L =- Work in Progress (WIP) instead of customer volume.

λ =- Throughput (departure rate or production output) instead of customers’ arrival rate.

W =- Lead time (the time an item spends in a system) instead of the time people spend at a business.

FORMULAS

L=λW
WIP = Throughput x Lead Time

λ = L/W
Throughput =WIP/Lead Time

W= L/ λ

Lead Time= WIP/Throughput

EXAMPLES

1.

 There average total lead time of one order is 3 days

 Every week, 15 production orders are produced
 The company works from Mondays to Fridays

How much Work in Progress has the company (in number of orders)?

Solution:

λ = 15/5 L=λW
w=3 L= 15/5 *3

L=? L= 9

2.

 The average total time of one order is 3 days

  We can see that there are 9 work in progress
 The company works five days per week

How many orders per week can this production can make?

Solution:

L= 9 λ = L/W

W= 3 days λ = 9/3

λ =? λ = 3 (per day)

but since we are finding how many orders per week we will multiply it by 5 since the company works
five days in a week.

3*5= 15 orders per week

3.

 The company can produce an average of 3 products a day

 And the average of their work in progress is 9

How many days or how much time that it consumes for a product to finish?

Solution:

L=9 W= L/ λ

λ =3 orders per day W= 9/3

W? W= 3

It takes 3 days to finish a product