The export business in China is growing. Uncle George, who has just returned from a trade expo in Shanghai, has informed you that the port authority of Ningbo expects the demand to reach the same level as Shanghai. The port authority of Ningbo is now deciding how to change its system to accommodate this surge in demand. They have two options, (a) to retire their existing x-ray machine and buy an x-ray machine similar to the one used by the Shanghai port, or (b) to buy another x-ray machine similar to the one they already own and therefore operate the system with two similar machines. Both the options will cost the port authority of Ningbo the same. Purely from the perspective of reducing lead-time, is (a) or (b) better for you? Please show your detailed analysis.

Aproduction line has three machines a, b, and c, with reliabilities of .96, .86, and .85, respectively. the machines are arranged so that if one breaks down, the others must shut down. engineers are weighing two alternative designs for increasing the line’s reliability. plan 1 involves adding an identical backup line, and plan 2 involves providing a backup for each machine. in either case, three machines (a, b, and c) would be used with reliabilities equal to the original three. a. compute overall system reliability under plan 1. (round your intermediate calculations and final answer to 4 decimal places.) reliability b. compute overall system reliability under plan 2. (round your intermediate calculations and final answer to 4 decimal places.) reliability c. which plan will provide the higher reliability? plan2plan1