A minimum level in a supermarket gives you a warning that a stock out is imminent. Hopefully it also gives you enough time to prevent such a stock out, even though this may result in firefighting. In my last post I talked on how to use a minimum level. This post will look at how to determine a good minimum level.
The kanban formula (or estimation) helps you determine the number of kanban. All of these should fit in the supermarket, hence the maximum in the supermarket represents all kanban. Many supermarkets also have a minimum inventory level. Unfortunately, there is little information on how to set the minimum. Time to take a deeper look on how to set and use the minimum level in the supermarket. In this first post I will look at how to use a minimum level in a supermarket. The next post will look at how to determine a good minimum level.
Reducing lead time is often important for the success of a company. This last out of four posts looks a bit more in detail at the reduction in lead time during product development. This is especially important for make-to-order production, but also for the introduction of new products into the market. Let’s have a look.
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.
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.
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.
The baton touch is probably the easiest way to do multi-machine handling in a line. This ease-of-use makes it a very popular approach for the assignment of the operators in a line. An operator is in charge of a fixed set of processes. The operator always repeats the same loop of processes. Multiple operators, each with their fixed assignment of processes, work on a production line together. It is quite simple.
On December 31, 2020, the transition period will end and United Kingdom will be out of the European Union. Brexit will be complete. But I fear the mess will be only starting. In this post I want to look at the impact of Brexit on supply chains. It won’t be pretty.