Final answer:
In a 30-minute timeframe, an operator can service 0 full machines based on a 5-minute service time per machine and a 30-minute machine run time. This calculation assumes servicing cannot start until a machine completes its run cycle, which might not reflect the reality.
Step-by-step explanation:
To determine how many machines one operator can service, we must consider the servicing time per machine and the machine runtime.
We know that it takes 5 minutes to service one machine and that each machine runs for 30 minutes. Since the operator is available to service machines while they are running and only needs 5 minutes to service each machine, we can calculate the total number of machines serviced in a 30-minute period.
For every machine, there is a cycle of 30 minutes of running time and 5 minutes of servicing time. Therefore, each cycle for a single machine is 30 + 5 = 35 minutes.
To find out how many machines can be serviced in a 30-minute timeframe, we divide the total time available (30 minutes) by the cycle time for one machine (35 minutes).
30 minutes available ÷ 35 minutes per cycle ≈ 0.857.
Since we cannot have a fraction of a machine, we consider only whole machines. Therefore, an operator can service only 0 full machines in 30 minutes.
However, this seems counterintuitive because an operator can during the runtime of a machine service other machines. Therefore, this calculation might not fully reflect the real-world scenario without additional context or assumptions such as the possibility to begin servicing a machine before it has completed its 30-minute run cycle or simultaneous servicing.