Business Core · Manufacturing Operations · Module
Production flow
How work moves through production — batch sizes, queues and handovers — and where it spends time without being worked on.
The idea
How it works
Work in progress and lead time are related: more work released into the system makes each item slower, without increasing throughput. Releasing less is counter-intuitive and reliably faster.
Large batches look efficient at the step that produces them and cost time everywhere downstream, because nothing moves until the batch is complete. The efficiency is local and the delay is systemic.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Limit work in progress
Releasing less work shortens lead time without reducing throughput. It feels wrong and it works.
- 02
Reduce batch size where changeover allows
Smaller batches move faster. Where changeover cost blocks that, reduce the changeover.
- 03
Level demand into production
An uneven release schedule creates queues that no amount of capacity absorbs.
- 04
Measure flow efficiency
Time being worked on against total elapsed time. The ratio is usually far lower than anyone expects.
One level in
The components of production flow
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
Releasing less work into the system shortens lead time without reducing throughput.
The other modules in manufacturing operations
Capacity planning
Matching what can be produced to what will be needed, over a horizon long enough that capacity can still be changed.
LearnQuality management
Ensuring output meets specification, and finding out why when it does not. Detection is the fallback; prevention is the work.
LearnMaintenance
Keeping equipment capable of producing. Planned maintenance is inconvenient; unplanned maintenance is expensive and arrives at the worst moment.
Learn