The Bottleneck Walk – Practical Bottleneck Detection Part 2

Six empty green wine bottlesThe bottleneck walk is far and wide my most favorite method to detect bottlenecks on the shop floor (not only because it was developed by me, but also because it is really good!). You can detect shifting bottlenecks, using no math whatsoever and no time measurements, simply by walking along the production line and observing the line. It’s almost too easy to believe, but it works like a charm! Due to the length of this topic, I have broken the article into two posts. The first post “The Bottleneck Walk – Practical Bottleneck Detection Part 1” details how to find the current temporary bottleneck. This second post details how to determine the big picture regarding the bottlenecks. See below for a complete list of posts on this series on bottlenecks. 

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The Bottleneck Walk – Practical Bottleneck Detection Part 1

Five empty green wine bottlesThe bottleneck walk is far and wide my most favorite method to detect bottlenecks on the shop floor (not only because it was developed by me, but also because it is really good!). You can detect shifting bottlenecks, using no math whatsoever and no time measurements, simply by walking along the production line and observing the line. It’s almost too easy to believe, but it works like a charm! Due to the length of this topic, I have broken the article into two posts. This first post details how to find the current temporary bottleneck. The second post details how to determine the big picture regarding the bottlenecks. See below for a complete list of posts on this series on bottlenecks. 

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Mathematically Accurate Bottleneck Detection 1 – The Average Active Period Method

Three empty green wine bottlesThis post describes an accurate way to detect the bottleneck in manufacturing systems, based on the average times a process is waiting or active. The method determines the primary bottlenecks in the system much more accurately than other methods commonly used in industry. The method was developed by me during my time at the Toyota Central R&D Laboratories in Japan. Subsequent posts look at other bottleneck detection methods that actually DO work!

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Mathematically Accurate Bottleneck Detection 2 – The Active Period Method

Four empty green wine bottlesThis post describes a second accurate way to detect the bottleneck in manufacturing systems, based on the precise times a process is waiting or active. The method is highly accurate, not only giving the likelihoods of different processes being the (temporary) bottleneck, but also estimating the improvement of the entire system capacity if the bottleneck(s) are improved. It is also possible to observe the shifting of these bottlenecks over time. The method was developed by me during my time at the Toyota Central R&D Laboratories in Japan. See below for a complete list of posts on this series on bottlenecks.

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Common Bottleneck Detection Methods that do NOT work!

Two empty green wine bottlesTo improve your system capacity, it is a must to find and improve your bottleneck. However, finding the bottleneck is difficult. Most methods used in industry fail at finding the bottleneck. As discussed in my previous post on Shifting Bottlenecks,  this is mostly due to bottlenecks being dynamic and frequently shifting from one process to the next. In this post we will look at common bottleneck detection methods used in industry. More importantly, we will find out more about failures of bottleneck detection methods commonly used in industry. Subsequent posts look at bottleneck detection methods that actually DO work!

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About Shifting Bottlenecks

One empty green wine bottleImproving system capacity requires you to find the bottleneck; however, bottleneck detection is a tricky business. The main problem is that most bottlenecks are not static, but move around. In this post we will look at the behavior of bottlenecks on the shop floor. This is the first post in a series of posts on bottleneck detection. Subsequent posts will look at the flaws of commonly used methods to find the bottleneck and describe two new reliable methods for finding the bottleneck on the shop floor.

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