A public safety unit of a university issues identification cards at the beginning of each semester. Every year about 6,000 new ID cards are issued. The steps in the process and the approximate times are given below.
Note: Steps 1 and 2 must be completed first, and Step 6 must be completed last.
Steps in the process Estimated time
1. Review the application 15 seconds
2. Verify information 25 seconds
3. Check student/staff status 40 seconds
4. Take photo 70 seconds
5. Attach photo and laminate 35 seconds
6. Issue ID 20 seconds
Suppose you are authorized to hire one more clerk. Where would you assign the new worker to maximize line efficiency, what will be the bottleneck station, and how many applications can be processed per hour?