Verification of Production Capacity Estimates: Routing Data, Parallel Resources, and Bottleneck Identification

Abstract

Production capacity estimates depend on the relationship between product routes, resource availability, and the selected product mix. This paper develops a verification method for deterministic workload-based capacity bounds and demonstrates it with a synthetic two-product, two-resource system. For a fixed equal mix, one resource has two parallel machines and the other has one; each machine supplies 420 available minutes. Correct routing gives a nominal bound of 140 units per period. Omitting one product operation increases the reported bound to 210 units, while duplicating the bottleneck workload reduces it to 70. Duplicating only the nonbottleneck workload leaves the overall bound unchanged but creates a false bottleneck tie. Additional calculations examine setup allowances and a specified rework-visit assumption. Numerical checks establish the results and distinguish nominal load feasibility from achievable throughput. No shop-floor measurements, scheduling benchmark, or realized capacity increase is claimed. The contribution is an auditable verification case for engineering planning information systems.