SMU Classification: Restricted

OPIM 201 – Practice Problem Set 2

1. A bakery sells and produces only one type of bread—white bread. The bakery operates two parallel
baking lines, each equipped with a mixer, a proofer, and an oven. In addition, the bakery operates a
single packaging line which is shared by the two bread-making lines. A process flow diagram for the
bakery is given in Figure 1, along with the cycle times of each step of the bread-making and packaging
process.
a) What’s the cycle time of the whole process? What is the daily capacity? Assume 8 hours a day.
b) The bakery is considering producing wheat bread in addition to white bread. We assume for
simplicity that the bakery would produce equal quantities of each bread type and fully dedicate one
bread-making line to white and the other to wheat. The packaging line, however, would switch
between packaging white and wheat bread every 100 loaves, i.e., every batch. Though the same
amount of time would be required to package 100 loaves of either wheat or white bread, the two
breads must be packaged in different bags. Changing the bags requires a setup time of ¼ hours.
What would be the impact of this on the bakery’s overall capacity?

2. Consider a bagel store selling three types of bagels that are produced according to the process flow
diagram outlined below. We assume the demand is 180 bagels a day, of which there are 30 grilled
veggie, 110 veggie only, and 40 cream cheese. Assume that the workday is 10 hours long and each
resource is staffed with one worker.

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Moreover, we assume the following Processing times:

Cut Grilled Stuff Veggies Cream Cheese Wrap
Processing time 3 [min./bagel] 10 [min./bagel] 5 [min./bagel] 4 [min./bagel] 2 [min./bagel]

Processing times are independent of which bagel type is processed at a resource (for example, cutting
a bagel takes the same time for a cream cheese bagel as for a veggie bagel). Where in the process is
the bottleneck?

3. CC Car Wash specializes in car cleaning services. The services offered by the company, the exact
service time and the resources needed for each of them are described in the table following:

Service Description Processing Time Resource Used

A. Wash Exterior car washing and drying 10 min. 1 automated washing machine
B. Wax Exterior car waxing 10 min. 1 automated waxing machine
C. Wheel cleaning Detailed cleaning of all wheels 7 min. 1 employee
D. Interior cleaning Detailed cleaning inside the car 20 min. 1 employee

The company offers the following packages to their customers:

 Package I: Includes only car wash (service A).
 Package 2: Includes car wash and waxing (services A and B).
 Package 3: Car wash, waxing, and wheel cleaning (services A, B, and C).
 Package 4: All four services (A, B, C, and D).
Customers of CC Car Wash visit the station at a constant rate (you can ignore any effects of variability)
of 40 customers per day. Of these customers, 40 percent buy Package 1, 15 percent buy Package 2, 15
percent buy Package 3, and 30 percent buy Package 4. The mix does not change over the course of the
day. The store operates 12 hours a day.
a) What is the implied utilization of the employee doing the wheel cleaning service?
b) Which resource has the highest implied utilization?
c) For the next summer, CC Car Wash anticipates an increase in the demand to 80 customers per day.
Together with this demand increase, there is expected to be a change in the mix of packages
demanded: 30 percent of the customers ask for Package 1, 10 percent for Package 2, 10 percent for
Package 3, and 50 percent for Package 4. The company will install an additional washing machine
to do service A. What will be the new bottleneck in the process?

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Solution
1.
a) Cycle time for each parallel line =1 hr (bottleneck: baking); hence effective cycle time for
parallel lines = ½ hr.
System cycle time = ¾ hr /100 loaves (bottleneck: Pack)
Daily capacity = 100 loaves / (¾) hr  8 hr = 1066 loaves
b) Cycle time for packing = 1 hr / 100 loaves
System cycle time = 1 hr
Daily capacity = 100  8 = 800 loaves
2. Using physical units to describe both capacity and demand, we have
Hourly Grilled Veggie Cream Implied
Resource Total
Capacity Veggie Bagel Bagel Cheese Bagel Utilization
Cut 1/3×60=20 3 11 4 18 18/20=0.9
Grilled Stuff 1/10×60=6 3 0 0 3 3/6=0.5
Veggie on Bagel 1/5×60=12 3 11 0 14 14/12=1.17
Cream Cheese 1/4×60=15 0 0 4 4 4/15=0.27
Wrap 1/2×60=30 3 11 4 18 18/30=0.6

Hence the bottleneck is “Veggies on Bagel”, as it has the highest implied utilization.
OR
Using time to describe both capacity and demand, we have
Available Grilled Veggie Cream Implied
Resource Total
min./hr Veggie Bagel Bagel Cheese Bagel Utilization
Cut 60 3×3 11×3 4×3 54 54/60=0.9
Grilled Stuff 60 3×10 0 0 30 30/60=0.5
Veggie on Bagel 60 3×5 11×5 0 70 70/60=1.17
Cream Cheese 60 0 0 4×4 16 16/60=0.27
Wrap 60 3×2 11×2 4×2 36 36/60=0.6
3.
a) Total workload = (0.15+0.3)×40 = 18
Capacity = 12(h)×60(min)/7(min) = 720/7 min
IU = 18/(720/7) = 0.175 or 17.5%
Service Time No. of Workload (car./day.)
Service Capacity (car/day) Implied Utilization
(min./car) Resources Package 1 Package 2 Package 3 Package 4 Total
40/72×100%
A. Wash 10 1 1/10×60×12 = 72 16 6 6 12 40
= 55.5%
24/72×100%
B. Wax 10 1 1/10×60×12 = 72 0 6 6 12 24
= 33.3%

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C. Wheel 1/7×60×12 18×(7/720)×100%

7 1 0 0 6 12 18
Cleaning = 720/7 = 17.5%
D. Interior 12/36 × 100%
20 1 1/20×60×12 = 36 0 0 0 12 12
Cleaning = 33.3%

OR
The implied utilization at wheel cleaning is: 42 minutes of work from package 3 a day, 84 minutes
of work from package 4 per day, giving a total of 126 minutes per day. Relative to 720 minutes of
available time, that gives an implied utilization of 17.5%.

Service Time No. of Available Workload (car./day.)

Service Implied Utilization
(min./car) Resources min./hr Package 1 Package 2 Package 3 Package 4 Total
16×10 = 400/720 × 100%
A. Wash 10 1 60 × 12 = 720 6×10 = 60 60 120 400
160 = 55.5%
240/720 × 100%
B. Wax 10 1 720 0 60 60 120 240
= 33.3%
C. Wheel 126/720 × 100%
7 1 720 0 0 42 84 126
Cleaning = 17.5%
D. Interior 240/720 × 100%
20 1 720 0 0 0 240 240
Cleaning = 33.3%

b) The highest implied utilization is at step 1 (automated washing machine) where the implied
utilization is 55.55%.
c) The new bottleneck will be interior cleaning employee with an implied utilization of 111%.
Service Time No. of Workload (car./day.)
Service Capacity (car/day) Implied Utilization
(min./car) Resources Package 1 Package 2 Package 3 Package 4 Total
80/144 × 100%
A. Wash 10 2 2/10×60×12 = 144 24 8 8 40 80
= 55.6%
56/72 × 100%
B. Wax 10 1 1/10×60×12 = 72 0 8 8 40 56
= 77.7%
C. Wheel 1/7×60×12 48×7/720 × 100%
7 1 0 0 8 40 48
Cleaning = 720/7 = 46.7%
D. Interior 40/36 × 100%
20 1 1/20×60×12 = 36 0 0 0 40 40
Cleaning = 111.1%