Below is a factory layout for certain manufacturing process

Below is a factory layout for certain manufacturing process that operates 345 days in a year. Under each machine, its daily capacity is listed. The arrows depict the flow of processed raw material between the machines. Example steel processed by machine 1 goes into 2; steel processed in machine 2 goes to 3; there are three machines at Station 4... a. What is the factory\'s maximum daily production capacity? b. The CEO of the factory above plans to buy a new machine to improve the overall production capacity. He plans to buy a new machine to replace Machine 5. The new machine has a capacity of 100 Tons. Do you recommend the decision? Provide your reasons why.

Solution

Answer a): The daily capacity of given production line depends on the smallest capacity of a machine in the production line. Here the smallest capacity machine 3 has a capacity of 40 Tons which limits the maximum daily production capacity to 40 Tons only.

Answer b): No, I will not recommend the decision because increasing the capacity of Machine 5 will not improve the production output of the entire process. The capacity of the bottleneck resource, i.e. Machine 3, needs to be improve the production capacity of the factory.