A manufacturing work station is preceded by 1600 units of inventory. The workstation's flow rate (i.e., throughput) is 800 units per 8-hour shift. Using Little's Law, calculate the average flow time (in hours) for the work station. A major change of managers and redesign of the workstation is made. As a result, the new flow time is 90 minutes. Assuming that the flow rate remains the same at 800 units per shift, what is the new average inventory level?
Consider an oil change facility. The daily throughput averages 75 cars and the facility is opened for 10 hours per day. Three bays operate simultaneously and the average service time per car at each bay is 18 minutes. What is the utilization of the bays during a typical day?
A manufacturing faculty includes an assembly process, where each product is assembled by one of two assembly workers. Each worker assembles a product in 7.5 minutes. Parts arrive at this department at the rate of 15 parts per hour. Calculate the utilization of the assembly process. If the target utilization were 75% or below, how many assembly workers would be needed?