Production for a product is planned at 5,000 units per week. The standard operation time for one particular operation is 2.45 minutes. The facility operates 40 hours per week. The required machine is expected to have a 70% availability, and the plant manager plans for 80% utilization of capacity. The yield from this process is expected to be 99%, and an additional 2% of items will fail at final inspection.
A) How many machines are needed?
B) Suppose that there was a fallout of 10% in the operation that proceeds this operation. How would that affect your decision? Does it matter whether those defects are found immediately or not until final inspection for the product?