Consider a production line with five stations. Station 1 can produce a unit in 9 minutes. Station 2 can produce a unit in 10 minutes. Station 3 has two identical machines, each of which can process a unit in 12 minutes (each unit only needs to be processed on one of the two machines). Station 4 can produce a unit in 11 minutes. Station 5 can produce a unit in 8 minutes. Which station is the bottleneck station?
A) Station 1
B) Station 2
C) Station 3
D) Station 4
E) Station 5

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The bottleneck station is the one with the lowest throughput (i.e., the slowest production rate). For Station 3, since there are two identical machines each capable of processing a unit in 12 minutes, the combined capacity is one unit every 6 minutes (half the time since the work can be split between the two machines). Station 4, with a production time of 11 minutes per unit, is the slowest, making it the bottleneck.

Consider a Production Line with Five Stations