1.A pharmacy is working at improving their prescription filling process.The current process follows a product layout in an assembly line fashion and includes the tasks shown in the table below[1], each task is accomplished by one worker.

Tasks Time in Seconds

(1) Receive Prescription 30

(2) Type Labels 120

(3) Fill Prescriptions 60

(4) Check Prescriptions 40

(5) Dispense Prescriptions 20

a.What is the current service output rate per hour?

b.If a change to the product layout was proposed as shown in the diagram below (training and equipping two workers to perform Task 1 & 2 at two parallel workstations, and training and equipping two workers to perform the combined work of Tasks 3, 4, and 5 at two parallel workstations), what would be the new service output rate per hour?

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