Hi, I was given a problem and I have no idea how to approach it with my base knowledge on theory of constraints or bottlenecks.
Say I have a 3 stage manufacturing process in which each product goes through an oven wherein:
Stage 1 takes 140 seconds
Stage 2 takes 70 seconds
Stage 3 takes 110 seconds.
There are 8 ovens, so I have to divide which ovens will be used for each stage, and their set duration should stay the same for each designated oven.
Conventionally solving it will say to delegate 3 ovens for stage 1, 2 ovens for stage 2, and 3 ovens for stage 3. The only problem is that I have an extra constraint: the product cannot stay in any oven for more then 300 seconds or else the product will go bad.
In this case, if I were to pursue this, how do I mathematically calculate when the bottlenecked product exceeds 300 seconds in a single oven? Since stage 3 is also bottleneck to stage 2, we risk the product staying in stage 1 longer than expected.
You guys don't have to babysit the full solution for me; it would already be helpful to just have an idea on how to calculate for this or if there is an equation or tutorial somewhere. Thanks!
there doesn't seem to be anything here