Question

Which of the following most directly expresses the motivation behind the expression “Buffer or Suffer”?

	A.	To increase capacity, it is important to reduce setup times in a process
	B.	When there are setup costs, producing in large enough batches is important to avoid reducing capacity
	C.	Adding product variety to a process with setup times is likely to increase the average amount of inventory needed
	D.	If there is variability in the arrival process or in activity times, make sure there is sufficient inventory between stages, otherwise capacity will be reduced
	E.	If you want to increase the capacity of a process, add capacity first to the bottleneck

Answer 1

A safety inventory is a buffer against high external demand so that customers can be satisfied immediately. Safety inventories are closely associated with the meme “buffer or suffer”, meaning that if a process is not able to buffer for “variabilities” (such as an unexpected external demand) it will loose on flow rate resulting in loss of customers.

Since item #D addresses “variabilities” in terms of product variety and therefore need for maintaining sufficient inventory to reduce capacity , it is the correct answer.

ANSWER : D) IF THERE IS VARIABILITY IN ARRIVAL PROCESS OR IN ACTIVITY TIMES, MAKE SURE THERE IS SUFFIIENT INVENTORY BETWEEN STAGES, OTHERWISE CAPACITY WILL BE REDUCED