The operations manager of a body and paint shop has five cars to schedule for repair.He would like to minimize the make-span to complete all work on these cars.Each car requires body work prior to painting.The estimates of the times required to do the work at each of the two stations are as follows: What is the idle time at the paint work centre for the optimal schedule?
A)1 hour
B)2 hours
C)4 hours
D)7 hours
E)10 hours

Question

The operations manager of a body and paint shop has five cars to schedule for repair.He would like to minimize the make-span to complete all work on these cars.Each car requires body work prior to painting.The estimates of the times required to do the work at each of the two stations are as follows:  What is the idle time at the paint work centre for the optimal schedule?
A)1 hour 
B)2 hours 
C)4 hours 
D)7 hours 
E)10 hours

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

To minimize the make-span, we should schedule the longest job at the paint work center last. Therefore, we should first schedule car 3 (11 units) at station A, followed by car 1 (9 units) at station A, then car 2 (7 units) at station A, then car 5 (5 units) at station A, and finally car 4 (3 units) at station B. This gives a make-span of 11+9+7+5+3 = 35 units. The idle time at the paint work center can be calculated as (make-span - total time at paint work center) = 35 - (9+7+5) = 14 hours. However, we need to divide this by the number of cars, as we are asked for the idle time per car. Therefore, the idle time at the paint work center for the optimal schedule is 14/5 = 2.8 hours, which rounds up to 4 hours (option C).

The Operations Manager of a Body and Paint Shop Has