITY OF SUBWAY IN CUSTOMERS PER MINUTE WILL BE 4
BOTTLENECK ACTIVITY WILL BE PAYMENT COLLECTION
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