Q: Consider an assembly line such as the burrito assembly line at a Chipotle Mex
ID: 361360 • Letter: Q
Question
Q: Consider an assembly line such as the burrito assembly line at a Chipotle Mexican Grill. During slow times of the day, one assembler can handle all of the assembly tasks in satisfactory time. But during peak customer times, having many servers would be prudent. Explain why either approach would not work all of the time, and the benefit of matching the number of assemblers to the pace of customer arrivals. If you want sample data, assume that burrito assembly time is one minute, and demand is 240 burritos per day spread over an 8 hour day.
Explanation / Answer
Answer :
The question is about staffing the assembly line effectively. The first model proposes that Chipotle staffs its assembly line with a skeletal staff (staffed with as few staff members as possible). The reason why this wouldn't work all the time is because this assumes that demand will only surge during peak periods and this does not leave any room for error or improvisation when the franchise receives bulk orders, a sudden surge of customers, emergency and sick leaves taken by employees, the degree to which quality is compromised with skeletal staffing, average time of service that would be impacted due to fewer staff manning the assembly line. The other un foreseen circumstances are factors like strikes, union negotiations on work load, pay , over time etc. This staffing model does not account for these inefficiencies that a business faces on an everyday basis.
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