The Manufacturing Wisdom Blog

It could be interesting to take a brief moment on the golf course and think about how queues and production lines should work. Some foods for thought are:

1. Why is there always longer wait time before but not after a Par 3 short hole whereas you are supposed to finish a Par 3 faster than other holes?
2. How should a golf course manager decide the release timing of player groups to the course in order to maximize revenue while minimizing wait time?
3. What would be the impact on wait time and throughput if we change from 4-sum to say multiple 2-sum or 5-sum?

These questions are related to the followings:

1. What are the causes of inventory before a workstation? What is the nature of the bottleneck?
2. How should release time of orders be decided in order to maximize throughput and minimize cycle time?
3. What is the impact of changing batch size on cycle time and throughput?