Consider a four-step serial process with processing times given in the list below. There is one machine at each step of the process, and this is a machine-paced process. Step 1: 34 minutes per unit. Step 2: 23 minutes per unit Step 3: 29 minutes per unit Step 4: 24 minutes per unit Assuming that the process starts out empty, how long will it take (in hours) to complete a batch of 97 units? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answer to nearest hour)
Expert Answer
Solution :
The total time will be defined by the bottleneck process.
In this sequence, Process 1 is bottleneck.
So, the total time for 97 units can be break up as per details below.
1. Processing time for bottleneck process -> 34*97 = 3298 min
2. Processing time for process 2,3,4 on last unit -> 23+29+24 = 76 min
So, total time is 3374 min i.e. 56.23 hrs.