Q1
A machining center in a local manufacturing company has five jobs to complete. The jobs are labeled 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 based on the order they entered the shop. Your manager has asked you to compare two different job sequences to determine the best order for processing the jobs – First-In, First-Out (FIFO) and Shortest Processing Time (SPT). Compare the two sequences. Which sequence would you recommend and why? Be sure to include a variety of measures (average completion time, lateness, etc.) to compare the two sequencing rules. Include all calculations in your response.
Job Processing Time (days) Due Date (days)
1 11 61
2 29 45
3 31 31
4 1 33
5 2 32
Q2
You work for a healthcare insurance company as an industrial engineer. As part of the company’s customer service department, there is a call center that responds to customer questions by phone. Your manager has asked you to perform an analysis of some data that the call center has collected over the last two years in an effort to determine how many workers are needed. In particular your manager wants to find out if there is a relationship between how long it takes to answer a call (independent variable) and whether or not customers will hang up (dependent variable). Is there a linear relationship between these two variables? Include a graph and analysis to support your opinion. If the goal of the call center is to have fewer than 15% of calls abandoned, how quickly must the call center respond? Learning Outcome #2.
Data for Question 3
Average Answer Speed = Average number of seconds to answer an incoming call during the week
% abandoned = % of calls that are abandoned (hang up) before being answered during the week.
Week Average Answer Speed (sec) % abandoned
1/2-1/5/06 18 1.39%
1/9-1/13/06 22 2.46%
1/16-1/17/2006 23 1.91%
1/23-1/27/06 23 1.81%
1/30-2/3/06 24 1.85%
2/6-2/10/06 20 1.61%
2/21-2/24 34 2.51%
2/27-3/3/06 25 1.87%
3/6-3/10/06 26 1.84%
3/13-3/17/06 15 1.23%
3/20-3/25/06 19 1.66%
3/27-3/31/06 14 1.22%
4/10-4/14/06 11 0.96%
4/17-4/21/06 11 1.05%
4/24-4/28/2006 6 0.66%
5/1-5/5/06 10 0.88%
5/8-5/12/2006 8 0.62%
5/15-5/19/06 9 0.83%
5/22-5/26/06 10 0.89%
5/30-6/2/06 14 1.34%
6/5-6/9/06 16 1.65%
6/12-6/15/06 10 1.15%
6/26-6/30/06 18 1.43%
7/3-7/7/06 11 0.83%
7/10-7/14/2006 19 1.87%
7/17-7/21/06 19 1.80%
7/24-7/28/06 20 1.56%
7/31-8/4/06 19 1.42%
8/7-8/11/2006 17 1.44%
8/14-8/18/06 21 1.83%
8/21-8/25/06 15 1.29%
8/28-9/1/06 14 1.31%
9/5-9/8/06 17 1.48%
9/11-9/15/06 21 1.98%
9/18-9/22/06 14 1.04%
9/25-9/29/06 17 1.24%
10/2-10/6/06 16 1.53%
10/9-10/13/06 14 1.25%
10/16-10/20/06 17 1.35%
10/23-10/27/06 19 1.55%
10/30-11/3/06 17 1.73%
11/6-11/10/06 16 1.36%
11/13-11/17/06 25 2.48%
11/27-12/1/06 28 2.51%
12/4-12/8/06 18 1.84%
12/11-12/15/06 12 0.88%
12/18-12/22/06 14 1.11%
1/2-1/5/2007 28 2.00%
1/8-1/12/07 27 2.36%
1/15-1/19/07 17 1.62%
1/22-1/26/07 23 1.74%
1/29-2/2/07 24 2.08%
2/5-2/9/07 37 2.92%
2/12-2/16/07 21 1.61%
2/19-2/23/07 11 1.12%
2/26-3/2/07 12 1.17%
3/5-3/9/07 13 1.13%
3/12-3/16/07 16 1.45%
3/19-3/23/07 27 2.04%
3/26-3/30/07 21 1.66%
4/2-4/6/07 31 2.38%
4/9-4/13/07 14 1.19%
4/16-4/20/07 7 0.65%
4/23-4/27/07 8 0.62%
4/30-5/4/07 7 0.62%
5/7-5/11/07 9 0.95%
5/14-5/18/07 10 0.69%
5/21-5/25/07 10 0.69%
5/29-6/1/07 8 0.90%
6/4-6/8/07 13 0.90%
6/11-6/15/07 20 1.94%
6/18-6/22/07 16 1.65%
6/25-6/29/07 21 1.69%
7/2-7/6/07 24 2.09%
7/9-7/13/07 38 3.10%
7/16-7/20/07 32 2.38%
7/23-7/27/07 36 2.49%
7/30-8/3/07 37 2.97%
8/13-8/17/07 71 5.52%
8/20-8/24/07 42 3.24%
9/10-9/14/07 100 7.61%
9/17-9/21/07 120 8.76%
10/1-10/5/07 182 15.59%
10/8-10/12/07 198 14.58%
10/15-10/19/07 213 16.04%
10/22-10/26/07 181 12.41%
10/29-11/2/07 170 11.7%
11/5-11/9/207 373 28.0%
11/12-11/16/07 342 28.1%
11/19-11/21/07 304 23.9%
11/26-11/30/07 448 34.5%
12/3-12/7/07 223 20.3%
12/10-12/14/07 243 18.2%
12/17-12/21/07 316 28.7%
12/26-12/28/07 211 8.3%
12/31/07 -1/4/08 342 25.8%
1/7-1/11/08 613 37.0%