A new type of fueling truck is under consideration for anairport on a resort island. The company has been testing onealternative and feel it has the potential to significantly reducefueling time while airplanes are at the airport’s one gate. Withcurrent equipment refueling requires 20 minutes. They estimate thatthe first fueling operation with this equipment will require 30minutes. They hope, by spending the money for the new equipment,that within two weeks they will achieve a refueling time of 15minutes – a 25% improvement on the current time. Assume 6 planesper day are schedule to arrive/depart from the island (7days/week). All flights to and from the island are scheduled toarrive and depart between 6:00 am and 9:00 am.

a. Determine the learning rate required to achieve theirobjective.

b. If their learning rate is actually 92%, how many days will ittake to get the refueling time below the 20 minutes required withthe old system?

c. After 10 weeks with a learning rate of 92%, what would be theexpected time to refuel planes with the new system?

d. What impact (if any) will this change have on the demand forfueling systems and the way they are scheduled?

e. What impact might this have on the scheduling of flightsto/from this destination?

f. Assuming there’s demand for up to six additional flights inthe scheduling window, what is the business case for purchasingthis equipment?