Product Design and Capacity
How is process selection related to product design and capacity determination?
Below is a description of the product in question:
Monique Food Processing Company produces light snacks that can be heated in a microwave. The following steps are included in the process:
Steps Description Capacity (Units/Hour)
1 Prepare food 200
2 Measure and place in plastic pouch 175
3 Prepare cardboard box 200
4 Insert pouch into box 300
5 Shrink-wrap box 200
- What is the system capacity, and which is the bottleneck department?
- How much slack is available in other departments?
- How much system capacity can be gained by adding capacity to the bottleneck?
- What are the key factors that determine when to add capacity?
- Why would an organization want to reduce its capacity?