How might an organization increase the capacity of a bottleneck operation?

Answer 1

One option is to outsource part of the function that represents the bottleneck. This is commonly done in the electronics industry, when some part of manufacturing reaches full capacity, but demand is still rising.

To give a specific example, capacity constraints can sometimes occur in the manufacture of semiconductor circuits. In such cases, it may be possible to add more capacity by having chips made by silicon foundries -- companies that offer outsourced chip manufacturing service.

Other times, it is possible to optimize or redesign a business process so as to reduce a bottleneck.

Using the semiconductor example again, suppose the plant is running at three shifts, but a certain manufacturing process has bottlenecks. It may be possible (though perhaps risky) to get better machine utilization, and thus more capacity in the bottlenecked process step, by postponing scheduled machine maintenance for a period of time.

Finally, it is sometimes possible to change the way in which a product is manufactured, with a view to reducing the cycle time (i.e., the time required to make the product from start to finish). This adds production capacity.