A Bottleneck Analysis of Robotics and Automation in the Coca-Cola Production Line

Abstract

Automated material transfer between workstations is a key feature of flexible manufacturing systems. The aim of automation is to increase the output rate while reducing the manufacturing throughput. However, machine idle time contributes significantly to the overall throughput time and cannot be completely eliminated; it can only be minimized. Accurately locating the bottleneck and synchronizing it with other assembly line equipment can help reduce throughput. The process or activity with no idle or waiting time is known as the bottleneck in a production system. In this paper, we will analyze the bottleneck in Coca-Cola’s production line at Lae and provide suggestions for reducing throughput.

Keywords

• bottleneck
• throughput
• maximum production rate
• idle time
• servers