Question

Starbucks recruits two new staff members, Emily and Frank. It takes either Emily or Frank 30 seconds to place an order & accept payment, and 60 seconds to make a coffee. To improve the process capacity, which tasks should Emily and Frank be assigned to? What is the new process capacity and the new bottleneck(s)? [Hint: First determine which task Emily should be assigned to. Then, based on the modified process, determine which task Frank should be assigned to improve the process capacity.

Answer 1

Answer:

To improve the process capacity, which tasks should Emily and Frank be assigned to?

Emily can be assigned to take orders which means that she would be assigned to the 30 seconds tasks

Frank will be assigned to making the coffee which means that the 60 second task will be in Frank's name.

What is the new process capacity and the new bottleneck(s)?

Earlier, it took 1 minute and 30 seconds to get done with one order by one staff member, either Emily or Frank. Now, while emily would be taking the order, Frank would start with the order. It would take a total of 1 minute to complete one entire order.

Work capacity has been increased by 30 seconds if both staff members are assigned a separate task.