The bottleneck can be defined as capacity constraint symbolic to the neck of the bottle that limits the flow of liquid coming out. The size of the bottle becomes irrelevant during output as the size of the neck of the bottle determines how a liquid will flow out. Likewise, the concept applies in manufacturing and production whence the capacity of the bottleneck determines the success of a working environment. Ideally, the production process identifies an essential process or processes that can be identified as the bottleneck that ultimately determines output. Improving the bottleneck, that one specific process, termed as increasing the capacity of the bottleneck results in more throughput. Nothing done elsewhere in the production process will have the same effect.
Therefore, increasing the capacity of one's bottleneck increases the production output and hence copes with the demand and improves the overall production process. The quotas describe Pete's people to provide parts for twenty-five units every hour. This becomes the bottleneck in the production process and to cope with this demand, the robots in the industry can weld twenty-five units of sub-assembly per hour. The robot, however, has to wait for Pete's people to finish the entire batch to start welding. To solve this bottleneck and increase capacity for more output, Pete's people need to provide parts for welding every hour to the robots for welding hence maximum output to cope with demand.
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Regardless of where the bottleneck is in the production process, increasing output of the entire system requires the increase in the capacity of the bottleneck. This condition holds for every profession and every field for increased production to match market demands. However, a system will always have a bottleneck in the production process, by creating a strain on the slowest process once one increase the capacity of the bottleneck. When demand rises, the bottleneck becomes exposed. When the bottleneck is increased to cope with demand, the next slowest step in production is exposed.
The point to note is that creating more capacity to the bottleneck will speed up the system, but increasing the capacity of non-bottleneck processes in the system does not affect. The bottleneck process should never be starved; the process should never wait for repairs, set up a time for bottleneck processes should be minimal, bottleneck processes should be paced to meet consumer demands and never mix up external flaws and problems as being the bottleneck in a system.
