“Instead of requiring managers to specify multiple constants that they really do not know, LeanPhysics Support Tools provide a graphical display of nearly 100 optimal solutions to select from that illustrate the relationship between orders, inventory and customer service all on one graph,” said Spearman. “Once a manager selects a solution that will meet her needs, the parameters are uploaded into the ERP system and the inventory policy is optimized.”

The Factory Physics framework is designed to give management four primary levers in trying to determine and execute strategy and tactics to achieve world-class customer satisfaction and profitability: variability, capacity, inventory and time. For a given market environment, management can decide whether to increase variability by offering more variety in its product offering or to invest in efforts to reduce variability by making processes more reliable or by improving the forecast.

The LeanPhysics Support Tools software is also designed to provide management the ability to proactively understand the cost and service tradeoffs inherent in these decisions. At the same time, management can determine an optimal portfolio of buffers (capacity, inventory and time) to employ for fastest, most effective focus and deployment of efforts.

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