In: Operations Management
The following diagram shows a four step process that begins with Operation 1 and ends with Operation 4. The rates shown in each box represent the effective capacity of that operation
a. Determine the capacity of this process.
b. Which action would yield the greatest increase in process capacity: (1) Increase the capacity of Operation 1 by 15%; (2) Increase the capacity of Operation 2 by 10%; and (3) Increase the capacity of Operation 3 by 10%.
( This is the diagram below )
Operation 1 (20 units/hr) Operation 2 (18 units/hr) Operation 3 (24 units/hr) Operation 4 (22 units/hr)
a.Bottle neck of the process is the operation with the longest processing time per unit or the process with lowest number of units processed per hour.Hence,Operation #2 is the bottleneck in the process.
Therefore,
Capacity of the process =Capacity of the bottleneck=18 units per hour
b.The correct answer is option 2:Increase the capacity of Operation 2 by 10%
Since the bottleneck of the process is operation 2,increasing the capacity of this operation by 10 % ,would yield the greatest increase in process capacity.
New process capacity would be =1.1*18=19.8 units per hour