FIGURE 5.6 Buffering the bottleneck in flow 4. Consider the system illustrated in Figure 5.6, which...

 

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FIGURE 5.6 Buffering the bottleneck in flow 4. Consider the system illustrated in Figure 5.6, which shows a flow with multiserver stations that have unbalanced capacity. Assuming that there is no yield loss or rework, station 4 is the bottleneck, because it has the smallest capacity and will therefore have the highest utilization. Suppose that (i) all processes, as well as demand, are subject to variability; (ii) lead times currently being quoted to customers are long by industry standards and on-time delivery performance is poor; (iii) utilization of station 4 is below 90 percent; and (iv) additional capacity at station 4 is prohibitively expensive. a. How is this system making use of time buffers? Do you think these are good choices as variability buffers? 460/day 500/day 440/day 400/day 450/day 440/day FIGURE 5.6 Buffering the bottleneck in flow 4. Consider the system illustrated in Figure 5.6, which shows a flow with multiserver stations that have unbalanced capacity. Assuming that there is no yield loss or rework, station 4 is the bottleneck, because it has the smallest capacity and will therefore have the highest utilization. Suppose that (i) all processes, as well as demand, are subject to variability; (ii) lead times currently being quoted to customers are long by industry standards and on-time delivery performance is poor; (iii) utilization of station 4 is below 90 percent; and (iv) additional capacity at station 4 is prohibitively expensive. a. How is this system making use of time buffers? Do you think these are good choices as variability buffers? 460/day 500/day 440/day 400/day 450/day 440/day

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I Since the bottleneck ... View the full answer