The stamping division at Bass Auto Works performs all necessary metal stamping operations for body panels. This is a 16 hour/day, 240 days/year operation. Currently, there are 30 stamping lines. Data on the breakdown and repair times of the lines has been analyzed by a group of Senior Design Students at State College. They determined that it was reasonable to assume that both are exponentially distributed. The mean time to failure for a single stamping line was found to be about 6.5 hours. The division currently employs 4 repairmen who work in teams of 2. When a stamping line breaks down, a single team is sent to repair it. The average repair time for a stamping line is about 4 hours. Required:
a. Develop a model for this system. Define states and events. The line feeds body panels to the main assembly process. A fully operational stamping line produces body panels at a rate of about 10/hour.
b. For this system, how many body panel, on average, are produced per hour? Suppose that body panels are needed in assembly at a rate of about 112/hour. The cost of not meeting the production requirements is extremely high and to be avoided at all cost.
c. How many repair crew is needed to meet the assembly demand?