1. A manufacturing company has a small production line dedicated to the production of a particular product. The line has four stations in serial. Inputs arrive at station 1 and the output from station 1 becomes the input to station 2. The output from station 2 is the input to station 3 and so on. The output from station 4 is the fi nished product. Station 1 can process 2,700 units per month, station 2 can process 2,500/month, station 3 can process 2,300/month, and station 4 can process 2,100/month. What station sets the maximum possible output from this system? What is that maximum output number?
2. A manufacturing company has a small production line dedicated to the production of a particular product. The line has four stations in serial. Inputs arrive at station 1 and the output from station 1 becomes the input to station 2. The output from station 2 is the input to station 3 and so on. The output from station 4 is the fi nished product. Station 1 can process 2,700 units per month, station 2 can process 2,500/month, station 3 can process 2,300/month, and station 4 can process 2,100/month. What station sets the maximum possible output from this system? What is that maximum output number?
3. You are in a line at the bank drive-through and 10 cars are in front of you. You estimate that the clerk is taking about five minutes per car to serve. How long do you expect to wait in line?
4. An enterprising student has set up an internship clearinghouse for business students. Each student who uses the service fi lls out a form and lists up to 10 companies that he or she would like to have contacted. The clearinghouse has a choice of two methods to use for processing the forms. The traditional method requires about 20 minutes to review the form and arrange the information in the proper order for processing. Once this setup is done, it takes only two minutes per company requested to complete the processing. The other alternative uses an optical scan/retrieve system, which takes only a minute to prepare but requires five minutes per company for completing the processing. If it costs about the same amount per minute for processing with either of the two methods, when should each be used?