Reference no: EM132219261
1. Product mix
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) 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) 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) Which of the five employees is (or are) the bottleneck? Justify your answer.
d) Does the bottleneck depend on the product mix (medium and high value files)? Why or why not?