Dr. Smiley, a new dentist in town, wishes to offer teeth cleaning as an addition

Question

Dr. Smiley, a new dentist in town, wishes to offer teeth cleaning as an additional service to help build his business. He estimates the demand for teeth cleanings at 5000 per year. It takes 30 minutes to clean a patient’s teeth, and 10 minutes for preparation time between patients. His office is opened 8 hours a day (or 480 minutes), five days a week for 50 weeks out of the year. He wants a capacity cushion of 5%. How many hygienists should he hire? Please note any assumptions you make about lot size, like, for example, how many patients can a hygienist work on at the same time?

Explanation / Answer

Given that it takes 30 minutes to clean a patient's teeth, and 10 minutes for preparation time between patients, therefore it works out 40 minutes per patient.

Number of patients per day of 480 minutes = 480/40 = 12

Therefore it is calculated that maximum number of patients that one Hygienist can handle = 12

480 minutes of continously working is too much, therefore allowing breaks for lunch, tea, natural calls etc, let us assume that maximum 400 minutes are available to attend the patients.

Hence it is assumed that 10 patients per day per Hygienist.

Demand of 5000 per year having 50 weeks implies weekly demand of 100 patients

5 days in a week means 100/5=20 patients per day

Therefore number of Hygienist = 20/10 = 2

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