AH $12-2$ Operating Performance Measures LO $12-3$

During its busiest hours of operation Annie's Homemade tries to minimize the amount of time customers wait in line before receiving their ice cream. The Asheville shop's order fulfillment process proceeds in three steps. First, customers place their order with the cashier and pay the amount due. Second, two dedicated scoopers scoop the ice cream ordered by customers. Third, an additional employee staffs the toppings station and adds any toppings included in the order and then hands the ice cream to the customer.

Notice customers order their ice cream and pay for it prior to scooping, whereas in many other ice cream shops, customers try numerous free samples before placing their orders and eventually paying the amount due at the end of the fulfillment process.

To help minimize customer wait times, the company measures its "average order fulfillment cycle time" and "order fulfillment cycle efficiency." The four components of these measures include:

Queue time: The elapsed time from when a customer joins the order line until they begin placing their order with the cashier.

Order time: The elapsed time from when a customer begins placing their order with cashier until they have paid for their order.

Wait time: The elapsed time from when a customer has paid for their order until one of two scoopers begins fulfilling their order.

Process time: The elapsed time needed for employees to scoop ice cream, add toppings $($if any$),$ and hand the ice cream to the customer.

The company gathered the following average times per customer ticket on a Saturday evening during its busiest month: