The manager of a nearby family fast-food establishment is striving to reduce customer service time. The accompanying flowchart illustrates the various stages of sandwich making process. The sequence commences with the processing of meat at Station 1, where 6,000 grams of meat are handled every hour (equivalent to 120 grams per sandwich). Moving to Station 2, employees shred enough vegetables to yield 625 grams per hour (25 grams per sandwich). Station 3 involves baking 32 loaves of bread over four hours (one loaf per sandwich). Ultimately, Station 4 oversees the assembly of a sandwich in a mere 6 minutes per unit.

Station 1 6000 grams/hour (Meat Processing) Station 2 625 grams /hour (Veggie Processing) Station 3 32 loaves per 4 hours (Baking) Station 4 6 minutes per sandwich (Assembly)

a. Determine the bottleneck station in the sandwich production process. What is the bottleneck time in minutes per sandwich?

b. Determine the throughput time of the sandwich production process.

c. If the firm operates 10 hours a day, 6 days a week and 4 weeks per month, determine the monthly capacity of the sandwich production process.

d. Suppose the forecasted sales for sandwiches are 2,400 per month. Is the establishment demand-constrained or supply-constrained? Why? If supply-constrained, in which station(s) you would recommend intervening and by what percentage should capacity increase in the station(s) to meet the 2,400 forecasted demand?

e. If the forecasted demand is rather 3,600 sandwiches per month, which of the following interventions will enable the restaurant to meet the new demand: (a) increase bread production capacity by 87.5%, (b) increase assembly capacity by 50%; increase meat processing capacity by 10%; (d) increase vegetable processing capacity by 25%? Explain why