Sterling Motors is a telephone or mail-order dealer in British auto parts. Sterling has six telephones for receiving orders. Order takers answer the telephones, check inventory availability, and prepare picking tickets for the warehouse stock pickers. One order may consist of several lines, with a different part or multiple of a part ordered on each line. Each order taker can prepare picking tickets at a rate of one line every three minutes. The telephones are normally answered weekdays from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., Pacific time. Stock pickers can fill and package parts at a rate of one line every five minutes. Sterling employs eight stock pickers, who normally work weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (except for lunch hours).
a. What is the effective capacity of order taking in lines per week? stock picking?
b. For three weeks after the spring catalogue is mailed in May, the eight warehouse employees work 10 hours per day between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m., six days per week. What is the peak capacity of the system in lines per week?
c. During the second week of May, Sterling filled 5000 order lines. What is the capacity utilization?