The Happy Toy Company’s R&D department is always looking for great ideas for new

Question

The Happy Toy Company’s R&D department is always looking for great ideas for new toys. On average, the R&D department generates about 10 new toy ideas a week. To go from idea to approved product, the idea must go through 5 stages:

In initial screening a staff member spends 2 hours considering the idea. In mock-up, the idea is sent to one of many suppliers to produce a physical mock-up of the toy. There is essentially unlimited capacity at this stage, but it takes 4 days to get the mockup built even though multiple mockups can be built simultaneously. In safety testing each idea requires 2 days from a staff member to have the idea checked for safety. In focus groups each idea requires 3 hours from a staff member to have the idea test marketed. Finally, the management team meets for 4 hours per idea to decide if the toy should be added to its line of products sold to customers.

At the end of each stage, successful ideas enter the next stage. All other ideas are dropped. The following table summarizes the process:

For example, there are 7 staff members that work in the safety stage. In each stage each idea is processed by only one staff member: for example, once one of the 7 staff members starts working on an idea in the safety stage, the idea completes that stage in 2 days (and either exits or moves to the focus group stage). Everyone works 8 hours per day, 5 days a week.

Suppose at most half (50%) of the Happy Toy Company’s R&D department’s time is devoted to generating or processing new ideas for toys. [The remainder of R&D time is used for other activities such as improving existing toys.] Based on the data provided, what is the maximum number of toy ideas generated per week that the process can handle? Show your work.

Explanation / Answer

The demand for initial screening = 10 ideas / week

Output from initial screening = 10 * 60% = 6 ideas/ week

6 ideas pass the screening stage and then enter the mock up stage per week.

Each idea spends 4 days or 0.8 weeks (because there are 5 days per week) in the mock-up stage.

Use Little's Law, 6 * 0.8 = 4.8 ideas.

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