Question 1: Throughput analysis and customer response time improvement (20 marks)

Part B: Production process of Meal Box production team

All orders received from 2pm the previous day to 2pm the current day are processed on the same day. Then, on the same day, the sales staff calculates the quantity of raw materials needed and then sends the purchase request to the procurement team. The procurement team places raw materials purchase orders with local suppliers and most delivery is made the next day. Raw materials after being received by staff in the production team are moved to the cooling room, waiting to be processed to fulfill the order. Depending on the backlog of production, the waiting time can be from 2-7 days. After the order is produced, they are moved straight to the freezing room and remain there until being picked up by the truck for shipping.It takes 2 days from the time of booking to the pickup of shipments, and it takes one day to ship to the customers.

The production team consists of three small teams: Preparation, Cooking, and Packing. They work 22 days per month. The below table contains the information on the productivity of the three teams:

Production teams	Number of staff	Productivity (meals/day)	Meals/month
Preparation	3	1,000	22,000
Cooking	4	500	11,000
Packing	2	650	14,300

There are three main customers who place orders for frozen keto meals, which are Healthy Supermarket, Asian Supermarket, and Sunny Groceries. The average orders of each customer are in the below table:

Customers	Monthly orders	Meals per order	Meals/month
Healthy Supermarket	10	1,000	10,000
Asian Supermarket	20	200	4,000
Sunny Grocery	10	30	300
Total			14,300

Required:

1a. Using the information provided in Part B, calculate the minimum customer response time to fulfill an order of 1,000 keto meals. (5 marks)

1b. Based on the production process in Part B and customer response time in requirement 1a), identify 2 (two) issues that need to be solved to improve customer values. Explainthe issues. (5 marks)

1c. Using the information provided in Part B, conduct a throughput analysis to identify the bottleneck and constraints in the Meal Box division's production processes (5 marks).

1d. Suggest one solution to remove the bottleneck and explain how the solution can improve order fulfillment time (5 marks)