Bottleneck or Mirage?

💡 Rule of thumb: System throughput = the minimum station capacity. Improve the true bottleneck first.

Stations in line (3–8) 5

Randomize capacities (u/hr)

Pick station to improve

Improvement type

Percent reduction

Improvement cost ($ one‑time) 5000

Value of throughput ($ per unit) 50

Multi‑bottleneck mode

Highlight stations within±5%

Instructor notes

Have teams guess the bottleneck, then click Shuffle and test.
Ask them to save 30% at a non‑bottleneck. Check the Mirage Index—why so low?
Then save 10% at the true bottleneck. Note the much larger system gain.
Use cost + value to compute payback. If two stations are near‑equal (multi‑bottleneck), improving one may still be a mirage.

Bottleneck(s) Flow direction

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Mirage Index = (throughput increase) ÷ (local capacity increase). 0 = pure mirage; 1 = every local gain became system gain.