Consider a fourstep serial process with the number of worker

Consider a four-step serial process with the number of workers at each step and processing times given in the list below Time per Customer (in Minutes) Process Step Number of Workers 2 15 3 10 4 Assuming that the process starts out empty and is worker-paced, how long will it take (in minutes) to serve 20 customers? minutes to serve 20 customers

Solution

When the process is full ( I,e, instead of empty), the rate at which the customer will be served will be determined by the time per customer of the bottleneck step. The bottleneck step is the one with highest time required per customer which is 15 minutes at step 2.

Thus when the process is full , the rate at which customer is served is 15 minutes per customer.

To make the process full, the first unit has to go through first three steps and step into Step 4 .

Time required for this

= Sum of time taken to go through first three steps

= 5 + 15 + 10 minutes

= 30 minutes

Thus , when the process tarts out empty, time it will take to serve 20 customers

= Time to make the process full + Rate of service of per customer when the process is full x 20 customers

= 30 minutes + 15 x 20 minutes

= 30 + 300 minutes

= 330 minutes

330 MINUTES TO SERVE 20 CUSTOMERS

330 MINUTES TO SERVE 20 CUSTOMERS