Q3. Flow Time and Throughput In any given week, a few members of the writing staff work on a draft of a new script for The Simpsons. The next stage is a rigorous rewriting process. In the third stage, the script is read aloud by the cast, and taped. The final stage, animation, is done by hand. Each of the ''Simpsons'' episodes takes nine months to complete. ''The Simpsons'' is in production year round and there is no variability in the process. Twenty new episodes are made and released each year.

a. At any given time, how many Simpsons episodes are in production? (Determine first the throughput rate of the process that creates new Simpsons episodes and the flow time of each episode.)