During the Easter season, the bakery "Nice Treats" operates as a "click away" business. It receives orders for four products: "tsoureki", "bread", "cookies" and "flaounes". An order has a 30% probability for "tsoureki"; 20% probability for "bread"; 15% probability for "cookies"; and 35% probability for flaounes. Each order contains one of these products in a predetermined quantity. For each of the products, the oven has a special workstation, where the ingredients are mixed. The ingredients are available in unlimited quantities; ingredients do not get expired. 

When the ingredients for a product are mixed, then each order is placed on a tray. The trays are mounted on a shelf and are forwarded to the oven in a First-In-First-Out (FIFO) manner. If a tray remains on the shelf for 6 hours, then its contents are considered expired and discarded. There are four trainees and one baker. Each of the trainees is assigned to a mixing station. The baker is responsible for baking. After baking, each product waits to be packaged. Whoever is available (either a trainee or a baker) takes over the packaging. The packaged items come out of the bakery. Whatever happens after the bakery is beyond the model you will develop.

The activities are described by the following distributions.

• Order: Exponential, average = 0.8

• Tsoureki preparation: Exponential, average = 1

• Bread preparation: Exponential, average = 2

• Cookies preparation: Exponential, average = 1

• Flaounes preparation: Exponential, average = 2

• Baking Process: Normal, average = 1.5 and a standard deviation of 1

• Packing Process: Fixed, fixed value = 2

GOAL: Keep the percentage of orders that expire to less than 5% of the total orders that enter the model.

 

QUESTIONS

1. Draw the model for the "Nice Treats" bakery, as described above, run it and comment on the "as is" state.

2. Develop a strategy to achieve the goal and explain your assumptions, proposals as well as the financial implications of your proposals