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Lead-time reduction

How to dramatically reduce lead-time and increase cycle-time: production, operations, services:

1. The problem in projects and processes is step/task-completion unpredictability.
2. The intuitive solution is to put safety (inventory and time) everywhere – on every task or step in the process.
3. The consequences are an excess of inventory, working capital and warehousing costs, long lead-times, stock shortages, stock obsolescence and poor service.
4. The counter-intuitive solution is to take the safety off the tasks or process steps, put a portion of it on the process or system and synchronise tasks and steps to follow each other seamlessly.
5. The prosequence is processes finishing faster and more predictably, allowing more, more profitable products and services to be delivered within the same period of time, because late and early tasks net out against each other.