Based on information presented in the process management case, please analyze the grass head production process and address the questions that follow.

Jennifer and Ben, recent business school graduates, decide to start their own business that produce and market grass heads for summer. Grass head is a bald, but cute, humanlike head about three and a half inches in diameter. After soaking in water and sitting in a moist environment for a few days, the grass head sprouts a beautiful head of green hair $($see Exhibit $1).$ The owner$$s creativity could be expressed through the hair$$s styling.

Grass head will be produced in a hybrid batch$-$flow process illustrated in Exhibit $2.$ Six filling$-$machine operators working in parallel produce the basic rounded shapes by filling pieces of nylon stocking with sawdust and grass seed. The operators place the heads in plastic tote boxes that hold batches of about $25$ heads. In another batch operation, an operator shape the grass head$$s eye glasses by wrapping plastic$-$coated wire around a simple jig composed of two short, vertically$-$mounted dowels.

The remainder of the process is a worker$-$paced flow. Three moulding operators removed the heads from the tote boxes and formed the nose and ears with the help of elastic bands. Next, two people working between the moulders placed the previously formed eyeglasses over the nose, and glued small plastic eyes inside the rims. Each shaped and assembled grass head is placed in a bin for the painter, who fashion a red mouth with fabric paint before placing the head on shelving to dry. Drying usually takes about five hours but can take as long as seven hours during humid summer days. After drying, two packers place the grass heads in boxes, and then into cartons ready for shipment.

Work in process inventory $($WIP$)$ prior to drying is not large, typically about $250$ heads are at various stages of completion between filling and painting, but sometimes WIP can grow much larger.

In an effort to analyze the capacities, Jennifer and Ben estimate the time it takes an operator to process and move a grass head through each step as follows: filling$1\mathrm{.}5$ minutes; moulding$0\mathrm{.}8$ minutes; eyes$0\mathrm{.}4$ minutes; eye glass fabrication$0\mathrm{.}2$ minutes; paining$0\mathrm{.}25$ minutes; and packing$0\mathrm{.}33$ minutes. After allowing for unavoidable delays and rest periods, Jennifer and Ben figure that he can count on seven hours of production from each eight$-$hour shift.

With weather forecasts calling for more hot, humid summer days, Jennifer