Pasta Station

Pasta Station. When cooking pasta in a restaurant, the limiting factor is the burners on the stove. Let's simulate how we can limit the number of orders that come in and are cooked simultaneously.

0. There are five items in this process: Bolognese, Carbonara, Pomodoro, Prima Vera, and Ragu. Yum!

1. Simulate orders for different pasta dishes. This Demand Block generates each of the orders from customers.

2. The Expeditor combines the pasta orders. This Flexibatch block combines five orders of pasta before passing the information onto the Pasta Chef. 

3. Limit the number of pasta dishes that can go through the Pasta Chef at one time. This Core Pull Block (3a) blocks the number of items within a space. The two Queue Blocks (3b and 3c) represent the blocked area. Because the Flexibatch Blocks create a single item, we will have a cap of 1, which only allows an item to Enter the Entry once an item exits the marked Exit.

4. Divide the Batch of 5 into individual dishes for cooking. This Queue Block splits the Flexibatch item back into the original five items.

5. Cook the pasta. Each of these Activity blocks represents a different amount of time that each dish needs to cook. Across the five activities, there will only ever be five items cooking at once.

6. Wait for all five dishes to be complete before releasing to Expeditor. This Flexibatch Block combines the finalized pasta dishes.

7. Once the dishes make it to Serve, new pasta dishes can begin being cooked.

Brian's Note: "Each recipe calls for careful execution. In this model, the pasta chef is limited by having only five burners to work with and having to remember which dish is being prepared. Starting new dishes before finishing the work in process creates a higher possibility for defects in the recipe execution—one of the few cases where batching reduces complexity.

"It's worth noting that space constraints, a significant challenge in restaurant kitchens, greatly influence operational efficiency. As revenue is directly tied to the number of guests served, kitchens must maximize their limited space, making every burner and workstation count. Increasing capacity, whether through more burners or streamlined workflows, is key to enhancing throughput and ensuring a seamless dining experience."