Question

A commercial bread bakery wants to evaluate its capacity, in terms of how many kilograms of bread it can produce per hour. A simplified version of the process is shown below:

In the mixing stage, all of the ingredients are combined to form the dough.

Stage	Capacity(kg/hr/machine)	number of machines
Mixing	50	3
Proofing	35	4
Baking	20	5
Packaging	65	2

The dough must then rise in a controlled environment called a proofing box or proofing oven, which monitors humidity and temperature. Following the proofing, the bread is then formed into loaves and baked. In the final stage, the bread is packaged prior to distribution to retail outlets. The bakery currently has the following equipment:

1. What is the current maximum output of the bakery in kilograms of bread per hour?
2. Where is the bottleneck in the process?
3. If an additional piece of equipment were purchased to increase the capacity of the bottleneck, what would be the new capacity?

Answer 1

Note: In case of any doubt, please mention it in the comment section. Thank you.

S​​​​​​​tage	Capacity (kg/hr/machine)	Number of machines	Capacity (kg/hr)
Mixing	50	3	150
Proofing	35	4	140
Baking	20	5	100
Packaging	65	2	130

(A)

Capacity of the process is equal to the capacity of the bottleneck operation.

The bottleneck operation is the process that has the minimum capacity of all the operations.

The minimum capacity belongs to Baking stage and the minimum Capacity is 100 kg/hr.

Therefore, Capacity of bottleneck process = 100 kg/hr

Capacity of the process = Capacity of bottleneck operation

Capacity of process = 100 kg / hr.

Therefore, maximum output of bakery = 100 kg/ hr

(B)

Bottleneck operation as explained is the baking stage as it has the minimum production capacity.

(C)

Capacity can be increased if we buy 1 more equipment of bottleneck operation. Therefore, we must buy 1 equipment (machine) for baking stage.

Therefore, new Capacity would be = 20 × 6

New Capacity of process = 20 × 6 = 120 kgs/ hr