The Kingman Formula – Variation, Utilization, and Lead Time

The lead time of a system is heavily influenced by both the utilization and the variation. There are approximations available to estimate this relation, and one of them is the Kingman formula. In this post I would like to introduce you to this equation and describe the fundamental understanding of it. Luckily, you don’t really need the formula for your daily dose of lean. The equation itself has little practical use. However, this relationship is important for understanding the behavior of your production system. While you won’t use the Kingman formula to evaluate your production system, understanding the equation will help you in tweaking your system in the right direction.

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Theory and Practice of Supermarkets – Part 1

Supermarket in Brazil
All about supermarkets…

Kanban, FiFo lanes, and supermarkets are the backbone of many pull system. Some people even define lean production through its use of kanban and supermarkets. Yet why are supermarkets so useful? First we will look at what exactly makes an inventory into an supermarket. My next post will then give tips and hints on the practical use of supermarkets on the shop floor.

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Definition of Lean Production

Lean production Tag Cloud
What is lean production?

As the name says, this site is all about lean manufacturing. But, what is lean? How do we define lean manufacturing? After all, since most of industry talks about lean, we should have a definition to make sure that we’re all talking about the same thing. Unfortunately, a) we do not have a good definition of lean, and b) not everybody means the same thing when they talk about lean. So, what could lean manufacturing mean? Let’s have a look at the different definitions out there:

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What is OEE? – Definition of OEE

What is an OEE?
What is an OEE?

OEE, the abbreviation for Overall Equipment Effectiveness (or sometimes Overall Equipment Efficiency), is a measure of the utilization of a machine. It is frequently used on the shop floor, often determines part of the performance-based compensation of the managers, and is by far and wide the most lied-about and fudged measurement on the shop floor.

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