On a typical day there are 500 people skiing at the Somerset Skiway and the average...

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On a typical day there are 500 people skiing at the Somerset Skiway and the average customer spends 6 hours at the Skiway (for the purposes of this problem, let's assume that this entire 6 hours is actually spent in line for the lift, on the lift, and skiing). The double-seat chairlift has a theoretical capacity of 1250 skiers per hour when it is fully occupied. However, the chairlift averages only 80% utilization, which yields an actual throughput rate of 1000 skiers per hour. The chairlift requires 6 minutes to transport skiers to the top of the ski run. The average skier spends 12 minutes descending the ski run back to the line for the chairlift. Here's a (partial) process flow diagram for the Skiway: Questions To answer the following questions, assume an average day with 500 people at the Skiway and note that these 500 skiers (the "WIP") are split between the line for the chairlift, the chairlift, and the ski run. (a) What is the average number of skiers on the double-seat ski chairlift? (b) How long does it take the average skier to complete one run (in minutes), including time spent waiting in line for the chairlift, time riding the chairlift, and time skiing? (c) A Skiway manager has proposed replacing the double-seat chairlift with a triple-seat chairlift in order to reduce the number of skiers in line for the chairlift. Assuming the tripleseat chairlift would achieve a higher throughput rate than the existing double-seat chairlift (and would require the same 6 minutes to transport skiers to the top of the run), what impact (if any) would this have on the skier experience while skiing down the ski run? (Please note that we are expecting a qualitative, non-numerical answer to this question. On a typical day there are 500 people skiing at the Somerset Skiway and the average customer spends 6 hours at the Skiway (for the purposes of this problem, let's assume that this entire 6 hours is actually spent in line for the lift, on the lift, and skiing). The double-seat chairlift has a theoretical capacity of 1250 skiers per hour when it is fully occupied. However, the chairlift averages only 80% utilization, which yields an actual throughput rate of 1000 skiers per hour. The chairlift requires 6 minutes to transport skiers to the top of the ski run. The average skier spends 12 minutes descending the ski run back to the line for the chairlift. Here's a (partial) process flow diagram for the Skiway: Questions To answer the following questions, assume an average day with 500 people at the Skiway and note that these 500 skiers (the "WIP") are split between the line for the chairlift, the chairlift, and the ski run. (a) What is the average number of skiers on the double-seat ski chairlift? (b) How long does it take the average skier to complete one run (in minutes), including time spent waiting in line for the chairlift, time riding the chairlift, and time skiing? (c) A Skiway manager has proposed replacing the double-seat chairlift with a triple-seat chairlift in order to reduce the number of skiers in line for the chairlift. Assuming the tripleseat chairlift would achieve a higher throughput rate than the existing double-seat chairlift (and would require the same 6 minutes to transport skiers to the top of the run), what impact (if any) would this have on the skier experience while skiing down the ski run? (Please note that we are expecting a qualitative, non-numerical answer to this question.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

a Average Number of Skiers on the DoubleSeat Ski Chairlift To calculate the average number of skiers on the chairlift we need to consider the utilizat... View the full answer