1. Mike decides to open a micro-brewery, Mike’s Brewery. The following is a simplified process
flow diagram for operating a micro-brewery.
Milling --> Mashing --> Fermentation --> Cooling
The following table lists the various resources that are used and the time taken in order to
complete each activity
Activities Machines Time Taken (days)
Milling Miller 0.5
Mashing Masher 2.5
Fermentation Fermenter, Chiller 2
Cooling Chiller 1
Suppose that the capacity of each of the machines is 600 liters. So, in one batch, the process shall produce 600 liters of beer.
(a) What is the theoretical flow time of Mike’s brewing process? (1 point)
(b) What is the bottleneck resource and what is the capacity rate of the process (in liters/day)?
(c) Suppose that the input rate of the brewing process is equal to the capacity rate, then what is the utilization of the four machines (Miller, Masher, Fermenter, and Chiller), respectively?
a) Theoretical flow time = Sum of time taken by each activity = 0.5 + 2.5 +2+1 = 6 days
b) BOttleneck is Mashing machine which takes the maximum time i.e. 2.5 days. It determines the process capacity in a day.
Process capacity / day = Total capacity of machine / Total time = 600 / 2.5 = 240 litres /day
c) Considering the same input rate = capacity rate of process i.e. 240 litres.
Utilization = Capacity rate/ Capacity of Machine
Capacity of Milling = 600 / 0.5 = 1200 litres / day, Utilization = 240 / 1200 = 20%
Utilization of Mashing = 240 / 240 = 100%
Capacity of Fermenter = 600 / 2 = 300 litres / day, Utilization = 240 / 300 = 80%
Capacity of Cooling CHiller = 600 / 1 = 600 litres / day , Utilization = 240 / 600 = 40%
1. Mike decides to open a micro-brewery, Mike’s Brewery. The following is a simplified process flow...
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