Question

The Evanstonian is an upscale independent hotel that caters to both business and leisure travelers. When a guest calls room service at The Evanstonian, the room-service manager takes down the order. The service manager then submits an order ticket to the kitchen to begin preparing the food. She also gives an order to the sommelier (i.e., the wine waiter) to fetch wine from the cellar and to prepare any other alcoholic beverages. Finally, she assigns the order to a waiter.

  It takes 6 minutes to take down the order and to assign the work to the kitchen, sommelier, and waiter. It takes the kitchen 16 minutes to prepare the typical order. It takes the sommelier 8 minutes to prepare the drinks for the order. While the kitchen and the sommelier are doing their tasks, the waiter readies a cart (i.e., puts a tablecloth on the cart and gathers silverware). This takes 8 minutes per order.

  Once the food, wine, and cart are ready, the waiter delivers it to the guest’s room. It takes the waiter 14 minutes to deliver the meal to the customer. It takes the waiter additional 2 minutes to return to the station and debit the guest’ account. All the times mentioned represent flow time at the various activities, an include the effects of waiting.

Activity Time and Visit

Activity	Activity Time	Visit
to take down the order and to assign the work to the kitchen to prepare the typical order to prepare the drinks for the order waiter readies a cart to deliver the meal to the customer to return to the station and debit the guest’ account	6 16 8 8 14 2	2 1 1 1.5 1 2

a. Draw a process map for the room-service process: from receipt of order to delivery of food

b. What is the critical path and theoretical flow time of the process?

c. What is the effect on the process flow time if the waiter could prepare the cart in 6 minutes, instead of 8?

d. Computes the waste time due to rework?

e. The hotel wants to reduce its theoretical flow time by 4 minutes. Give an example of using elimination approach to reduce the theoretical flow time. (Show which activity or activities should be reduced and by how many minutes).

Answer 1

a. Draw a process map for the room-service process: from receipt of order to delivery of food

Answer: Please see below diagram.

a. What is the critical path and theoretical flow time of the process?

Answer: Please see below diagram.

a. Computes the waste time due to rework?

Answer: Waste time is calculates as below,

Order time: 4m. (It can be limited by ordering directly to the restaurant and drinks can be ordered through the current process.              

              Ready of Cart: 8m. (Cart shall be pre-prepared)

              Waiter return for debit: 4m. (Billing can be done simultaneously with order).

              Total waste time: 16m.

b. The hotel wants to reduce its theoretical flow time by 4 minutes. Give an example of using elimination approach to reduce the theoretical flow time. (Show which activity or activities should be reduced and by how many minutes).

Answer: Hotel can eliminate the Waiter time for waiter to return for debit as Billing can be done simultaneously with order).