A staff assistant at Whitmere Corporation recently determined that the first four units completed in a new manufacturing process took 800 hours to complete, or an average of 200 hours per unit. The assistant also found that when the cumulative output produced doubles, the average labor time declines by 20%. On the basis of this information, how many total hours would Washington use if it produces 16 units?
A) 128.
B) 160.
C) 1,280.
D) 2,048.
E) None of the other answers is correct.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

First, we use the information given to find the average labor time for producing one unit after the cumulative output has doubled:

- Average labor time for first four units: 200 hours/unit
- When cumulative output doubles, average labor time decreases by 20%, meaning it becomes 160 hours per unit.
- Therefore, the average time to produce one unit after the first four is 160 hours.

Now we can use this average labor time to find the total hours required to produce 16 units:

- First four units took a total of 800 hours (4 x 200).
- The remaining 12 units will take a total of 12 x 160 = 1920 hours.
- The total time to produce all 16 units is 800 + 1920 = 2720 hours.

However, the question asks specifically for the hours that "Washington" would use to produce the 16 units, while the information given only refers to "Whitmere Corporation". There is no explanation or context provided to make a connection between these two entities, so it's unclear whether this is a mistake or some additional information is missing. Nonetheless, based solely on the given information, the best answer is D.

A Staff Assistant at Whitmere Corporation Recently Determined That the First