Modelling plant capacity and productivity: conceptual framework in a single-machine case

This study aims at contributing to the development of a method to be used for analysing and measuring parameters such as production throughput, production capacity and productivity; the approach is strictly targeted for diagnostic purposes and potentially proves useful during the implementation of improvement projects. In an explicit attempt to provide production managers with useful hints and suggestions, this paper focuses its quantitative analysis on systems dominated by one machine, where the performance achieved strongly depends on the plant management. The paper starts with a detailed analysis of the causes leading to an inefficient or poor plant performance; this will lead to a representation of different plant status conditions together with their throughput time; a picture of the major performance parameters to be monitored within the system will then be outlined through a theoretical description of performance deployments. The work focuses on the calculation of these parameters in order to define the different production capacity concepts and to provide an interpretation of their meaning for management purposes. Finally managerial implications are reported and a summary of the whole model highlighting its working method is given through a numeric example.