-Mick and Donald run a fast food outlet on Queen Street. For most of the day, Mick and Donald are able to keep up with demand and serve customers quickly. However, from 10 am to 2 pm the shop becomes very busy with employees from close by businesses going out for their quick lunch. Most of the shop's customers want one of Mick's famous 'hamburgers with the lot'. Queues build, tummies rumble and customers grumble. Mick decided to solve this problem by setting up a burger production line from 10 am to 2 pm each day.

His wife, Minnie, would take over the sales counter. He would cut, toast and butter the bread rolls (he can complete 20 per hour). Donald would cook the meat patties, eggs, bacon and onions (he can complete 40 serves per hour). Donald's wife, Daisy, would chop the lettuce and tomato and place it in a toasted bread roll along with the meat patty, egg, bacon, onion, and of course sauce (she can complete 25 hamburgers per hour). The new system was put in place and the next day an average of 30 customers per hour ordered 'a hamburger with the lot' between 10 am and 2 pm.

Required:

a.    Explain the theory of constraints and its implications for managing costs and improving customer value.

b.    Draw a diagram to identify the number of customers per hour who received their orders.

c.    How many customers were unfed by 2 pm?

d.    Identify the bottlenecks in Mick's production process and suggest how they might be overcome to meet the customers' requirements.