Factory Physics Principles

Law (Little's Law):

WIP=THxCT

Law (Best-Case Performance): The minimum cycle time for a given WIP level w is given by

I
To if w S Wo

CTbest = w
otherwise
rb

{
The maximum throughput for a given WIP level w is given by
w
if w S Wo
THbest =
To
rb otherwise

Law (Worst-Case Performance): The worst-case cycle time for a given WIP level w is given by

CTworst = W To

The worst-case throughput for a given WIP level w is given by

1
THworst =­

To

Definition (Practical Worst-Case Performance): The practical worst-case (PWC) cycle time for a given WIP
level w is given by

w -1
CTpwe = To +
rb
-­

The PWC throughput for a given WIP level w is given by

w
THpwe rb
Wo +w-1
=

Law (Labor Capacity): The maximum capacity of a line staffed by n cross-trained operators with identical
work rates is
n
THmax =-
To

Law (CONWIP with Flexible Labor): In a CONWIP line with n identical workers and w jobs, where w 2: n,
any policy that never idles workers when unblocked jobs are available will achieve a throughput level TH(w)
bounded by

THew(n) S TH(w) S THew(w)

where THew (x) represents the throughput of a CONWIP line with all machines staffed by workers and x jobs in
the system.

Law (Variability): Increasing variability always degrades the performance of a production system.

Corollary (Variability Placement): In a line where releases are independent of completions, variability early in
a routing increases cycle time more than equivalent variability later in the routing.

Law (Variability Buffering): Variability in a production system will be buffered by some combination of
1. Inventory

2. Capacity

3. Time
re effective rate, or capacity, of a station.

rb bottleneck rate of a line, defined as the rate of the station with the highest utilization.

RMI raw material inventory, consisting of the physical inputs at the start of a production process.

s service level. In make-to-order systems, s is measured as the fraction of jobs for which cycle time
is less than or equal to lead time. In make-to-stock systems, s is measured as the fill rate, or fraction
of demands that are filled from stock.

(To standard deviation of natural (no detractors) process time at a station.

(Te standard deviation of the effective process time at a station.

(TCT standard deviation of the cycle time in a line.

TH throughput, measured as the average output of a production process (machine, station, line, plant)
per unit time.

To raw process time, which is the sum of the mean effective process times of the stations in a line.

to average natural (no detractors) process time at a station.

ta average time between arrivals to a line or station. At any station, TH = llta.

te mean effective process time (average time required to do one job) including all "detractors" such as
setups, downtime, etc. It does not include time the station is starved for lack of work or blocked by
busy downstream stations.

u utilization, defined as the fraction of time a station is not idle for lack of parts. u = THte I m, where
m is the number of parallel machines at the station.

WIP work in process, which consists of inventory between the start and end points of a routing.

WIPq average WIP in queue at a station.

Wo critical WIP level for a line, which is the WIP required for a line with no variability to achieve
maximum throughput (rb) with minimum cycle time (To). For a line with parameters, rb and To,
Wo = rbTo·