Question

William and Mary are opening a Dairy Queen and they need to decide how many ice cream mixing machines they should buy. They expect that once the shop is up and running, they will sell an average of [2000] ice cream cones during each [8] hours of operation. Each mixing machine can produce [2] ice cream cones per minute. William and Mary would like to have a [50]% capacity cushion to accommodate fluctuations in demand and also allow for growth in the business. How many mixing machines should they purchase? (Round up to the nearest whole number).

Answer 1

William and Mary should purchase 2 mixing machines for their Dairy Queen.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine how many mixing machines William and Mary should purchase for their Dairy Queen, we need to calculate the maximum number of ice cream cones that can be produced in 8 hours of operation with a 50% capacity cushion.

Each mixing machine can produce 2 ice cream cones per minute, or 120 cones per hour. Thus, in 8 hours, one machine can produce 960 cones.

With a 50% capacity cushion, the maximum number of cones that can be produced is 960 x 1.5 = 1,440 cones.

Since they expect to sell an average of 2,000 cones in 8 hours, they need to purchase at least 2 machines (2 machines x 960 cones = 1,920 cones) to meet the expected demand. Therefore, William and Mary should purchase 2 mixing machines.