Increasing the capacity at non-bottleneck workstations

Increasing the capacity of non-bottleneck stations does not alter the bottleneck rate (i.e., the capacity of the line).  However, if stations are speeded up, it does have the effect of decreasing the raw processing rate T₀.  It also helps prevent blocking/starving of the bottleneck by enabling non-bottleneck stations to feed or clear out the bottleneck more quickly.  Generic strategies for increasing capacity at a station include:

• Process improvements
• Yield improvements
• Rework reduction
• Staffing changes
• Work-sharing (i.e., pass some tasks between stations)
• Adding parallel capacity (machines)

Performance increase with increase in non-bottleneck capacity

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