Ops 571 Bottlenecks
Indentifying Bottlenecks
Ops 571
Brian Birch
John Smith 5/1/2012
Waking up and getting out of the door to work in the morning is a process that takes several steps to complete. In order to get out of the house in less than one hour and fifteen minutes several of these step must be altered or eliminated from the process. In every process there are steps that slow down the process called bottlenecks. Examining the entire process closely and identifying bottlenecks is the first step to creating a process that is efficient and productive.
The Process
The steps that John Smith takes to get out of bed in the morning are the following:
1. Wake up 2. Exercise 3. Breakfast 4. Hygiene 5. Preparation of attire 6. Leaving and locking up
Each step takes a certain amount of time to complete; in order to get the proper amount of sleep and to be able to complete all the steps in the process, a collection of data had to be collected over the past several weeks. The collection of data showed the average amount of complete the entire process was roughly one and a half hours. After taking a look at the amount of time it took to complete each task identifying the bottlenecks in the process became clear.
Identifying the Bottlenecks
“A bottleneck is defined as any resource whose capacity is less than the demand placed upon it. A bottleneck is a constraint within the system that limits throughput.” (Chase, Jacobs, and Aquilano 2006 pg 725) A bottleneck in a process is a point that causes congestion or in the process of getting from the bed to out the door the step that takes the most time. In the case of John Smith the second step in the process (exercise) clearly takes the most time and can be considered a bottleneck along with the fifth step (preparation of attire).
Overcoming Bottlenecks
Goldratt’s “ Theory of Constraints” deals with five steps:
Ops 571
Brian Birch
John Smith 5/1/2012
Waking up and getting out of the door to work in the morning is a process that takes several steps to complete. In order to get out of the house in less than one hour and fifteen minutes several of these step must be altered or eliminated from the process. In every process there are steps that slow down the process called bottlenecks. Examining the entire process closely and identifying bottlenecks is the first step to creating a process that is efficient and productive.
The Process
The steps that John Smith takes to get out of bed in the morning are the following:
1. Wake up 2. Exercise 3. Breakfast 4. Hygiene 5. Preparation of attire 6. Leaving and locking up
Each step takes a certain amount of time to complete; in order to get the proper amount of sleep and to be able to complete all the steps in the process, a collection of data had to be collected over the past several weeks. The collection of data showed the average amount of complete the entire process was roughly one and a half hours. After taking a look at the amount of time it took to complete each task identifying the bottlenecks in the process became clear.
Identifying the Bottlenecks
“A bottleneck is defined as any resource whose capacity is less than the demand placed upon it. A bottleneck is a constraint within the system that limits throughput.” (Chase, Jacobs, and Aquilano 2006 pg 725) A bottleneck in a process is a point that causes congestion or in the process of getting from the bed to out the door the step that takes the most time. In the case of John Smith the second step in the process (exercise) clearly takes the most time and can be considered a bottleneck along with the fifth step (preparation of attire).
Overcoming Bottlenecks
Goldratt’s “ Theory of Constraints” deals with five steps: