1. Currently, Bart Simpson, the sales manager at Baxter Boards Inc. (a manufacturer of custom-made skateboards), promises eight-week delivery time for all customer orders. The production manager is under pressure from top management to improve the firm's performance against quoted delivery dates. In his review of alternative procedures for making customer delivery dates promises, he provides the following data on representative orders:

Order 1 2 3

Total Processing Time (in weeks) 3 5 8

a. Determine delivery time to be quoted on these orders, if the TWK (total work content) procedure is used. (Assume average time from order receipt to customer delivery is eight weeks.)

b. Determine delivery time to be quoted on these orders, if the SLK (slack) procedure is used. (Assume average time from order receipt to customer delivery is eight weeks.)

c. Suppose the production manager knows the overall flow time for order #3 has averaged 10 weeks in the past, and the flow time standard deviation for this order is 1 week. How would this information influence your recommendation of a delivery date setting procedure in this situation?