WHITE

4. (25 points) Recall that the Littlefield game has three stations. Each job is processed in Station 1 and
proceeds to Station 2 for the 1st test. Then a job is processed in Station 3 and sent back to Station 2
for the final test. After the test is done, the job finally leaves the system. Each station has a waiting
area with infinite capacity in front of the service area. Jobs arrive with rate 10 jobs per day to Station
1. After simulating the system for 200 days, the following statistics were reported:

Station 1
Station 2
Station 3

average number of jobs waiting in queue

3
5
1.5

number of servers
3
2
4

utilization
0.5
0.9
0.8

(a) (5 points) Is this system stable? Why or why not? If you think we do not have sufficient
information to answer the question, then write need more information.
Yes, because at each station is less than 1 and `q at each station is finite.
(b) (5 points) What is the arrival rate of jobs to Station 2?
Station 2 has arrivals from Station 1 with rate 10/day and there are also jobs returning to Station
2 from Station 3 with rate 10/day. In total, the arrival rate of Station 2 is 20 jobs per day.
(c) (10 points) What is the average total number of jobs in the system? A numerical answer is
expected.
`total = 3 + 3(0.5) + 5 + 2(0.9) + 1.5 + 4(0.8) = 3 + 1.5 + 5 + 1.8 + 1.5 + 3.2 = 16 jobs.
(d) (5 points) What is the average total system time in days for a job (time from arrival to the system
until departure from the system)? A numerical answer is expected.
wtotal =

`total
16
=
= 1.6 days.

10

5. (3 points) The Goal explains how to manage bottlenecks. Which of the followings is not recommended
in the book to manage bottlenecks? (d)
(a) Perform quality inspection before the bottleneck to improve bottleneck yields.
(b) Maintain a buffer inventory in front of the bottleneck so that it is never starved.
(c) Reduce bottleneck setup time.
(d) Release jobs faster than the bottleneck throughput rate.
Turn to the next page for a bonus question.