Gold Production Bottleneck Finder: Spot the Stage Slowing Your Workshop

A stage above 100% load cannot complete all the stated workload inside the stated capacity without more time, overtime, work transfer, reduced workload or another operational change.

High utilisation does not automatically prove causation. A polishing stage may be busy because casting or setting released a large batch. Conversely, a stage may be the true constraint even when its queue looks small if it has highly specialized work.

Investigate before acting

1. Verify the workload estimate.
2. Check material and approval availability.
3. Separate first-pass work from rework.
4. Review the queue and time log.
5. Look for shared machines or scarce specialist skills.

Load percentage = workload hours ÷ available capacity hours × 100. More than 100% indicates stated overload. A zero-capacity stage with work assigned is treated as blocked.