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Understanding Bottlenecks: An Operations Management Experiential Learning Exercise
Author(s) -
Wilson Shellyanne
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
decision sciences journal of innovative education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.52
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1540-4609
pISSN - 1540-4595
DOI - 10.1111/dsji.12162
Subject(s) - session (web analytics) , experiential learning , debriefing , computer science , bottleneck , stopwatch , product (mathematics) , process (computing) , production (economics) , time management , class (philosophy) , psychology , mathematics education , multimedia , artificial intelligence , statistics , mathematics , social psychology , geometry , world wide web , economics , macroeconomics , embedded system , operating system
Understanding bottlenecks is an in‐class experiential learning exercise designed to improve students’ understanding of production system capacity issues. After an introductory teaching session on capacity and constraint management, students are formed into groups of six to assume the roles of one raw material handler, four production workers, and one finished goods receiver and are asked to produce 20 units of product beta. Prior to the start of the exercise, the students are asked to predict the completion time of the 1st, 10th, and 20th units of product beta. When all 20 betas are completed, students compare their predicted completion times to the actual completion times. The results of the game show that while students can easily identify the system's bottleneck, they often have difficulties distinguishing the practical implications of the process time of the system versus the process cycle time; thus, their predicted completion times of the 10th and 20th units are typically overinflated compared to actual completion times. A debrief session is then used to solidify students’ understanding of the relationship between bottlenecks and capacity. The exercise is well‐received and highly rated by students; furthermore, it is not resource‐intensive, requiring 40‐45 minutes of classroom time, 20‐25 strips of paper per group, and a visible stopwatch.