Problem
Suppose a product must go through an assembly line where the first step takes an average of 10 minutes. The next step can be done by any one of three machines, each of which takes an average of 20 minutes per product. Lastly, the assembly step takes 5 minutes and is done by a human. Assume that no work-in-process (WIP) is permitted beyond that actually being worked on at each process step (i.e., there are no buffers between process steps).
i. What is the capacity of the process, and what is the bottleneck?
ii. What is the average theoretical flow time (i.e., without including waiting for service)?
iii. If the average demand is 10 units/hour, what is the throughput rate of the process?
iv. What is the utilization of the assembly operator?