Geek Squad Service Flow Problem
Geek Squad used the following computer repair process to serve customers. Each of the five workers in the group is responsible for one of the five activities indicated in the following figure (e.g., employee A is doing activity A, worker B is doing activity B, and so on). On average, they receive 200 damaged computers per day, and the group can complete 200 units per day as well (flow rate). The I and T numbers in the following figure demonstrate the relevant activity information (inventory and flow time measures for respective stages).
How much inventory is kept for activity D? What is the total inventory for the entire process?
What is the average flow time for the entire process? Use the long way and the short way to confirm your result.
Katie has a broken laptop which has to follow the repairing path of A>B?C>E (see the flow chart above). How long does it take to repair her laptop (flow time)?