Amazon Interview Question: Math Problem will be emailed. Then you will be required to explain it. Please take 15 minutes to review this question and be prepared to present your answer to the panel. You have an upstream Picking department that feeds two downstream packing departments: A and B. 75% of your Pick volume goes to department A, which has a packing rate of 150 units per labor hour (uph). 25% of the Pick volume goes to department B, which is for large items, and has a pack rate of 25 units per labor hour. Your pickers pick both large and small items throughout the day at an overall average rate of 100 units per labor hour. You have 25 people today for all 3 departments, and you absolutely must pack 7500 units in department A to meet a customer promise metric. How do you allocate labor to balance the flow in your department if you work a 10 hour shift? Do not assume breaks or lunches in your answer. Department % of volume Rate (uph) People Daily volume Pick 100% 100 ?? ?? Pack A 75% 150 ?? 7500 Pack B 25% 25 ?? ?? My solution. Overall Volume * 75% = 7500 *.75 = 7500 = 7500/.75 Overall Volume = 10,000 = uph * hours * people = 100 * 10 * people = 1000 10 = people Packing A: 7,500 = uph * hours * people = 150 * 10 * people = 1500 7500 / 1500 = people 5 = people Packing B: 10,000 * 25% = 2500 2500 = uph * hours * people = 25 * 10 * people 2500 = 250 * people 10 = people Now cut uph on Packing Department A: from 150 to 125. How much volume is packed during the first 5 hours? How much volume is packed during the second 5 hours on Packing Department A? Your must meet the 10,000 overall volume and 75000 (Pack A) From which department do you move people? What is the overall output for each department after move?

Interview Question

Area Manager Interview

Math Problem will be emailed. Then you will be required to explain it. Please take 15 minutes to review this question and be prepared to present your answer to the panel. You have an upstream Picking department that feeds two downstream packing departments: A and B. 75% of your Pick volume goes to department A, which has a packing rate of 150 units per labor hour (uph). 25% of the Pick volume goes to department B, which is for large items, and has a pack rate of 25 units per labor hour. Your pickers pick both large and small items throughout the day at an overall average rate of 100 units per labor hour. You have 25 people today for all 3 departments, and you absolutely must pack 7500 units in department A to meet a customer promise metric. How do you allocate labor to balance the flow in your department if you work a 10 hour shift? Do not assume breaks or lunches in your answer. Department % of volume Rate (uph) People Daily volume Pick 100% 100 ?? ?? Pack A 75% 150 ?? 7500 Pack B 25% 25 ?? ?? My solution. Overall Volume * 75% = 7500 *.75 = 7500 = 7500/.75 Overall Volume = 10,000 = uph * hours * people = 100 * 10 * people = 1000 10 = people Packing A: 7,500 = uph * hours * people = 150 * 10 * people = 1500 7500 / 1500 = people 5 = people Packing B: 10,000 * 25% = 2500 2500 = uph * hours * people = 25 * 10 * people 2500 = 250 * people 10 = people Now cut uph on Packing Department A: from 150 to 125. How much volume is packed during the first 5 hours? How much volume is packed during the second 5 hours on Packing Department A? Your must meet the 10,000 overall volume and 75000 (Pack A) From which department do you move people? What is the overall output for each department after move?

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Interview Answers

7 Answers

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6 ppl at PACK A 10 ppl at PACK B Would leave you with 9 People for Picking which = 9,000 units picked for the day. Which would create a shortage for total units packed. No?

Anon on 5 Mar 2018

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Part 2: with 125uph in A, 7500/125 = 60; Labour hours = 60 Labor hours/10 working hours = 6 Labors Volume of units packed in first 5 hours = 125 Units/Labor hour * 5 hours * 6 Labors (or simply 7500/2); Therefore, Volume of units packed in first 5 hours = 3750 Units Pick:9 (JPH raised to 111 jph because of the balancing) Pack A: 6 Pack B: 5 Output of Pick: 10000 Output of A: 7500 Output of B: 2500

Ram on 26 Apr 2019

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Calculate TOTAL QUANTITY TO PICK since yo u are only given Pack A quantity of 7500 pieces in 10 hours which is 75% of the total items to pick. 7500/75% = 10,000 pieces total Picking picks 100 pieces per hour, and they have to pick all 10,000 pieces, so they would need : 10,000 pieces / 10 hours / 100 pieces per hour equals 10 people Pack A would need 7500 units / 10 hours / 150 units per hour = 5 people Pack B would need 2500 units / 10 hours / 25 units per hour = 10 people Check your answer - 10 people + 5 people + 10 people = the 25 people you had to allocate SOme of the people above made it much harder and came up with bad answers - there is no "balancing" required

Sprocket Head on 14 Sept 2020

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Answer: 10 people for Pick 5 People for Pack A 10 People for Pack B Math: Pick = 100 uph which equals 1000 units per day in a 10 hour shift Pack A = 150 uph which equals 1500 units per day in a 10 hour shift Pack B = 25 uph which equals 250 units per day in a 10 hour shift They told us the Volume for Pack A was 7500 (which is 75% of Total Volume Picked), so using X as the unknown variable: (X)*.75 = 7500 which means X = 7500/.75 or 10,000 for Total Volume For Pack B, the volume is 25% of the Total Volume so, 10000*.25 or 2500 Now for the Headcount, we just divide the Volumes for each function by the units per day (which we worked out in the first paragraph for Pick, Pack A and Pack B) Pick = 10,000/1000 which equals 10 Heads Pack A = 7500/1500 which equals 5 Heads Pick B = 2500/250 which equals 10 Heads Total Heads = 25

Dave on 5 Mar 2020

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Your solution is correct in the original post but 7500*.75 does not = 7,500 In the comment above I also do not see where you got the rate of 125?

Anon on 5 Mar 2018

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Nevermind over looked the 125 part

Anon on 5 Mar 2018

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For pack A you would need 5 people working at 150 uph during a 10 hour shift. That equals 7,500. Part 2: 6 people working pack A @ 125 per hour @ 10 hours = 7,500. 10 people at 25 uph for 10 hours = 2,500. Which gives you the goal of 10,000 per day as well

Anonymous on 21 Mar 2016

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