a Distinguish between bottleneck time and throughput time b

(a) Distinguish between bottleneck time and throughput time.

(b) Give an example of a bottleneck that could occur in an organization.

(c) What are the techniques available to operations managers to deal with a bottleneck operation?

(d) Which of these does not decrease throughput time?

Solution

Ans:

What is a Bottleneck?

The step in the production/service delivery process:

a) that has the lowest capacity when measured

using a comparable unit of measure and, therefore,

b) that limits the overall output of the system.

Determining the System Capacity – one approach

1. Choose a system-wide measure of capacity to be used for all stages

2. Find the capacity of each individual stage/resource in units of the system-wide capacity measure

3. Identify the bottleneck

4. Determine the system capacity

Observations

    The bottleneck (not throughput time) determines system capacity

Adding capacity to a non-bottleneck does nothing to improve system capacity

Slack – System Slack

Slack – Local Slack

               (e.g., coke tpd for the coke oven)

What Can You Do To Increase the Slack Of A System?

Improvement in spirals

Increase capacity of bottleneck by