1. Product mix (12 points) A small insurance company has five employees, one adm
ID: 393074 • Letter: 1
Question
1. Product mix (12 points)
A small insurance company has five employees, one administrative support person named Lynsey, two junior staff members Candy and Nadia, and two senior team members Davina and Gordon. The company handles three different types of files: Low -value, mid-value , and high-value files. Processing different types of files will be done by different employees and takes the following steps. Low-value files will first be processed by Lynsey, who needs 20 min per file, before she passes them on to Davina (30 min per file). Davina finally passes the file to Nadia , who needs 30 min to complete the file. Mid-value files will be started by Candy (30 min), then go on to Gordon (30), continue to be processed by Nadia (20 min) before Davina (20 min) finishes them. High-value files need to be processed by Candy (20 min), Gordon (20 min), and finally Davina (10 min).
a) (4 points) Suppose the company handles an equal number of low-value, mid-value, and high-value files. Which of the five employees is (or are) the bottleneck?
b) (2 points) Does the bottleneck depend on the product mix (of low, medium, and high value files)? Why or why not?
Suppose the company decides to stop taking low-value files and focuses only on mid-value and high-value files.
c) (3 points) Which of the five employees is (or are) the bottleneck? Justify your answer.
d) (3 points) Does the bottleneck depend on the product mix (medium and high value files)? Why or why not?
Explanation / Answer
Low value files
Lynsey (20)- Davina (30)- Nadia (30)-
Medium value files
Candy (30)- Gordon(30)- Nadia (20)- Davina(20)
High value files
Candy (20)- Gordon (20)- Davina (10)
Answer a: If we consider all types of files to be equal then, time taken by
Employee
Total Time taken
Lynsey
20
Davina
60
Candy
50
Gordon
50
Nadia
50
Clearly, Davina is the bottleneck employee as she takes 60 mins for the file processing
Answer b:Yes, the bottleneck will depend on the product mix as every employee takes different time to pass a product. For example: if we double the no. of high value files, the time taken by employees will change
Employee
Total Time taken
Lynsey
20
Davina
60+10= 70
Candy
50+20= 70
Gordon
50+20= 70
Nadia
50
Now there are three employees taking equal time to process all three types of file
Employee
Total Time taken
Lynsey
0
Davina
30
Candy
50
Gordon
50
Nadia
20
Answer c: Now Candy and Gordon take 50 mins each and will be termed as bottleneck employees.
Answer d: Yes, the bottleneck will depend on the product mix as every employee takes different time to pass a product. As seen in the previous part of question, the company stopped taking low value files and the work load on Davina reduced from 60mins to 30 mins. Hence the bottleneck changes.
Employee
Total Time taken
Lynsey
20
Davina
60
Candy
50
Gordon
50
Nadia
50
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