Question

Consider the simple 3-station assembly line illustrated below, where the 2 machines at Station 1 are parallel, i.e., the product only needs to go through one of the 2 machines before proceeding to Station 2.

What is the bottleneck time of this process? Convert to time from units.

	A.	12 minutes
	B.	20 minutes
	C.	6 minutes
	D.	38 minutes
	E.	10 minutes

Answer 1

Station 1, Machine 1 capacity = 3 units per hour

Cycle time = 60/3 = 20 minutes

Station 1, Machine 2 capacity = 3 units per hour

Cycle time = 60/3 = 20 minutes

Average cycle time for station 1 = 60/6 = 10 minutes

Now,

Capacity for station 2 = 5 units per hour

Cycle time for station 2 = 60/5 = 12 minutes

Capacity for station 3 = 10 units per hour

Cycle time for station 3 = 60/10 = 6 minutes

Highest cycle time in the system is the bottleneck time which is 12 minutes.

Hence, Option A. 12 minutes is correct answer.