Question

A product passes through four machines A, B, C, and D with cycle times 4 min, 4 min, 3 min, and 2 min respectively. Then which are the bottleneck machines?

• A. Machine A and C
• B. Machine A and B
• C. Machine A and B
• D. Machine C and D

Hint:

To identify bottleneck machines, focus on the ones with the longest cycle times. These machines control the overall speed of the process, and improvements here will have the greatest impact on efficiency.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

In this case, the bottleneck machines are those with the longest cycle times, as they determine the overall production rate. Machines A and B both have a cycle time of 4 minutes, which is longer than the cycle times of machines C and D. The bottleneck occurs where the production process is slowed down due to the longest cycle time, meaning machines A and B will limit the overall throughput of the system. The bottleneck machines are critical to identify, as improving the performance of these machines will lead to increased overall throughput.