Question

In the figure below, two lines (1, 2) produce in parallel. The final process combines production in one way or another as described below. Hourly capacity of each process is shown in the table. А D E 17 Process Units/Hr A B 10 с 12 D 15 9 14 ESG Consider two scenarios: Scenario 1 Lines 1 and 2 produce different products, which are individually packaged in process G. a System capacity is units. b. Is process Ga bottleneck? (Click to select) Scenario 2 Lines 1 and 2 produce two components for the same product, which are assembled (one part from line 1 and one part from line 2) in process G. System capacity is units. d. Is process G a bottleneck? (Click to select) True/false A bottleneck process on an assembly line typically has the smallest capacity of any process on the line

Answer 1

Scenario 1:

Considering line 1 and 2 are producing different products, we can estimate capacity separately for line 1 and 2.

Capacity for line 1 is the same as the slowest activity on this line, i.e. 10 units / hr (capacity of process B with lowest capacity in line 1).

Capacity for line 2 is the same as the slowest activity on this line, i.e. 9 units / hr (capacity of process E with lowest capacity in line 2).

a.

Total capacity of line 1 and line 2 (two products) is 10 + 9 = 19 units/ hour for both products.

However, capacity of G which is packaging process is only 17 units/ hour. Hence, the overall system capacity is 17 units.

b.

Is process G a bottleneck? "Yes"

While line 1 + line 2 capacity is 19 units / hr however due to lower capacity of G (17 units/ hr) there is a bottleneck in the system due to G.

Scenario 2.

a.

If line 1 and line 2 produce two components of the same product which are assembled in G.

Then , as calculated in Scenario 1 the capacity of line 1 is 10 units/ hr and line 2 is 9 units/ hr. Now, since these two are components for the same product the overall system capacity is the same as the capacity of line which is slowest i.e. 9 units / hr (line2).

The system capacity if 9 units.

b.

Is process G a bottleneck? "No"

Since bottleneck is in line 2 and not G in this case.

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