Question

Problem 4 (20 points) The diagram below depicts the process for making gourmet biscuits at a local bakery. The process includes two parallel baking lines, a staging area, and a single wrap and box line. Each batch of biscuits is only required to go through one of the parallel baking lines. Baking Lines Blend Rest Cook 0.25 hour per 350 biscuits 0.5 hour per 350 biscuits 1 hour per 350 biscuits Staging Wrap and Box Finish 0.75 hour per 350 biscuits Blend Rest Cook 0.75 hour per 350 biscuits 0.5 hour per 350 biscuits 1 hour per 350 biscuits a) What is the throughput time for the overall process? (5) b) Which operation is the bottleneck? (5) c) What is the hourly capacity of just the baking portion of the process? (5) d) If the bakery operates 6 days per week, 8 hours per day, what is the weekly capacity of the entire process? (5)

Answer 1

Answer a)
Throughput Time = Time for (Blend + Rest + Cook + Wrap&Box) = 0.75+0.5+1+0.75 = 3 hrs

Answer b)
Wrap & Box process is the bottleneck, because its throughput rate is lesser than the combined throughput rates of the Baking lines.
For example, if both baking lines are started simultaneously at 8am in the morning,
1. The first batches of 350 Biscuits will pass the 'Blend' stage at 8:45 hrs in both the lines.
2. The same batch will pass the 'Rest' stage at 9:15 hrs in both the lines
3. The same batch will pass the 'Cook' stage at 10:15 hrs in both the lines
4. Now we have a total of 700 biscuits at the Wrap & Box stage, out of which only 350 will be processed in next 0.75 hrs.

Answer C) With Cook stage being the slowest within the Baking process, the hourly capacity will be dependent on how much the Cook stage produces every hour.
The Cook stage - as we see, can produce a batch of 350 per biscuits on each individual production line.
So,
Hourly capacity of just the baking process = 2 batches (of 350 biscuits) per hour = 700 biscuits

Answer d)

If the bakery operates 6 days per week and 8 hours per day.
The total working hours per week will be = 6*8 = 48 hrs per week.

bottleneck process = Wrap & Box
Capacity of 'Wrap & Box' process = 350 biscuits in every 0.75 hrs
Hourly capacity of 'Wrap & Box' process = 350 / 0.75 = 466.667

Weekly capacity of 'Wrap & Box' process = (Hourly capacity of 'Wrap & Box' process) * (total working hours per week)

= 466.667 * 48 = 22400

Thus ,  Weekly capacity of entire process = 22400 biscuits

Dear Student,
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