CHAPTER 3

PROCESS ANALYSIS

CONCEPTUAL QUESTIONS

1.

Answer: B. How long does it take the office to process an application?

2.

Answer: D. Chefs

3.

Answer: C. Paying the bill

4.

Answer: B. They are reciprocals of each other.

5.

Answer: A. Capacity constrained

6.

Answer: C. The cycle time

7.

Answer: D. 1.00

8.

Answer: B. Equal to

9.

Answer: A. Machine-paced

10.

Answer: B. Shorter than the average flow time

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PROBLEMS AND APPLICATIONS

1.

(a)

Answer: 4 customers per hour

Feedback: 60 minutes/15 minutes = 4 customers per hour;

(b)

Answer: 2 customers per hour

(c)

Answer: 50 percent
Feedback: 2 demand / 4 capacity = 50%;

(d)

Answer: 30 minutes per customer

Feedback: Cycle time = 1/flow rate, 2/ 60 minutes= 30 minutes per customer

2.

(a)

Answer: 72 visits per 9 hour work day

Feedback: 12 nurses × 9 hours/1.5 hours per visit = 72 visits;

(b)
Answer: 83 percent

Feedback: 60 demand/ 72 capacity = 83 utilization;

(c)

Answer: 9 minutes per patient

Feedback: (9 hours × 60 minutes) / 60 patients = 9.0 minutes per patient

3.

(a)

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Resource 1 Resource 2 Resource 3
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(b)

Answer: 0.333 units per minute

Feedback: 1 unit / 3 minutes per unit = 0.333 units per minute.

(c)

Answer: Resource 1

Feedback: Resource 1 has the longest processing time.

(d)
Answer: 50%

Feedback: Demand = 60 minutes / 6 minutes Resource 1bottleneck = 10 units,

Capacity 60 minutes / 3 minutes = 20 units

Utilization = 10 units / 20 units = 50%

(e)

Answer: 1,208 minutes

Feedback: 200 units × 6 minutes Resource 1 + 3 minutes Resource 2 + 5 minutes
Resource 3 = 1,208 minutes.

4.

(a)

Bottling Apply a Labeling Packaging

Lid

(b)

Answer: 1,200 bottles per hour

(c)

Answer: Packaging

(d)
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 Answer: 900 bottles per hour

(e)

Answer: 75%

(f)

Answer: 1,996 + 16 = 2,012 seconds

5.

a)

Self- Receptionist Dental Dentist

Serve Assistant

(b)

Answer: 20 patients per hour

Feedback: 10 workers × (60 minutes per hour/30 minutes per patient) = 20 patients
per hour.

(c)

Answer: The dental assistants

Feedback: The dental assistants have the lowest capacity of 12 patients per hour, 3
dental assistants × (60 minutes per hour/ 15 minutes per patient) = 12 patients per
hour.

(d)

Answer: 12 patients per hour

Feedback: The Flow Rate = 12 patients per hour, 3 dental assistants × (60 minutes
per hour/ 15 minutes per patient) = 12 patients per hour.

(e)

Answer: 50%

Feedback: Receptionists capacity = 2 receptionists × (60 minutes per hour/5

minutes per patient) = 24 patients per hour.

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 Utilization = 12 patients per hour at the bottleneck/24 patients per hour capacity =
50%

(f)

Answer: 100 minutes

Feedback: [(5/2) at bottleneck x 20] + 5 Self-Serve + 15 Dental Assistant + 30

Dentist = 100 minutes.

6.

(a)

Answer: 5 batches per hour

Feedback: Since there is only one machine at each process step, the capacity is the
reciprocal of the activity time. The capacity of the baking process step is 1 / 12
batches per minute * 60 minutes per hour = 5 batches per hour.

(b)

Answer: Cooling

Feedback: Since there is only one machine at each process step, the bottleneck is the
step with the most work to do.

(c)

Answer: 3.33 batches per hour

Feedback: The process flow rate is the capacity of the bottleneck, which is the
cooling process. The process flow rate is 1 / 18 batches per minute * 60 minutes per
hour = 3.33 batches per hour.

(d)
Answer: 83 percent

Feedback: The capacity of the mixing process step is 1 / 15 batches per minute * 60
minutes per hour = 4 batches per hour. The process flow rate is 3.33 batches per
hour. The utilization is the flow rate divided by the capacity of the process step =
3.33 batches per hour / 4 batches per hour = 83%.

(e)

Answer: 15 hours to complete 50 batches.

Feedback: The time to complete X units in a full system is X * Cycle time. The cycle
time is 1 / 3.33 hours, so it takes 50 / 3.33 = 15 hours to complete 50 batches.
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7.

(a)

Answer: Office managers

Feedback: The capacity of each resource is the number of employees / activity time.
The capacity for the office managers is 2 / 4 = 0.50 loans per hour, which is less than
the capacities of either of the other two resources.

(b)

Answer: 20 loans per week

Feedback: The flow rate is the capacity of the bottleneck, which is 2 / 4 = 0.50 loans
per hour * 8 hours per day * 5 days per week = 20 loans per week.

(c)

Answer: 90 percent

Feedback: If the demand is 18 loans per week, this is the process flow rate because it
is lower than the process capacity. The utilization of the office managers’ resource is
Flow rate / Resource capacity = 18 loans per week / 20 loans per week = 90%.

(d)

Answer: 30 hours

Feedback: This is a worker-paced process, so the first loan will take 1 + 7 + 4 = 12

hours to complete. The remaining loans have a cycle time of 1 / 0.50 = 2 hours per
loan. This means that the remaining loans will take an additional 9 * 2 = 18 hours to
complete. The total time to complete 10 loans is 12 + 9 * 2 = 30 hours.

8.

Answer: 54 hours
Feedback: Step 3 is the bottleneck step of the process, so the machine-paced process
will be set at a speed of 1/2 hour per unit at each step. The first unit will take 4 * 1/2
= 2 hours to complete. The remaining 104 units will have a cycle time of 1/2 hour.
The total time required to complete a batch of 105 units is 2 + 104 * 1/2 = 54 hours.

9.

Answer: 128 minutes to serve 20 customers

Feedback: The bottleneck is the first step of the process, which means that the cycle
time for all customers other than the first one is 5 minutes. The first customer takes

6
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 5 + 15 + 10 + 3 = 33 minutes to complete service. As a result, it takes a total of 33 +
19 * 5 = 128 minutes to serve 20 customers.

10.

(a)

Answer: 12 customers per hour

Feedback: The bottleneck is the Wash process, with a capacity of 12 cars per hour.
The flow rate is the minimum of the capacity of the bottleneck and the demand.

(b)

Answer: 60 percent
Feedback: Utilization is the flow rate divided by the capacity of the process step. If
the demand is 15 cars per hour, the flow rate is 12 cars per hour, because the flow
rate is the minimum of the capacity of the bottleneck and the demand. The capacity
of the machine that performs the Wax process is 1 / 3 * 60 = 20 cars per hour. The
utilization of this machine is 12 / 20 = 60%.

11.

(a)

Answer: 12 per hour

Feedback: The bottleneck resource is the license processing station. Each machine
can process 4 customers per hour, and there are three machines; thus, the flow rate
through this stage (and the process as a whole) is 12 customers per hour. All of the
other steps have higher capacities.

(b)

Answer: 15 per hour

Feedback: The current bottleneck is the license processing station. Each machine has
a capacity of 4 customers per hour, so adding one machine would increase the
capacity of this station to 16 customers per hour. The cashiers each have a capacity
of 7.5 customers per hour, so the capacity of this resource is only 15 customers per
hour. The cashiers will now be the bottleneck, and the process flow rate is 15
customers per hour.

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