Question

When a customer arrives with her dog, she checks in with Lucy at the front desk. This takes three minutes. Linus then “crates” the dog (i.e., places the dog in a small cage known as a crate) until one of the groomers is available to wash and groom the dog. Crating the dog takes two minutes. There are four groomers. How long it takes to process a dog depends on its size. Washing a small dog takes 10 minutes while washing a large one takes 16 minutes. Grooming a small dog takes 14 minutes while grooming a large one takes 20 minutes. Two-thirds of the dogs groomed at the Pooch Spa are small. When a groomer is done with a dog, Linus returns the dog to a crate; this takes two minutes. Note that a dog does not have to go to the same crate it was in before being groomed. Assume for now that Pooch Spa has enough crates that they are not the bottleneck. When the owner arrives, Lucy takes her payments, which take three minutes. While Lucy is doing that, Linus gets the dog from its crate and brings it to its owner; this takes three minutes.

Complete the table below. Identify the bottleneck and the processing capacity (in dogs per hour).

The bottleneck is _________________________________.

Process capacity is ____________________ dogs per hour.

Resource	Unit Load	Unit Capacity	# of units	Total Capacity

Answer 1

1. Capacity at the reception = 3 min / dog = 20 dogs /hr.

2.Capacity of crating facility = 2 min/ dog = 30 dogs /hr.

3. Washing+ grooming capacity per person = 24 min / small dog = 2.5 dogs / hr = total 2.5x4 =10 dogs /hr

= 36 min / big dog = 1.66 dogs /hr. = total 1.66x4 = 6.64 dogs / hr.

4.Capacity of recrating = 2 min / dog = 30 dogs / hr

5. Payments / handover to the owner = 3min / dog = 20 dogs / hr.

Since two third of dogs are small, the output of the washing + grooming station = 2x10+1x6.64 /3 = 8.88

Hence the bottleneck is wasing + grooming station with a capacity of nearly 9 dogs / hour.