Problem
Rockness Recycling refurbishes rundown business students. The process uses a moving belt, which carries each student through the five steps of the process in sequence. The five steps are as follows:
| STEP |
DESCRIPTION |
TIME REQUIRED
PER STUDENT |
| 1 |
Unpack and place on belt |
0.6 |
minute |
| 2 |
Strip off bad habits |
0.8 |
minute |
| 3 |
Scrub and clean mind |
1.0 |
minutes |
| 4 |
Insert modern methods |
1.2 |
minutes |
| 5 |
Polish and pack |
0.4 |
minute |
One faculty member is assigned to each of these steps. Faculty members work a 40-hour week and rotate jobs each week. Mr. Rockness has been working on a contract from General Eclectic, which requires delivery of 2,300 refurbished students per week. A
representative of the human resources department has just called complaining that the company hasn't been receiving the agreed-upon number of students. A check of finished goods inventory by Mr. Rockness reveals that there is no stock left.
a. Calculate the maximum output for each step.
| Step |
Maximum output
(Students per week) |
| 1 |
|
| 2 |
|
| 3 |
|
| 4 |
|
| 5 |
|
b. Which step is the bottleneck?
|
step 4 |
|
step 5 |
|
step 1 |
|
step 2 |
|
step 3 |
|