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Bottleneck Buster

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Games / Operations

Bottleneck Buster

Ten production lines, warehouses and teams, each with one step that holds the rest back. Find the bottleneck and decide what to do about it. You have five hearts.

MediumOperations3 minNew

Bottleneck Buster is a learning aid. Every line and figure is invented.

How to play Bottleneck Buster

Each round shows a line of steps with the capacity of each one, sometimes with a change to consider. Pick the right answer and press Check. After every answer you get the principle in one sentence.
A correct answer scores 10 XP and a perfect run adds 20 XP. A wrong answer costs one of your five hearts. The ten rounds are drawn from a set of fourteen, so every game is different.

What is a bottleneck?

A bottleneck, or constraint, is the step in a process with the lowest capacity. It sets the output of the whole system. A line that can cut 60 parts an hour, weld 25 and paint 40 makes 25 parts an hour, however fast the cutters work. The idea is at the heart of the theory of constraints, developed by Eliyahu Goldratt in the 1980s.

Five steps to manage a constraint

  • Identify it. Look for the lowest capacity, or for the longest queue of work waiting.
  • Exploit it. Never let the bottleneck stand idle: stagger breaks, inspect parts before they reach it and keep a small buffer of work in front of it.
  • Subordinate everything else. Other steps work at the bottleneck’s pace. Running them faster only builds stock.
  • Elevate it. Only now add people, machines or shifts at the constraint.
  • Repeat. Once one bottleneck is fixed, the next slowest step becomes the constraint.

Common mistakes

Managers often measure every station on how busy it is. That rewards non-bottleneck steps for producing parts nobody can use yet. Another mistake is buying capacity when customer demand is lower than what the line can already make. Then the constraint is the market, and the money is better spent on sales.
The supply chain guides and the procurement section on Kurums cover capacity, inventory and supplier planning. For another operations game, try Right Order, or browse the free business tools.

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