Learning effects and the phenomenon of moving bottlenecks in a two-stage production system

Abstract

This paper studies the effects of learning and forgetting on a two-stage production system and the position of a potential bottleneck in the system. We start with developing a model for a two-stage serial production system where semi-finished items are fed by the first stage to the second stage, which, in turn, processes the items to their final state. The finished items are transferred either to a subsequent stage or to customers. The paper assumes that both stages of the production system considered are subject to learning and forgetting effects. Learning quickens the production rate as more experience is gained (i.e., when the number of repetitions increases), while forgetting has the opposite effect when production is intermittent (i.e., experience is lost over production breaks). The paper studies how different values of the learning and forgetting parameters influence the ratio of the production rates of both stages and the flow of material in the system. The results of the paper indicate that learning may cause a bottleneck to shift its position in a production system. This happens when an initially slower stage overtakes a previously faster stage over time due to a higher learning rate. The paper thus contributes to the literature on moving bottlenecks and provides practitioners with a model that helps predicting where bottlenecks may arise in the production system, and which enables the system to flexibly react to moving bottlenecks.