Failsafe Textiles employs three highly skilled maintenance workers who are responsible for repairing the numerous industrial robots used in its manufacturing process. A worker can fix one robot every hours on average, with an exponential distribution. An average of one robot fails every four hours, according to a Poisson distribution. Each down robot costs the company $100.00 per hour in lost production. A new maintenance worker costs the company $80.00 per hour in salary, benefits and equipment.

Should the manager hire any new personnel? If so, how many people? What would you recommend to the manager, based on your analysis?

A.

The manager needs to hire 2 more workers because the total expected hourly cost is minimized with a crew size of five employees at a cost of approximately $633.00 per hour.

B.

The manager needs to hire 1 more worker because the total expected hourly cost is minimized with a crew size of four employees at a cost of approximately $460.80 per hour.

C.

The manager does not need to hire any more workers because the total expected hourly cost is minimized with a crew size of three employees.

D.

The manager needs to hire 1 more worker because the total expected hourly cost is minimized with a crew size of four employees at a cost of approximately $576.00 per hour.