In order to meet holiday demand, Penny’s Pie Shop requires a production line that is capable of producing 50 pecan pies per week, while operating only 40 hours per week. There are only 4 steps required to produce a single pecan pie with respective processing times of 5 min, 5 min, 45 min and 15 min.

a. What should be the line’s cycle time?

b. What is the smallest number of workstations Penny could hope for in designing the line considering this cycle time?

c. Suppose that Penny finds a solution that requires only four stations. What would be the efficiency of this line?