Homework

1. A hospital emergency room is currently organized so that all patients register through an initial
check-in process. At his or her turn, each patient is seen by a doctor and then exits the process, either
with a prescription or with admission to the hospital. Currently, 55 people per hour arrive at the ER, 10%
of who are admitted to the hospital. On average, 7 people are waiting to be registered and 34 are
registered and waiting to see a doctor. The registrations process takes, on average, 2 minutes per
patient. Among patients who receive prescriptions, average time spent with a doctor is 5 minutes.
Among those admitted to the hospital, average time is 30 minutes. We assume a stable system –
average inflow equals average outflow at every stage. The flowchart of the process is as follows:
Potential admits
10%
Buffer 1 Registration Buffer 2 Doctor
R =55/hr
I=7 I = 34
T = 2 min T1 = 30min 90%
T2 = 5min
Simple Prescription

a. On average, how long does a patient spend in the ER?

b. On average, how many patients are there in the ER?

2. For each new movie on DVD, Seven Star Videos (SSV) must decide on the number of copies to
purchase. SSV anticipates demand for 15 rentals each day for the new movie Star Wars. One can rent
videos from SSV for $2/day for the first 2 days with additional days being charged a fine of $3/day. It is
expected that 20% of SSV customers will return the Star Wars DVD on time, (i.e., exactly 2 days) whereas
30% of the customers will return it in three days and 40% of customers will return it in four days and
remaining return it in five days.
a. How many copies of the Star Wars DVDs should SSV carry at its store to ensure that all
customers find a DVD? For simplicity, assume that the returns are made at the beginning of the day. For
example, a DVD rented on Monday is due by Wednesday morning before the store opens.
b. Suppose SSV stocks enough Star Wars DVDs to meet demand. On average, what is the daily
revenue SSV receives from a Star Wars DVD?

3. Three hair stylist, Franҫois, Bernard, and Mimi (yes, they are all French), run Fast Service Hair
Salon for busy professionals in Manhattan, NY. They stay open from 6:45AM to 9:00PM to
accommodate as many people’s work schedule as possible. They perform only shampooing and
hairstyling activities. On average, it takes 10 minutes to shampoo. 15 minutes to style the hair, and 5
minutes to bill the customer. When a customer arrives, he or she first checks in with the receptionist
(Bernard’s younger sister Lulu). This takes only 3 minutes. One of the three stylists then takes charge of
the customer and performs all three activities – shampooing, styling, and billing – consecutively.
 a. Draw a flowchart of this process (along with resources and time for each activity)
b. What is the number of customers that can be serviced per hour in this salon?
c. One customer suggested that the billing operation can be transferred to Lulu. What would be
the impact on the capacity then?

4. Consider the following process:

Activity A and B are performed by one worker, Lester. Activity A takes 15 seconds and B takes 25
seconds. Activity C is performed in parallel to A and B. It is carried out by another worker, Rizzo. When
the system operates at its capacity, Rizzo is busy 75% of the time. All other activities must be completed
before Activity D can be done. D is carried out by Mr. Maddon and takes 30 seconds.
a. Who is the bottleneck of the process? What is the capacity of the process (in steady-state)?
b. What is the theoretical flow time of the process (in seconds)?

5. Kerry Wood Food (KWF) sells freshly made panini, Italian sandwiches toasted on a special grill
known as panini press. The owners, Kerry and Sarah Wood are the only workers in the shop. Their
process for making a panini is as follows:

Kerry takes the order; this usually takes 2 minutes. The order is given to Sarah who first prepares the
bread, which usually takes 1 minute. Next she adds cheese and vegetable to the sandwich. This takes
another minute. Kerry then adds ham or other meats depending on the order. This step usually takes
Kerry 2 minutes. He then oils one of KWF’s two panini presses and places the sandwich in the press (this
step takes another minute). The panini then cooks in the press for 5 minutes. Each press can cook only
one sandwich at a time. Finally, Sarah serves the panini (which takes a negligible amount of time) to the
customer and takes the customer’s payment. Handling the payment takes 1 minute. The flowchart for
KWF is given as follows:

Take Prep. Cheese Add Oil press & Panini Serve &
bread & veggie meat place sand. Cooks payment
order

2mins 1min 1min 2mins 1min 5min 1min

Kerry Sarah Sarah Kerry Kerry + Grill Grill Sarah
a. How many paninis can KWF make per hour in steady-state? Provide the capacity recipe to solve
this question. If KWF operates at capacity and each panini has a profit margin of $4, how much profit
does KWF make per hour in steady state?
b. Kerry believes that the process would be more efficient if KWF partially prepared the most
popular sandwiches before opening the shop. They could simply toast these sandwiches to order. The
process for finishing these “pre-assembled” sandwiches would be as follows: When a customer asks for
a pre-assembled sandwich (the order can be taken instantaneously; i.e., 0 min), the first step would be
for Kerry to oil a panini press and place the sandwich in the press. This will take him 1 minute. As before,
it will take 5 minute to grill the panini. Finally, Sarah would serve the final order and take the cash from
the customer. As before, this will take 1 minute. To drive demand for the pre-assembled panini, Kerry
argues that they should sell for $2 less than custom-made sandwiches. With this discount, he expects
50% of customers would opt for pre-assembled sandwiches while the remaining 50% would still want a
custom order. Assume that there is sufficient demand and the process runs at capacity. Also, the cost of
ingredients is same for both sandwiches. If KWF offers a $2 discount on the pre-assembled sandwiches,
how would KWF’s profit change? And by how much?