Problem Solving
Answer the following questions in the space provided below each question. Be absolutely as neat/brief/elegant as possible but show all work (how you got the answer). I value correctness much more than "blah, blah, blah." That said, I can only award partial credit to wrong answers if justifications are provided.
21. Consider the baggage check-in process of a small airline. Check-in data indicate that from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., 300 passengers checked in. Moreover, based on counting the number of passengers waiting in line, airline management found that on average number of passengers waiting for check-in was 30. How long did the average passenger had to wait in line?
22. A community health system's nurse team consists of 12 nurses working in the local community. It takes a nurse 1.5 hours to complete one patient visit (including travel time and breaks).
What is the capacity of the nurse team over the course of 9-hour workday?
Assuming the demand for the nurses is 60 patients per day, what is the utilization of the nurse team?
Assuming the demand for the nurses is 60 patients per day, what is the cycle time?
23. Dental Clinic provides general dental care to residents of New York on walk-in basis. The clinic has started receiving complaints from patients that the waiting time is too long and has asked you to investigate whether this problem can be solved.
Upon arrival, customers first received a series of paperwork from the receptionist and fill out relevant information such as personal health records and insurance provider. The form is then handed back to the receptionist who enters the information into the computer system for the dentist to see. A dental assistant then takes an X-ray from the patient. A dentist then performs the check up and discusses any issues with the patient.
Based on conversations with staff members at the clinic, you have obtained the following information on the process:
It takes about 5 minutes for customer to fill out the paperwork.
Entry of information on the paperwork into the system and verification with past records takes another 5 minutes for a receptionist. There are two receptionists.
It takes 15 minutes, on average, for the dental assistant to take an X-ray. There are three dental assistants on shift at any moment.
There are 10 dentists working at the clinic. Each checkup takes 30 minutes, on average.
The following table summarizes the process data collected above.
Resources Process Staffing(# of workers) Activity Time
( min /patient)
Self-service Paperwork - 5
Receptionist Data Entry 2 5
Dental Assistant X-ray 3 15
Dentist Checkup 10 30
Assuming that there exists unlimited demand, unless otherwise stated.
Draw a process diagram of this process.
What is the capacity (patient/hour) at the resource "Dentist"?
What is the bottleneck in the process?
Assuming unlimited demand, what would be the flow rate?
Assuming unlimited demand, what would be the utilization at resource "Receptionist"?
Assuming the process started empty. How long would it take to serve 20 patients?
24. This problem is continuation of the problem 23, i.e. all the conditions and observations are the same.
Assume that there exists unlimited demand, unless otherwise stated. Assume further that the dentists get paid $100 per hour while the receptionists and dental assistants get paid $30 per hour.
What is the labor content?
What is the cost of direct labor?