Trojan Toy is always looking for ideas for new toys. On average, it generates about 10 new toy ideas a week. To go from idea to approved product, the idea must go through 5 stages:

Question: What is the implied utilization of the final decision stage (as a %)?

Answer: 10.5%

Question: Trojan Toy is considering crosstraining workers for the safety testing stage and the focus group stage. What is the implied utilization of this combined stage?

Answer: 32.8%

At the end of each stage, successful ideas enter the next stage. All other ideas are dropped. The following table summarizes the process: Stage Pr(Success) Pr(Fail) Staffing Time per idea Screening 60% 40% 2 hours Mock-up 4 days Safety testing 50% 50% 2 days Focus group 35% 65% 3 hours Final decision 20% 80% 4 hours For example, there are 7 staff members that work in the safety stage. In each stage each idea is processed by only one staff member: for example, once one of the 7 staff members starts working on an idea in the safety stage, the idea completes that stage in 2 days (and either exits or moves to the focus group stage). Everyone works 8 hours per day, 5 days a week