New students who join the university, should visit certain departments in their first day, as part of the registration and induction process. Students are usually allocated to groups of ten, and their visits and their timings are as follows:
DEPARTMENT DURATION FOR EACH GROUP (min)
Registration/Finance 60
IT 45
Library 90
Social Club 30
Sport Centre 30
Student Support 45
Service Medical Centre Campus Services (banks, restaurants, etc.) 45
During the visit, at least one person from the university student support team should be with each team of students. The student support team has allocated the visit of every two departments to one person as follows: Deborah (Registration and IT), Gemma (Library and Social Club), Frank (Sport Centre and Student support service), and Raj (Medical centre and Campus services). The visits of the departments can be done in any sequence. Based on the current arrangements,
a) What is the cycle time
b) What is the throughput per hour
c) Total idle time in each cycle
d) Recommend a new task allocation with a shorter cycle time.