About Constraints

The elements in a business that interfere with its profitability or its business endeavors are known as constraints. The following is a list of the firms that they have been able to reach and profit between It makes it challenging for businesses to function at higher levels of capacity. Additionally, they may be the root of a bottleneck that prevents an organization from operating effectively. This essay will examine numerous case studies and the obstacles that firms face while trying to increase their profits, increase their output of goods, or run more smoothly and effectively (Hessels and Parker, 2013). This will be done by looking at three different case studies and three in the first part and then constructing constraint equation in the second part to help understand how these can be solved.

Part one

Question one

The constraints in this case are;

1. Time, they are allowed to only work for eight hours in a day, which limits their operational time and hence can interfere with the profit they can make in a day. The vehicles if allowed to work for more than eight hours can fetch more profit than the 8-hour shift they are could make more money and thus time is a great constraint.

2. Second constraints on the capacity or the number of passengers allowed. The car can carry up to four passengers, one on the front seat next to the driver and three on the back seat. The profit one vehicle can make also depends on the number of passengers it can transport at once. If they can be allowed to carry up to four passengers, which is their maximum capacity, then they can make more profit. This makes the number of passengers allowed to be a constraint affecting the profitability of this business.

3. The third constraint is the direction of travel. They are not allowed to pick those who are going in different direction. However, it is possible to combine some directions into one journey even if they are not in a straight line. There could be passengers that are going in different directions, and they can be transported together by taking the ones in the other direction and then taking the others from the second direction. It can be more profitable for the business provided that all are in the same or similar direction, not the opposite.

Question two

In this case, the constraint is the departments that the goods must pass through. This constraint causes delays of goods into the market and might interfere with the profitability or the sales volume of the company. The policy that goods must be passed in the engineering department constraints the period needed for them to be in the market in time. The firm, therefore, delays in delivery of its product in the market and this can cost them their customers as they might opt for products from other firms instead of waiting for those of this company to arrive in the market.

Question three

The constraints in this case are;

Time, the university offers six-week terms in a year divided into three two-week periods per term. This is a constraint in that it limits the number of courses that the students can take or the time to finish some courses. It will interfere with the productivity and profitability of the university as far as education business in concerned(Krajewski, Ritzman and Malhotra, 2013).

The second constraint in this scenario is the topic per module. Each module is limited to one topic. This constraint means that the students or the faculty members could not take more than one topic, which might interfere with the period one would take to finish the course they are undertaking.

Part two

Question one

Variables

C number of cups made. It takes ten minutes to make a cup

B number of bowls made. It takes fifteen minutes to make a bowl

V number of vases made. It takes 30 minutes to make a bowl.

Patty has a working time of 360 minutes in a day.

This constraint can be joined as follows;

10C + 15 B +30 V less or equal to 360 minutes

10 C + 15 B + 30 V ≤ 360 minutes

The constraint is in the minutes that Patty can take in a single day working. However, in terms of the items made, Patty can easily switch tome needed per item, and therefore items made are not the constraint. The total number of minutes for all the items cannot exceed 360 minutes set for a single day. It can be less or exact 360 minutes and that why the sign “less than or equal to 360” is applied.

Question two

Variables

GenA is the number of types A generators shipped

GenB is the number of type B generator shipped

Generator A can take a space of 8 square feet, and generator B can take 12 square feet.

The total space available is 1350 square feet.

8 A + 12 B is less or equal to 1350

8A + 12B ≤ 1350

The total number of space taken by the generators cannot exceed the total space that is available in the vessel used to transport them, and this makes it a constraint and expressed as less than or equal to the 1350 square feet that is available in the boat to be used for transportation. This is more logical in that the space of the generators if more than that of the vessel to transport them then it would be more difficult and transportation would not be possible.

Question three

Patty earnings are as follows

Vass $ 1.35

Cup $0.75

Bowl $ 2.40

The profit equation for the work can be expressed as follows;

First, the number of cups made is 10, some bowls are 15 and number of the vessel are 30.

For the profit, Patty made a total of 7.5 C + 36 B + 40.5 V = $ 84

The profit constraint is therefore expressed as;

7.5 C + 36 B + 40.5 V ≤ $ 84

Patty can make up to 84 dollars in a single day working at the maximum time set for each item. In this case, even though the constraint is brought by the time limit, Patty cannot go beyond 84 dollars in profit as it depends on the items he can make in a single day. When solved, this equation can give the amount of profit for each item.

Conclusion

As seen in the case studies, constraints make it impossible for the firms to achieve their maximum capacity and make the higher profit they would like to.

References

Hessels, J., & Parker, S. C. (2013). Constraints, internationalization and growth: A cross-country analysis of European SMEs. Journal of World Business, 48(1), 137-148.

Krajewski, L. J., Ritzman, L. P., & Malhotra, M. K. (2013). Operations management: processes and supply chains (Vol. 1). New York, NY: Pearson.