Homework Ch 2

A consulting company must hire 13 new associates per year to replace those who have left the company for other positions or have retired. The company employs 116 associates overall. How long is the average associate employed at the consulting company?

116 associates (Inventory) = 13 new employees per year (Flow rate) × tenure at company (Flow time). Flow time = 8.9

LaVilla is a village in the Italian Alps. Given its enormous popularity among Swiss, German, Austrian, and Italian skiers, all of its beds are always booked in the winter season and there are on average 1550 skiers in the village. On average, skiers stay in LaVilla for 9 days. How many new skiers are arriving - on average - in LaVilla every day? (Round to nearest integer)

172 selected answer correct skiers Inventory/Flow Time = Flow Rate = 1550 skiers / 9 days = 172 new skiers per day.

The table below provides the time stamps for the 8 people who called a reservation desk for a ferry service between 8:00 am and 8:30 am. Based on the data in the table, what is the flow rate of callers? Caller Time in Time out 1 8:00 8:14 2 8:01 8:21 3 8:01 8:18 4 8:06 8:23 5 8:09 8:22 6 8:09 8:16 7 8:12 8:27 8 8:13 8:30

8 calls over a(n) 30 minute time span corresponds to a flow rate of 8/30 = 0.3 calls per minute.

T/F: A computer server experiences large fluctuations in the amount of data requests it receives throughout the day. Because of this variation, Little's Law does not apply.

False: Little's Law applies even if there are fluctuations in inventory, flow rates, and flow times.

CodeDesk Inc matches programmers with freelance jobs. They have 30 employees who staff their online chat room. They receive on average 250 chat requests per hour and the average chat session takes 3 minutes to complete (i.e. from start to finish). On average how many chat sessions are active (i.e., started but not completed)? (Round to nearest integer)

Flow rate = 250 requests per hour divided by 60 minutes per hour = 4.17 requests per minute Flow time = 3 minutes. Inventory = Flow Rate × Flow Time, 4.17 requests per minute * 3 minutes = 13 chat requests

Last year there were 3400000 visitors to a national park and, on average, each visitor spent 22 hours in the park. Instruction: Do not round your intermediate and round final answer to nearest integer. On average, how many visitors were in the park at any particular time last year? (Round to nearest integer)

Flow rate = 3400000 visitors divided by 365 days = 9315.07 visitors per day Flow time = 22 hours/ 24 hours per day = 0.92 days Inventory = 9315.07 (flow rate) × 0.92 (flow time) = 8539 visitors per day

The table below shows the time stamps of 10 customers who visited a local bank branch from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. What is the flow rate of customers? Customer Time in Time out 1 9:05 9:31 2 9:05 9:18 3 9:08 9:33 4 9:13 9:38 5 9:16 9:28 6 9:17 9:36 7 9:19 9:43 8 9:24 9:49 9 9:26 9:45 10 9:31 9:41

Flow rate = number of customers/total time = 10 customers / 60 minutes = 0.1667.

The table below shows the time stamps of 10 customers who visited a local bank branch from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. What is the flow time of customers? Customer Time in Time out 1 9:00 9:27 2 9:00 9:10 3 9:02 9:08 4 9:05 9:15 5 9:07 9:26 6 9:08 9:23 7 9:12 9:19 8 9:13 9:28 9 9:15 9:36 10 9:20 9:46

Flow time of customers 15.6 minutes Flow time for each customer is the time spent in the system. Flow time for a group of customers = sum of individual flow times/number of customers = 156.0 total minutes / 10 customers = 15.6 minutes.

A large-scale bakery is laying out a new production process for their packaged bread, which they sell to several grocery chains. It takes 14 minutes to bake the bread. How large of an oven is required so that the company is able to produce 4000 units of bread per hour (measured in the number of units that can be baked simultaneously)? (Round to nearest integer)

Inventory (loaves in oven) = Flow rate (required output per hour) x Flow Time (baking time in hours) = 4000 units x (14 minutes/60 minutes) = 933 units

One of chair lifts at a ski resort unloads 1800 skiers per hour at the top of the slope. The ride from the bottom to the top takes 19 minutes. How many skiers are riding on the lift at any one time? (Round to nearest integer)

Inventory = Flow Rate x Flow Time = 1800 skiers / 60 minutes per hour (flow rate) × 19 minutes (flow time) = 570 skiers

A campus deli serves 325 customers over its busy lunch period from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm. A quick count of the number of customers waiting in line and being served by the sandwich makers shows that an average of 14 customers are in process at any point in time. What is the average amount of time that a customer spends in process? Instruction: Round your intermediate and final answer to 1 decimal place. Average amount of time (Round to one decimal).

Inventory = Flow rate × Flow time 14 people in line (average inventory) = 2.7 flow rate × flow time Flow time = 5.2 minutes The flow rate is 325 customers / 120 minutes = 2.7

Consider the baggage check-in process of a small airline. Check-in data indicates that from 9am to 10am, 200 passengers checked in. Moreover, based on counting the number of passengers waiting in line, airport management found that the average number of passengers waiting for check-in was 26. How long did the average passenger have to wait in line?

Inventory = Flow rate × Flow time 26 people in line (average inventory) = 200 customers/ 60 minutes (flow rate) × flow time Flow time = 7.8 minutes

From the perspective of process analysis, which of the following could be appropriate flow units for a hardware store? Number of workers Number of cash register Number of customers Number of suppliers

Number of customers

Over the course of a month, which of the following is most likely to describe an appropriate flow unit for a process analysis of a hospital? The number of physicians The number of beds The square footage of the building The number of patients

The number of patients

Over the course of a day, fans pour into a NASCAR venue at the rate of 8,000 people per hour. The rate at which fans leave the venue... must be less than 8,000 people per hour must be exactly 8,000 people per hour must be more than 8,000 people per hour could be more or less than 8,000 people per hour

must be exactly 8,000 people per hour