A three$-$station transfer line is to be designed without buffers. Leveled demand dictates that $72$ products

must be produced every hour the line is in operation. Experience with similar lines has indicated that

each station will fail at random about once every $1200$ cycles. Downtime will average about $19$ minutes

per station failure. Station failures are independent. The line must also be down for an average of $4$

minutes every hour of scheduled time for maintenance, lading, and adjustment.

Determine the availability of this transfer line. Find the cycle time in minutes that will produce exactly

the demand rate $\frac{+}{-}0\mathrm{.}05.$ If the system was configured to three stations in parallel, find the cycle time

that will produce exactly the demand rate $\frac{+}{-}0\mathrm{.}05.$ Due to the higher workload on a given station in the

parallel system, the stations will fail at random about once every $1300$ cycles and all other factors will be

the same at the serial system. Which system configuration will be more 'stressed'.