OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT EXAM

Exercise 1 (11 points)

ROBOMES is a small enterprise that produces precision mechanical components for the robotics industry. The
production process is quite simple since it is composed only by 3 departments. In particular, one milling
department, one thermal process department and one finish department.
The pieces enter the production system and are first arranged in a single FIFO-queue before the milling
department, which is composed by two technologically identical machines which operate in parallel. The two
milling machines are extremely advanced, they have an automatic quality control directly on board able to
identify at 100% the good pieces from the ones that must be discarded. On average, after the manufacturing in the
milling department, the 7% of the total pieces that enter the whole production system must be dis carded. These
pieces identified as damaged are definitively discarded from the system.
The pieces go subsequently to the thermal process, where three technologically identical machines work in
parallel each one with its own specific queue. The pieces which enter the thermal process department are arranged
in a perfectly equal way in the queues of its three machines. The workers who operate in the thermal process
department are highly specialized and they are able to notice directly on the field the presence of pieces with
defects which have to be discarded. These pieces are on average the 4% of the pieces that enter the whole thermal
process department and they are sent to an external enterprise specialized in their disposal.
After the thermal process department, the good piece are addressed to an advanced finish manufacturing or to a
simple finish one according to the ROBOMES customers demand. In particular, the 65% of the total good pieces
processed by the thermal process department (i.e. those which will not be discarded by the department itself), is
addressed to the advanced finishing machine, while the remaining 35% to the simple finish one.
Both the advanced finish machine and the simple finish machine are technologically advanced, having both of
them an automatic quality control on board able to distinguish at 100% the good pieces from the ones that must be
in general reprocessed or discarded.
With respect to the advanced finishing, two different situations of non-compliance can come up. In the first case,
represented by the 5% of the pieces processed by the advanced finishing machine, the non-compliant pieces are
recovered re-processing them in the thermal process stage, with a final outcome certainly positive. Once re-
processed in thermal department, these pieces are no more suitable for an advanced finish manufacturing and
hence are addressed to the simple finishing machine where, once processed, will be certainly immediately good.
In the second case, represented by another 5% of the piec es processed by the advanced finishing machine, the
non-compliant pieces but, because of the not negligible damage, are directly addressed to the simple finishing
machine where, once processed, will be certainly immediately good thanks to the less rigid standards requested by
this kind of manufacturing.
Also with respect to the simple finishing two different situations of non-compliance can come up. In the first case,
represented by the 3% of the pieces processed by the simple finishing machine, the non-compliant pieces are
recovered by means of a complete remanufacturing starting from the first department, i.e. the milling one. The
pieces remanufactured in this way will be certainly immediately good for all the departments they will pass
through again, i.e. milling, thermal process and simple finish. In the second case, represented by the 4% of the
pieces processed by the simple finishing machine, the non-compliant pieces are evaluated as irrecoverable and
hence they are sent, as in the case of the scraps of the thermal process, to an external enterprise specialized in the
disposal of those components.
The good pieces which come out of the machines of advanced finish and simple finish are sent to the last
packaging department, which is not treated in the present exercise.
In the table below, the values of the resources service rates. For this exercise, the arrival and the service rates are
assumed distributed like negative exponentials.
Process Tasso di servizio (1 macchina)
Milling 470 pieces/day
Thermal process 420 pieces/day
Advanced finish 620 pieces/day
Simple finish 440 pieces/day
The enterprise works 8 hours/day.
Question 1) (3 points) Do the map of the production flow of the enterprise, highlighting all the significant
parameters and the main information that you consider important to include (included the number of pieces that
enter and come out of the system), knowing that at the thermal process department, on average, 30 pieces/day are
discarded. In addition, create a table with all the relevant parameters for each stage (Arrival rate, Service rate,
Ro, Type of queue, Priority, Ws (in minutes)). You can consider as negligible the time for the quality control
check of the pieces done by the workers at the thermal process department.
Question 2) (3 points) Calculate the expected throughput time of the system as well as the throughput times for
each path (dont take into account scraps in the calculus of the expected throughput time of the system and of the
throughput times for each path).

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Question 3) (2 points) Which is the probability for the machines of advanced finish and simple finish to be at the
same time without pieces to be processed?
Question 4) (3 points) Calculate in analytical way the impact on the expected throughput time of the system
coming from an improvement of the quality of the thermal process department able to completely avoid the
possibility for its workers to discard any piece from the system. For the calculus, consider the output of the system
as stable.

Exercise 2 (8 points)
The Museum of Contemporary Art, in view of the opening of the new exhibition dedicated to Pablo Picasso, has
decided to organize an inauguration evening open to the public where authorities, personalities of the artistic
world and of the show business but also fans or simple curious people will be present.
The director of the exhibition, responsible for the evening, wants to organize the event as a buffet dinner followed
by the speech of the famous art reviewer and expert of Picasso Mario Rossi. The director has decided to sell a
total of 650 tickets for the participation at the event. He is sure he can maximize the profit of the event, which is
obviously necessary to start to recover the huge investments done for the preparation of the exhibition, by offering
2 different types of fees, a first one that is cheaper (250 /ticket) and a second one that is more expensive (600
/ticket). The tickets of the cheaper fee will be sold until 30 before the event, while the ones of the more
expensive fee will be sold starting from 29 days before the event until the day before it. The director knows that,
theoretically, it would be possible sell all the tickets at the cheaper fee. The demand of the tickets for the more
expensive fee is distributed like a Gaussian with a mean of 175 and a probability of 85% to sell more than 110
tickets.
The buffet dinner will be offered to all the participants and will be paid by the Museum of Contemporary Art to a
catering society 45 days before the event with a cost of 20 /person expected. The director of the exhibition has
then decided that during the buffet dinner will be offered to the customers with tickets with the more expensive
fee also the special cocktail Picasso prepared for the occasion by the famous barman Luca Bianchi. The
payment of this special cocktail costs to the museum a total of 12 /person, which will be paid out to the barman
only after the event on the basis of the effective number of consumers. Also for the customers who buy the
cheaper ticket there will be the possibility to try the Picasso, but with a cost of 16 /person, and paying out this
amount directly to the staff of the barman at the moment of the degustation. The cocktail will not be the only
gastronomic news of the evening. The director has contacted also the famous German bakery Heinz in order to
prepare for the evening due different kinds of cake. The former (The dream), will be offered to the customers
who buy the cheaper ticket. For this cake, the museum will pay in advance to the bakery 14 days before the event
6 /person expected, while it will pay after the event a total of 4 /person on the basis of the effective
consumption. The latter (Guernica) will be offered to the customers who buy the more expensive ticket. For this
cake, the museum will pay in advance to the bakery 10 days before the event 8 /person expected, while it will
pay after the event a total of 6 /person on the basis of the effective consumption.
The speech of the art reviewer Mario Rossi, immediately following the buffet dinner, will be reserved only to the
clients who have bought the more expensive ticket. At the end of the speech the last book of Mario Rossi
Picassos life will be offered to the participants. It has been calculated that the 60% of the participants to the
speech will take that book. For this book, the museum has an agreement with Mario Rossi (the only beneficiary of
the income coming from its sale) that obliges it to pay after the speech the total amount of money correspondent to
the effective number of copies taken by the participants (the price of the book is 25 /book). Moreover, it has been
calculated that the 75% of the participants to the speech will bring home the fine bookmark already entirely paid
in advance by the museum to a publishing house 25 days before the event with a cost of 7 /person expected.
Consider eventually that to all the participants to the evening, regardless of the type of ticket bought, will be
offered by the museum a gadget (cost of 5 /gadget) paid 8 days before the event as well as a pen (cost of 4 /pen)
paid 5 days before the event. The Museum of Contemporary Art has fixed costs correlated to the event for a total
of 80.000 .

Data interpolation is not requested. You can take the value that is closest to the one you desire.
Question 1) (3 points) Define how to allocate the number of tickets to be reserved for the different categories of
price (Protection Level).
Question 2) (2 points) Define if and how the allocation of the tickets of the event changes if there is the
possibility to sell the seats that are remained empty (both because they have not be sold and because they are
linked to a no-show phenomenon) with a last minute fee with the special price of 120 the same day of the event,
knowing that in this way it would be possible to sell w ithout problems all the ones offered. The no-show
phenomenon, in particular, happens only for the cheaper tickets with a percentage of 15%. There will be certainly
no no-show for the clients who buy the more expensive ticket. To the buyers of the last minute ticket will be
offered only the buffet dinner and the cake The dream.
Question 3) (3 points) Calculate with which probability the Museum of Contemporary Art will be able to make
with the event a profit higher than 100.000 . Consider as reference situation the one described in the previous
Question 2).

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