Klassen Toy Company, Inc., assembles two parts (parts 1 and 2) : Part 1 is first processed at workstation A for 12 minutes per unit and then processed at workstation B for 20 minutes per unit. Part 2 is simultaneously processed at workstation C for 15 minutes per unit. Work stations B and C feed the parts to an assembler at workstation D, where the two parts are assembled. The time at workstation D is 10 minutes.

(a) what is the bottleneck of this process?

(b) what is the hourly capacity of the process?

a) The bottleneck of the process is work station B

b) 1,43 Units per hour

Explanation:

a) The bottleneck of a process is the activity in a process chain that limits the capacity of the whole process.

In this case we have two parts

PART 1 : each part is processed in workstation A for 12 min and then for 20 minutes in workstation B, so it takes 32 minutes until it arrives to workstation D where it will be assebly with part 2 PART 2: each part is processed in workstation C for 15 minutes until it reachs workstation D for the final assembly But, as we can see, part two will be waiting for (32-15 = 17) 17 minutes until PART 1 arrives.

As we can see, the workstation B is the bottleneck of the process because it limits the capacity of the whole chain.

b) lets calculate the how long it takes to produce 1 unit:

We have already calculated that it takes 32 minutes to have the two parts in workstation D. After thata they will be assembles fpr 10 more minutes, so it takes 32+10 = 42 minutes to produce one unit.

Now, let's see how many pieces we can produce in an hour: (60 min / hour) / 42 (min/unit) = 1,43 units / hour