E07: WIP-ing and Flowing

Many of us are familiar with the concept of work in process, and some feel that any work in process lying around is of the devil. This thinking is partly true. We need a certain amount of work in process to overcome the natural variation in the system with standard work in process or critical work in process levels.

For episode 7 this week on the Continuous Improvement Journey’s podcast, we will explore the steps to take to have an optimal level of standard work in process levels to not starve or overwhelm each process and the entire system. While on the other hand, not having too much work in process or inventory can cause confusion and variation in the system that decreases throughput and increases cycle times.

My hope is that this series of the 13 laws of System Optimization will help give us a larger and all-encompassing perspective to help take us to the next level from our traditional lean manufacturing training.