In: Statistics and Probability
OJ Inc. produces and markets fruit juice. During the harvesting season, trucks bring oranges from the fields to the processing plant each day during 7 A.M. to 6 P.M. On peak days, approximately 10,000 kg of oranges are trucked in every hour (assume that this occurs at a constant rate, so the size of individual trucks doesn’t matter). Trucks must dump their contents in a holding bin with a storage capacity of 6,000 kg. When the bin is full, incoming trucks must wait until the bin has available space. The plant is configured such that the processing rate is 8,000 kg per hour. Assume that the plant must keep processing until all oranges that arrive on any day are processed.
Construct an inventory buildup diagram for OJ Inc. to answer the following questions.
12. How many hours after 7 A.M. do the trucks first start waiting?
13. What is the maximum quantity of oranges, in kgs, that is waiting on trucks (to be dumped into the bins)?
14. How many hours after 7 A.M. does the maximum quantity of oranges that is waiting on trucks (to be dumped into the bins) accumulate (in hours)?
15. How many hours after 7 A.M. do the trucks stop waiting?
16. How many hours after 7 A.M. does the factory stop processing for the day?
Based on the given data, an inventory build up diagram is constructed as below
Inventory per every one hour = 10000-8000 = 2000
therefore, total inventory at the end i.e., 6 pm = 2000*11 = 22,000
and the stored inventory is utilized after 6pm for 22000/8000 hrs = 2.75 hours
16) therefore, the whole production will be finished by 8:45 pm
12)inventory build up for every 1 hr = 2000
and the bin capacity = 6000
==> the first truck will start waiting after 6000/2000 hrs = 3 hrs
14) the last truck that enters at 6pm waits the longest, and it has to wait for t hrs in the queue, t can be calculated as below
22000 = 8000*t+6000 ==> t = 2hrs
therefore, the longest wait time for any truck is 2 hrs, therefore the trucks will be free after 8pm
15) Therefore, the trucks will stop waiting after 8pm