What is defined as the rate at which a production system creates a finished product?

The term that best defines the rate at which a production system creates a finished product is throughput. Throughput measures the number of units produced per unit of time, allowing organizations to assess the performance and speed of their production process. It reflects how efficiently a manufacturing system operates in terms of producing outputs, thus offering a clear metric for evaluating productivity.

Capacity, while related, refers more to the maximum output a system can achieve under ideal conditions, rather than the actual rate of production that is taking place. Efficiency assesses how well resources are utilized compared to potential outputs, and utilization reflects the extent to which the production capacity is being employed, but neither directly measures the rate of finished products coming out of the system. Throughput, therefore, provides the most relevant insight into production rates.