Question

One employee is in charge of the following activities at a refreshment stand: Activity Activity Time per Customer Greet customer 5 seconds Take order 25 seconds Process order 1.5 minutes Print receipt 30 seconds If the demand rate is 20 customers per hour, what are the flow rate (in customers per hour), utilization, and cycle time (in minutes per customer)

Answer 1

A. Flow rate = 20 customers per hour

B. Utilization =0.83

C. Cycle time= 3 minutes per customer

Step-by-step explanation:

A. Calculation for the flow rate

First step is to calculate the Processing time

Processing time = 5 + 25 + (1.5 ×60) + 30

Processing time=30+90+30

Processing time= 150 seconds

Second step is to calculate the Process capacity

Process capacity = 1/150 ×60 per seconds/minute ×60 per minutes/hour

Process capacity= 24 customers per hour

Now let calculate the Flow rate

Using this formula

Flow rate= Min(Demand, Process capacity)

Let plug in the formula

Flow rate= Min(20, 24)

Flow rate = 20 customers per hour

Therefore the flow rate will be 20 customers per hour

B. Calculation for the utilization

Using this formula

Utilization = Flow rate/Process capacity

Let plug in the formula

Utilization = 20/24

Utilization =0.83

Therefore Utilization will be 0.83

C. Calculation for the Cycle time

Using this formula

Cycle time = 1/Flow rate ×60 per minutes/hour

Let plug in the formula

Cycle time= 1/20 ×60 per minutes/hour

Cycle time= 3 minutes per customer

Therefore the Cycle time will be 3 minutes per customer