Email
sinha.rk.dr@gmail.com
How useful is Line Balancing?
Manufacturing teams spend considerable time and effort in trying to balance a serial production line. More so when a new line is being set up. Is it advisable?
Line Balancing refers to equalising the production capacity of every equipment in a serial production line. Does a balanced line mean lower investment? Possibly yes. Does it lead to more reliable production output? Definitely no.
That’s because the overall line production will now be affected by poor output from any of the several machines in the line. It could be due to breakdowns, slow speed, quality defects or just normal production variability.
TOC advises us strongly to keep the production line imbalanced. Especially if it is the system constraint.
One of the equipment in the line should act as the bottleneck. We have some good news here. We can choose which particular equipment should be the bottleneck! It can be the most expensive equipment. It can be the one most crucial for product quality.
Any thoughts why the line should be kept imbalanced? Deliberately?