Taylor’s is a popular restaurant that offers customers a largedining room and comfortable bar area. Taylor Henry, the owner andmanager of the restaurant, has seen the number of patrons increasesteadily over the last two years and is considering whether andwhen she will have to expand its available capacity. The restaurantoccupies a large home, and all the space in the building is nowused for dining, the bar, and kitchen, but space is available onthe property to expand the restaurant. The restaurant is open from6 p.m. to 10 p.m. each night (except Monday) and, on average, has27 customers enter the bar and 52 enter the dining room during eachof those hours. Taylor has noticed the trends over the last 2 yearsand expects that within about 4 years, the number of bar customerswill increase by 50% and the dining customers will increase by 20%.Taylor is worried that the restaurant will be not be able to handlethe increase and has asked you to study its capacity. In yourstudy, you consider four areas of capacity: the parking lot (whichhas 82 spaces), the bar (56 seats), the dining room (102 seats),and the kitchen. The kitchen is well-staffed and can prepare anymeal on the menu in an average of 12 minutes per meal. The kitchen,when fully staffed, is able to have up to 20 meals in preparationat a time, or 100 meals per hour (60 min/12 min × 20 meals).
To assess the capacity of the restaurant, you obtain theadditional information: Diners typically come to the restaurant bycar, with an average of 3 persons per car, while bar patrons arrivewith an average of 1.5 persons per car. Diners, on average, occupya table for an hour, while bar customers usually stay for anaverage of 2 hours. Due to fire regulations, all bar customers mustbe seated. The bar customer typically orders one drink per hour atan average of $9 per drink; the dining room customer orders a mealwith an average price of $20; the restaurant’s cost per drink is$3, and the direct costs for meal preparation are $3.
Required: 1-a. Given the current number of customers per hour,what is the amount of excess capacity in the bar, dining room,parking lot, and kitchen? 1-b. Calculate the expected totalthroughput margin for the restaurant per day, and month (assuming a26-day month). 2-a. Given the expected increase in the number ofcustomers, determine if there is a constraint for any of the fourareas of capacity. What is the amount of needed capacity for eachconstraint? 2-b. If there is a constraint, reduce the demand on theconstraint so that the restaurant is at full capacity (assume somecustomers would have to be turned away). Calculate the expectedtotal throughput margin for the restaurant per day, and month(assuming a 26-day month).
