SolutionstoReviewQuestionsSession2

Afourstageprocess
(a)Alwayschoosingthefastermachines:minTT=9+6+5+8=28minutes
(b)CapacityatStage1:60[min/hour]/9[min/unit]+60[min/hour]/9[min/unit]=13.33[units/hr]
Stage2:60/6=10[units/hr]
Stage3:60/5=12[units/hr]
Stage4:60/8+60/12=12.5[units/hr]
(c)Sincethestagewiththeleastcapacityisthebottleneck,itisStage2.Theprocesscapacityisthus
10[units/hr].
(d)Weshouldincreasethecapacityofstage2from10to12[units/hr].Beyondthis,thebottleneck
shifts to Stage 3, and output will not increase. Thus, this additional machine needs to produce 2
[units/hr]oritshouldhavethedesignCT=1/TR=30[min/unit].

LuisPoisson
1) Theprocesscapacityisdeterminedbythebottleneck.Toidentifythebottleneckorslowest
stageyouneedtocalculatetheCTorCapacityofthedifferentstations.
Amongstations2,3,and4,station2istheslowestone,withacapacityperhourof60min/hr/6
min/unit=10unitsperhour.Youalsoneedthecapacityoftheothertwostations.Hereyouhave
parallelservers,whosecapacityadds.SoforStation1:60/40+60/20=45unitsperhour,andfor
Station5:60/12+60/6+60/4=30unitsperhour.Sincebothstationshavealargercapacitythan
station2,station2isthebottleneckandtheoverallcapacity(orTR)is10unitsperhour.(Allother
stationscanprocessunitsfaster,buteithertheywouldnothaveanyinput(iftheyfollowstation2)
orincaseofstation1,producingfasterwouldjustproduceunnecessaryworkinprocessinventory.
2)TheminimumTTisthefastesttimeyoucanproducesomethingwhenthesystemisempty,i.e.,if
theprocessstartsup.ThefastestpartAAcanenterthebufferis2min.ThefastestpartBBcanenter
thebufferis6+5=11min.After11minyouhavebothparts,onlythentheassemblyinStep4can
start,whichtakes5min,so16minsofar.Finallyinstep5youchooseagainthefastestmachine
(sincetheseareagainparallelstations,alldoingthesamething,sousedalternatively).So16+4=20
ministhefastestyoucouldproduceaproduct.
3)Station2istheprocessbottleneck(see1)

Eric&Old
Itwillworsenthesituation.Clearly,thesystemisconstrainedbytheupstreamworkstation,whichis
therealbottleneck,notbythedownstreammachine.Changingthescheduleontheupstream
machinewillnothaveanimpactontheutilizationofthedownstreammachine,becauseonaverage
thelatterwillalwaysseethearrivalofthesamenumberofjobs(determinedbythethroughputof
thebottleneckworkstation).
Therefore,theonlywaytoincreasetheutilizationrateofthedownstreammachineistoincreasethe
throughputatthebottleneck.However,thelargernumberofsetupsrequiredbythenewpolicyis
likelytohavetooppositeeffect:itwillwastevalueaddedtimeatthebottleneckandfurther
constraintheproductivityofthewholefactory.
Asaresult,atbestthepolicywillhavenoeffect.Mostlikelyitwillevenmakethesituationworse.
Asageneralremark,youshouldsuggesttoyourclientthatmaximizingutilizationatanon
bottleneckmachineisawrongobjective.YoushouldadviseRoditomanagethesystemtoachieve
maximalthroughput,notmaximalutilizationofmachines.