Instructions and covered skills
Read each scenario carefully before selecting a response. Use the information provided and avoid adding assumptions that are not supported by the question. Keep your attention on capacity, flow, constraints, and demand implications. Work in a quiet setting and turn off notifications before starting. Check numerical units, time periods, and utilization assumptions when calculations are involved. Choose the response that best fits the stated operating conditions.
Key Areas
This assessment focuses on the operational decisions used to match resources with demand and manage the constraints that govern output. Candidates interpret design capacity, effective capacity, actual output, utilization, efficiency, and capacity cushions. They examine how planned downtime, changeovers, maintenance, yield loss, absenteeism, and product mix affect the amount of usable capacity available to an operation.
The assessment also covers bottleneck identification across sequential processes. Candidates determine process capacity by comparing resource capacities, recognize why the constrained resource sets the pace for the system, and distinguish productive constraint management from isolated local optimization. Scenarios address queue formation, work-in-process control, buffer placement, release timing, and the consequences of starving or blocking a constrained resource.
Capacity decisions are considered at several planning horizons. Candidates use demand forecasts, order patterns, lead times, staffing availability, and equipment constraints to select appropriate responses. They evaluate alternatives such as overtime, cross-training, subcontracting, schedule changes, setup reduction, preventive maintenance, and targeted capital investment. Questions also assess the ability to calculate output rates and interpret the operational trade-offs associated with utilization and variability.
Recommended Preparation
Review the definitions and formulas for design capacity, effective capacity, utilization, efficiency, throughput, and capacity cushion. Practice converting between units per hour, units per shift, available labor-hours, and machine-hours. For sequential processes, map each step, calculate each step's capacity using consistent time units, and identify the smallest sustainable capacity as the initial constraint.
Study the logic of constraint-focused improvement. Consider whether proposed actions increase the constrained resource's available time, reduce its workload, prevent interruptions, or merely create excess capacity elsewhere. Practice analyzing simple cases involving demand peaks, variable arrivals, planned maintenance, and different product routing requirements. When reviewing an answer, connect the calculation or decision to its likely effect on total system throughput, waiting time, and delivery performance.