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System Physics
Alberto Portioli
Matteo Rossini

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Production Capacity
 It’s possible to measure it in different ways and to focus on different
levels (single resource, department, company)
 At single resource level, the fondamental element is theoric capacity
(eg. Unit/hour). Theoric capacity refers to the conditions when
everything goes well

 Eg. Unit cycle time: 6 min, theoric capacity: 10 unit/hour

 To determine the actual capacity, it’s necessary to also take into

account other factors…

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Availability

 A resource may be not available to produce

 Part of working time during which the resource is available for
working is named Availability. Its symbol is A
 Causes for unavailability can be:
• Breakdowns
• Interruptions (for problems, of for calls)

Actual Capacity = Ct * A
For example, if availability is 80%, a resource with a theoric
capacity of 10 units/hour, in the mid/long term will produce only 8
units/hour

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Serial System

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

C/T 6 min/pc C/T 4 min/pc C/T 5 min/pc

What is the capacity of the system?

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Serial System

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

C/T 6 C/T 4 C/T 5

Capacity is limited
by the slowest phase C/T = 6
(medium-term viewpoint) C = 10 u/h
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Decoupled Serial System

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

C/T 6 C/T 4 C/T 5

System capacity is 10 u/h

Queues between each phase do not balance out
different C/T

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Decoupled Serial System

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

C/T 6 C/T 4 C/T 5
A 90% A 80% A 70%

60*A/CT 9 u/h 12 u/h 8,4 u/h

Availability can change system capacity. Now it’s 8,4 u/h

Availability can change the bottleneck

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Coupled Serial System (line)

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

C/T 6 C/T 4 C/T 5
A 90% A 80% A 70%

Queues disappear

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Coupled Serial System (line)

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

C/T 6 C/T 4 C/T 5
A 90% A 80% A 70%

A 50%

System availablity is the product of the single availabilities

A = A1*A2*A3 = 0,5

Capacity is therefore 60*0,5/6 = 5 u/h

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Coupled Serial System (line)

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

C/T 6 C/T 4 C/T 5
C/T 6
A 90% A 80% A 70%
A 50%

System C/T is the largest C/T

System availability is the product of different availabilities
A = A1*A2*A3 = 0,5 Low waiting time
but also
low production rate
Capacity is therefore 60*0,5/6 = 5 u/h

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Adding queues

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

C/T 6 C/T 4 C/T 5
A 90% A 80% A 70%

60/6*0,9 = 9 u/h 60/4*0,8 = 12 u/h 60/5*0,7 = 8,4 u/h

Production changes from 5u/h to 8,4 u/h

It seems like queues/stocks bring an improvement, but it’s not true:

They are just an increase of waste
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 Ideal Coupled Serial System
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Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

C/T 5 C/T 5 C/T 5
C/T 5
A 100% A 100% A 100%
A 100%

Capacity = 60/5 = 12 u/h  +43% on queue system

Low waiting time

The REAL solution is to remove wastes
High production
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Set-ups and system flexibilty

 The system works 8 hours/day and daily demand is 60 units

(constant in volume).
 The system has a range variety of 10 products, and they are all
requested every day
 Is there any problem in delivering to order the requested
quantities with a delivery time of 1 day?

Phase 1
Job released C/T: 6 min Customer demand
To production
C/O: 10 min
A: 90%

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• Tp: Time to produce (only to process)

Tp = Average demand (pc / day) * (C/T) / A

• Tsu: Time to Set-up

Tsu = Number of set-ups (set-up/day) * C/O

• Ta: Available time (daily)

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 Productivity’s feasability 15

analysis

Tp + Tsu = 60*6/0,9 + 10*10 = 500 minutes

Time Available Ta= 480 minutes

The company cannot satisfy market demand in make to

order..
Thus it has to intervene in order not to lose profits!
What can be done?

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Batching
• In order to have more time to produce, companies
usually batch production of each single product.

• That implies:
– Advance of unrequested production
– Having interoperantional/finished products stocks
– Increase of system response times
– Increase of throughput time variability, system congestion and
coordination needs

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Batching
 Quantity Batching defines the exact (sometimes
minimum) quantity to produce every time a product is
to be produced
 Time Batching, defines the times a product is produced
over a defined time horizon (e.g. once/week)

 If Time batching is used, and each product is realised

every two days (5 different products/day):

Tp + Tsu: 6/0,9*60 + 5*10 = 450 minutes

Ta = 480 minutes
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Batching creates problems

• There are stocks (need for space, costs increase..)
• Production in advance of demand not yet requested!
• Risk to keep stocks of not requested units! (for example, when demand
has variability)
• Flexibility decreases (if today code F is requested and it is not in stock
nor scheduled for today’s production, it could be producted only adding
a rush order that creates inefficiency)
• Increase coordination and supervision needs in production process

Phase 1
Job released C/T: 6 min Customer demand
to the production C/O: 10 min
A: 90%

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Batching vs reducing set up times

 Batching is THE way companies adopt, even if it entails

some disadvantages and it’s NOT FOR FREE!
 It’s a lot better to persue the reduction of set up times!!

(reducing set up time from 10 to 8 minutes, it’s possible to produce

every day each product in the requested quantity!)

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Set-up and system flexibility

 The following stocks decoupled system operates 8 hours per

day and has a daily demand of 60 units (constant in volume).
What is the minimum batching for each of the 3 phases?
 The system has a range variety of 10 different products that are
requested every day. Each machine produces 10 different
products (with set up at every product change).

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

C/T: 6 min C/T: 4 min C/T: 5 min
C/O: 10 min C/O: 15 min C/O: 0 min
A: 90% A: 80% A: 70%

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 Minimum batching (decoupled 21

system)
• To calculate the minimum batching, it’s necessary to understand how
many sets up can be done in each phase every day.

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

C/T: 6 min C/T: 4 min C/T: 5 min
C/O: 10 min C/O: 15 min C/O: 0 min
A: 90% A: 80% A: 70%

Phase 1: number of sets up per day?

6/0,9*60 + X*10 = 480 minutes  8 set-up per day
The average batch quantity for each product is 60/8 = 7,5 units
Phase 2: 4/0,8*60 + X*15 = 480 minutes  12 set-up per day (if orders
are grouped per day, there is no need to produce more than the ordered
quantity)
Phase 3: no constraints on the batch
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Serial Coupled System

 The following stocks decoupled system operates 8 hours per

day and has a daily demand of 60 units (constant in volume).
What is the minimum batching for each of the 3 phases?
 The system has a range variety of 10 different products that are
requested every day. Each machine produces 10 different
products (with set up at every product change).

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

C/T: 6 min C/T: 4 min C/T: 5 min
C/O: 10 min C/O: 15 min C/O: 0 min
A: 90% A: 100% A: 95%

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Minimum batching (Serial Coupled System)

 The system is coupled.

 If a phase stops for set up, so do the others.
 It’s therefore important to understand how much time
the line is stopped to make set-ups (total time of stop
for the line is the total time of stop for set-ups)

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Minimum batching (Serial Coupled System)

 In the case that for each product change corresponds a set up at each phase,
when a phase does the set up, so do the others.

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

C/T: 6 min C/T: 4 min C/T: 5 min
C/O: 10 min C/O: 15 min C/O: 0 min
A: 90% A: 100% A: 95%
The time for a set up is 15 minutes (longest set up time, if setups are performed
in parallel. It is the sum of setup time if setups are performed sequentially. E.g.
by one single person)
System’s Cycle time is 6 minutes System’s availability is 85,5%. Therefore:
6/0,855*60 + 15*X = 480  about 4 set-ups per day
MINIMUM AVERAGE BATCH: 15 units (that is 2,5 days of
customer’s demand for each code)
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Minimum batching (Serial Coupled System)

Example 2
Daily demand 60 units/d (constant in volume), time available for production 8
hours/d and variety 10 different end products (each one is requested every day):

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

C/T: 6 min C/T: 4 min C/T: 5 min
C/O: 10 min C/O: 7 min C/O: 0 min
A: 90% A: 100% A: 95%

 There are 5 different product types at phase 1.

 At phase 2 there is a further differentiation leading to 10 different product
types.
What is the minimum batching of the system (coupled)?
What would it be the minimum batching of the system if de-coupled?

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 Minimum batching (Serial Coupled 26

System)
In the system:
 5 sets-up at phase 1
 10 sets-up at phase 2
 How much is the stop time for the line because of sets up?
0 7 10

Set-up phase 1: 10 minutes Production II Set-up phase 2: 7 minutes Production

(with line block)

I Set-up phase 2: 7 minutes

(simultaneously to phase 1 Total time of sets up to produce 10 different products:
set up) 5*(10+7) = 85 minutes
Average time to change form one version to another:
85/ 10 = 8,5 minutes

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Minimum batching (Serial Coupled System)

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

C/T: 6 min C/T: 4 min C/T: 5 min
C/O: 10 min C/O: 7 min C/O: 0 min
A: 90% A: 100% A: 95%

The average time to change from a finished product type to another: 8,5
minutes
Cycle time: 6 minutes
Total availability: 85,5%
6/0,855*60 + 8,5*X = 480  around 7 sets-up per day
MINIMUM AVERAGE BATCH: 8,6 units (that corrispond to the
average demand of 1.43 days for each type of finished products)

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Set- up (flexibility)

• Production change requires set up.

• The longer the set up time is, the less frequent the production
changes will be
• The longer the set up time is, the greater the risk of producing
something that is not requested will be
• This has obviously impacts on performances, increases costs
(stocks, necessity of coordination..), increases throughput times
variabilty and decreases system flexibility

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Production capacity

• Theoric production capacity indicates the number of products

realized in the time unit that the resource is able to produce
under optimal conditions.
• Availability takes into consideration resource’s stops that
decreases the theoric production capacity
• Sets up decrease the time available for production and system
flexibilty. Batching is used to increase single reasource’s
efficiency but it creates problems at a system level

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Coupled vs decoupled system

• A system decoupled by stocks allows to make production phases

more independent, but it’s a system that requires stocks to work,
thus showing that is a system with problems.
• A serial coupled system links the production phases. This
highlights problems and allows to see them and address them.
• The objective is to remove problems (remove the causes of the
problems), so that the system improves.

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