Question

If a system has a bottleneck at step three of a five-step process, what is the only way to increase the total throughput of that entire system?

Accepted Answer

The only way to increase the total throughput, which is the total rate at which a system produces finished work, is to increase the capacity of the bottleneck. A bottleneck is the single slowest step in a sequence that limits the entire system&#x27;s output, much like a narrow neck on a bottle that dictates how fast liquid can pour out regardless of how wide the rest of the bottle is. Increasing the speed of any other step—steps one, two, four, or five—will not improve overall throughput because those steps already have excess capacity and are simply waiting on the bottleneck to finish its work. Once you increase the capacity of step three, the system&#x27;s throughput will rise until step three is no longer the slowest part of the process, at which point a new bottleneck will emerge elsewhere and become the next limiting factor.

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If a system has a bottleneck at step three of a five-step process, what is the only way to increase the total throughput of that entire system?

The only way to increase the total throughput, which is the total rate at which a system produces finished work, is to increase the capacity of the bottleneck. A bottleneck is the single slowest step in a sequence that limits the entire system's out....