Little's law

Question 1

Cycle time

Answer 1

1) x the hours by 60 to convert to minutes e.g. 77 x 60/231
2) cycle time: time between the output of 2 successive flow units
3) can be the longest stage on a graph

Question 2

For ideal efficiency you want…

Answer 2

time to be balanced e.g. no big gaps

Question 3

Idle time

Answer 3

1) minus the longest time from all the stages and add together e.g. (4.5-2) + (4.5-3)+ etc….
2) total inefficiencies = the total idle time

Question 4

Throughput time

Answer 4

work in progress = the number of things that need to be processed

Question 5

Balancing loss

Answer 5

1) minus/add up all the idle times on top
2) then x number of stages by longest time
3) x answer by 100 to get %

Question 6

Number of staff

Answer 6

Always round up to nearest whole number… can’t have half a worker

Question 7

How to reduce idle time?

Answer 7

divide work equally between stages to balance loss

Question 8

Throughput efficiency

Answer 8

1) find out the constant rate of processes by working out CYCLE TIME
2) x WORK IN PROGRESS by CYCLE TIME
3) put the minutes (sum of all activities required to process an application e.g. 25 mins) on top of formula
4) put answer from 3 at bottom
5) x by 100 to get %

Question 9

How do you calculate the number of stages needed from cycle time?

Answer 9

Divide the total work content with cycle time and round up to whole number