CPT CPT Production Planning & Scheduling 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is a 'bottleneck' in a production process?
- A storage area for finished goods
- The operation that limits overall throughput (Correct answer)
- A type of assembly fixture
- An employee safety hazard
Correct answer: The operation that limits overall throughput
A bottleneck is the slowest operation in a process; it constrains the output rate of the entire production line.
Question 2: Which term describes the planned quantity of product to be produced in a specific time period?
- Safety stock
- Production quota (Correct answer)
- Lead time
- Takt time
Correct answer: Production quota
A production quota is the target output quantity assigned for a given shift, day, or week.
Question 3: Takt time is calculated by dividing:
- Machine hours by number of products
- Available production time by customer demand rate (Correct answer)
- Labor cost by unit output
- Cycle time by number of operators
Correct answer: Available production time by customer demand rate
Takt time = available production time ÷ customer demand; it sets the pace at which products must be completed.
Question 4: Which document communicates the quantity of a product to be built and its due date to the shop floor?
- Safety data sheet
- Work order / job ticket (Correct answer)
- Material safety sheet
- Calibration record
Correct answer: Work order / job ticket
A work order (job ticket) authorizes production of a specific quantity by a specific date and travels with the job on the floor.
Question 5: What is 'lead time' in a manufacturing environment?
- The time required for a supervisor to approve overtime
- The total time from order release to completion of a part or product (Correct answer)
- The delay caused by equipment breakdown
- The interval between quality inspections
Correct answer: The total time from order release to completion of a part or product
Lead time is the total elapsed time required to produce an item, from the release of a work order to delivery of the finished product.
Question 6: Forward scheduling is best suited for situations where:
- Due dates are fixed and cannot change
- Material is available immediately and the earliest completion date is needed (Correct answer)
- Inventory must be minimized
- Machine capacity is unlimited
Correct answer: Material is available immediately and the earliest completion date is needed
Forward scheduling starts from the current date and schedules operations forward to find the earliest possible completion date.
CPT CPT Production Planning & Scheduling 2
What is a 'bottleneck' in a production process?