Two more factors for reducing your lead time are the throughput and the lot size. However, the throughput has a smaller effect – although with other benefits that are often larger than the reduction in the lead time. The reduction in the lot size can have a huge effect, although usually only for make-to-stock production. Nevertheless, both are worth looking at if you want to reduce the lead time.
Inventory
Reducing Lead Time 2 – Fluctuations and Utilization
This second post in a series on how to reduce your lead time looks deeper at the effect of fluctuations and utilization. Improving these will reduce your inventory and hence, as per Little’s Law, reduce your lead time.
Reducing Lead Time 1 – Inventory
Lead time is a key factor for customer satisfaction, especially with make-to-order production. Hence, many companies want to reduce this lead time. In this blog post I show you the basic levers that influence your lead time, and a few more that may also apply to some cases. You have to find the combination of these levers that works best for you. This is the first post in a series of four posts on how to reduce lead time. Most of the series focuses on production, but the last post looks into reduction of lead time in development.
Storage Strategies – Mixed Systems and Review
In my last two posts I showed you fixed location storage and its disadvantages, random chaotic, and ABC storage. But there is more. Another option is some sort of combination of fixed location, random chaotic, and ABC storage. Let’s look at some of the variants.
Storage Strategies – Random Chaotic and ABC
In my last post I looked at the disadvantages of fixed location storage. Usually much better is random chaotic storage. This is, for example, the preferred method of Amazon. This approach makes best use of the available space and generates less mistakes. When Amazon started using this, they reportedly were able to store twice as many items in the same space as as before.
Storage Strategies – Fixed Location
In my last post I looked at different ways to store material. This post is a continuation, looking at where to put materials. I want to give an overview of the different options to help you choose one that is suitable for your situation. This first post looks at storage with fixed locations, and why this is usually not so hot.
Storage Strategies – Even More Stacking Options
There are even more storage options. Continuing from my last post, I will show you some more options to store your material. This post is with much thanks to Juan Carlos Viela for the detailed suggestions!
Storage Strategies – Stacking Options
If you are in production, you have material. You probably have too much, except for the one thing that’s missing. In this blog post I will give an overview of the options for storing material. Hopefully this will give some inspiration. Please note that this is not on how to manage the material, merely on how to store it. This is the start of a small series on how to store material.