Which of the following is the fourth step in the theory of constraints?
A. Reduce the effects of the constraints by offloading work or by expanding
capability.
B. When one set of constraints is overcome, go back and identify new constraints.
C. Focus resources on accomplishing the plan.
D. Develop a plan for overcoming the identified constraints. Ans✔✔✔-A. Reduce
the effects of the constraints by offloading work or by expanding capability.
Which of the following is NOT a valid principle of bottleneck management?
A. Increasing the capacity of a non-bottleneck station is a mirage.
B. Increasing the capacity of a non-bottleneck station increases the capacity for
the whole system.
C. Release work orders to the system at the pace set by the bottleneck's capacity.
D. Lost time at the bottleneck represents lost capacity for the whole system.
Ans✔✔✔-B. Increasing the capacity of a non-bottleneck station increases the
capacity for the whole system.
There are three consecutive steps in a customer service process. The first two
steps are each capable of serving 25 customers per hour while the third step can
process only 20 customers per hour. Which of the following statements regarding
this system is true?
A. There are floating bottlenecks in the system.
B. The entire system is capable of processing 25 customers per hour.
C. If the first two steps are run at full capacity, then the third step has a waiting
line.
,D. The first and second steps are bottlenecks for the system. Ans✔✔✔-C. If the
first two steps are run at full capacity, then the third step has a waiting line.
The capacity of a system is limited by its bottleneck, which is the step with the
slowest processing rate. In this case, the third step can process only 20 customers
per hour, while the first two steps can each process 25 customers per hour.
Therefore, the third step is the bottleneck of the system, and if the first two steps
are operating at their maximum capacity, the third step will not be able to keep
up with the incoming flow of customers. As a result, there will be a waiting line or
backlog of customers at the third step.
Use the process flow diagram to determine which of these events has the
greatest net benefit.
Station A: 1 worker; 10 minutes
Station B: 1 worker; 10 units/hour
Station C: 1 worker; 8 units/hour
Station D: 1 worker; 12 minutes
A. increasing the capacity at Station C to 10 units per hour.
B. reducing the flow time at Station D from 12 to 10 minutes.
C. reducing the flow time at Station A from 10 to 8 minutes.
D. increasing the capacity at Station B to 12 units per hour. Ans✔✔✔-B. reducing
the flow time at Station D from 12 to 10 minutes.
Station A: = 6 units/hour
Station B: 10 units/hour
Station C: 8 units/hour
Station D: = 5 units/hour
, Consider consecutive processes A−B−C, where process A has a capacity of 20 units
per hour, process B has a capacity of 25 units per hour, and process C has a
capacity of 30 units per hour. Where would an operations manager want any
inventory?
A. in front of process C.
B. in front of process B.
C. in front of process A.
D. Inventory should not exist anywhere. Ans✔✔✔-C. in front of process A.
Process A has the lowest capacity.
If there is no inventory in front of process A, it may lead to underutilization of its
capacity.
An operations manager would want some inventory in front of process A to keep
it busy and maintain a steady flow.
Process B has a higher capacity than process A.
If there is no inventory in front of process B, it might face idle time waiting for
input from process A.
Process C has the highest capacity.
If there is no inventory in front of process C, it might experience idle time due to
slower input from process B.
Therefore, since Process B depends on the output of Process A and Process C
depends on the output of Process B, Process A must have sufficient inventory.
Therefore, the inventory should be placed in front of Process A.
The third step in Theory of Constraints application, "subordinate all other
decisions to Step 2," means that: