Consider a three sequentially stepped process named as Process A, Process B, and Process C. Input comes into Process A. Output from A goes into Process B. Output from B goes into Process C. Output of C is the final output. Suppose that it takes 2 minutes per unit in Process A, 3 minutes per unit in Process B and 1 minute per unit in Process C. What will be maximum steady state output from this system?
A) 30 per hour
B) 60 per hour
C) 20 per hour
D) 10 per hour
E) Cannot tell since it depends on the input rate

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The maximum steady state output from this system can be found by the bottleneck rate, which is the slowest process in the system. In this case, the slowest process is Process B, which takes 3 minutes per unit. Therefore, the maximum steady state output is 20 per hour (since there are 60 minutes in an hour and 3 minutes per unit, we can produce 20 units per hour). The input rate does not affect the maximum steady state output as long as it does not exceed the capacity of Process B.

Consider a Three Sequentially Stepped Process Named as Process A