Factory line throughput and station bottlenecks
· Updated · Slinai
Key facts
| What it measures | Station dwell, unexpected idle, pile-up, and which polygon is the constraint |
|---|---|
| What still owns the count | PLC and MES — video confirms the station, it does not replace the counter |
| First cameras | The station that already misses the shift target, plus one upstream and one downstream |
| Not this post | PPE, machine-proximity breaches, and inline defect inspection |
| Action | Move people, clear a blockage, or call maintenance — after the clip says which |
The MES says the line missed the hour. It does not say which station ate it.
Slinai reads station dwell on existing CCTV and can export beside the counter through data & integrations. The use case is operations & productivity. Hub: manufacturing video analytics. Safety kit stays on PPE compliance.
Starved, blocked, or empty
| What the camera shows | Likely cause | Wrong fix |
|---|---|---|
| Upstream piled, this station idle | This station is the constraint or the operator left | “The whole line is slow” |
| This station piled, downstream idle | Blocked — the next station stopped | Speed up the station that is already waiting |
| Everyone idle, no WIP | Starved, changeover, or the line was stopped on purpose | A breakdown ticket |
| People walking, station calm | Travel, not cycle time | Add headcount at a station that is not the constraint |
Draw one polygon per station the supervisor would actually rebalance. Do not draw one polygon for the whole bay.
How to use the clip without fighting the counter
- Name the station and the minute, with a clip.
- Ask starved, blocked, or unmanned before anyone says “breakdown.”
- Call maintenance only when the clip shows the machine down, not a person missing.
- After the shift, compare station dwell to the PLC count. A station that is slow on 8 pieces and a station that is slow on 800 are different investments.
Agentic question that fits: “Which station was the bottleneck on Line 2 this morning?” If the answer is an OEE percentage with no clip, the polygons are wrong.
Pixels do not hear a bearing. Idle-time patterns can point maintenance at a station. They do not diagnose it.
What this is not
- Not machine proximity. A body inside the cell is a safety stop, not a cycle-time debate.
- Not PPE. Missing gloves do not explain a starved station.
- Not cloud-kitchen KOT throughput. No ticket, no brand, no bag clock — a station, a counter, a changeover.
- Not inline defect detection. The hub has a quality module. This guide does not reprint it.
Book a demo on the station that missed target last shift, plus the PLC or MES export for that station only.
Common questions
Does this replace the MES or the PLC counter?
No. The counter owns pieces. The camera owns which station was idle, blocked, or waiting for a person. Join them. Do not argue with the PLC from a pixel count.
Is an idle station a breakdown?
Not by itself. Changeover, starvation, a blocked downstream station, and a missing operator look similar until you watch the clip. Maintenance gets the call only when the machine is down.
Is this defect inspection?
No. A scratch, a bad label, or a missing part is a quality job. This post is cycle time and the constraint station.
Is this the same as a kitchen station bottleneck?
Same idea, different floor. Cloud-kitchen KOT throughput is tickets at a fryer. This is a production station with a PLC and a changeover.
Where do worker heatmaps fit?
Movement shows travel and congestion. Throughput shows the station that stopped output. Fix the constraint before you redraw the aisle.
Related pages
Guides in this cluster point to live product, industry and use-case pages.
Related guides
Machine proximity and restricted zones on factory CCTV
Machine proximity analytics flags a person inside a marked danger zone around a press or robot on the factory CCTV you already have.
Plant perimeter and boundary intrusion on existing CCTV
Plant perimeter analytics flags fence, gate, and yard intrusion on existing exterior CCTV — before someone reaches the factory floor.
Manufacturing PPE compliance on existing CCTV
Manufacturing PPE analytics flags missing helmets, vests, gloves and shoes on existing factory CCTV — clip alerts for supervisors, not audit-day theatre.