Reference no: EM132394586

The shop currently operates in a build-to-order fashion with four employees: an order taker who receives/processes orders and does bookkeeping; a pizza tosser who prepares the pizza shell; a pizza assembler who customizes the pizza and a chef who supervises the placement of the pizza in the oven. The production process begins when an order is transmitted to a computer in the kitchen. Order processing takes a negligible amount of time. It takes one half of a minute for the pizza assembler to prepare the pizza shell to give to the pizza tosser. The pizza tosser then tosses the shell for two minutes to obtain proper shape and consistency. The tossing operation is highly skilled and can only be performed by the tosser. It then takes one minute for the pizza assembler to customize the pizza by adding the correct sauce and ingredients (e.g., cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms). The secret to OTM's famous taste is a three-minute wait prior to placing the pizza in the oven. This wait allows the flavors of the ingredients to blend. After this three-minute delay, the chef places the pizza in one of six ovens (with a capacity of one pizza each) for a baking time of ten minutes.

a) What is the capacity of the current cooking process? Specifically, what is the maximum number of pizzas that OTM's can produce in the first hour (assuming an empty system at the beginning of the day) and in each subsequent hour?

b) Professor Ahmadi has suggested producing pizza shells for inventory before each day's hours of operations. That is, the pizza tosser would arrive prior to the business hours and perform all of the work associated with pizza shell production. These shells would then be available to the assembler as needed during store hours. How would producing pizza shells to inventory change your answer to question (a)?

c) Professor Rajaram would like to increase potential demand by offering pizza delivery direct to the customer. Demand in the past has been 20 pizzas per hour, but Professor Karmarkar is concerned that the current production process will not be able to support this demand increase. What (if any) changes will be needed in the cooking process to support a demand of 40 pizzas/hour (after the first hour startup period)? Assume that pizza shells are made to inventory as indicated in question (b).