Question: Question 5:

A process has a bottleneck resource that consists of specialized equipment. Jobs arrive to this machine at a rate of 40 per hour (according to a Poisson arrival process). The processing times average 1 minute and are exponentially distributed. Compare the performance (e.g. average cycle time through the bottleneck) of the process for the three following settings.

a. Consider the system as it is currently constructed.

b. Add a second identical machine at the bottleneck. (Hint: This increases the number of servers from one to two, but the service rate at each machine is just as in case a.)

c. Replace the current machine with one that is twice as fast. (Hint: This doubles the service rate, but you only have one server.)