Sep 10 2016
How to Pick the Fastest Line at the Supermarket | New York Times [Debunk]
“[…] Choose a single line that leads to several cashiers
Not all lines are structured this way, but research has largely shown that this approach, known as a serpentine line, is the fastest. The person at the head of the line goes to the first available window in a system often seen at airports or banks. […]”
Sourced through the New York Times
Michel Baudin‘s comments:
No! Research shows no such thing. The serpentine line does not reduce the customers’ mean time through the system. Little’s Law tells us that, in steady state, regardless of how the queue is organized:
I share your reservations about the many “Houses of Lean” floating around, but my main concern with them is vagueness. The descriptive versus prescriptive confusion that you bring up is one concern. In one diagram I am looking at right now, “Heijunka” sits on top of “Stability” and underneath “Pull System,” “Takt Time” and “Continuous Flow.” Whatever it is intended to mea
Bodo Wiegand heads Germany’s
Sep 12 2016
Question On Optional Components | Arvind Janarthanam
“Greetings! First of all, I am thankful to this blog. It has helped me out with my queries.
I’m working as a scheduler and we are facing sudden change in the optional parts that we supply to our customer. The reliability of the forecast we have is coming down. Most of our parts being imported is affecting our cost due to last-minute freight. Can you please suggest an approach to arrive at the minimum number of stock we could maintain against each options(based on past data) so that we strike a balance between the inventory and availability.
Arvind”
Michel Baudin‘s response:
Dear Arvind:
You tell me you are a scheduler, but many of the actions that can improve the procurement of optional parts are beyond the range of what a scheduler can decide. You are also asking a generic question, to which there is no generic, universal answer. All I can do is lay out a few possible courses of action.
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By Michel Baudin • Answers to reader questions 1 • Tags: Imported components, Lean Logistics, Logisics, Optional Components