Optimizing flow with WIP limits

Abstract:

Time to Market is a crucial business KPI tracked by all organizations to ensure customer satisfaction. This KPI can be achieved by addressing inefficiencies in the system and balancing capacity with demand. Bottlenecks in the system create inefficiencies, that impede the smooth flow of work through the system. Hence, optimizing the flow of work is essential to prevent bottlenecks. Flow can be optimized effectively by regulating the work through the system using “Work In Progress Limits” (WIP Limits). However, arriving at the right WIP limits is exploratory, time-consuming, and ongoing activity. My talk discusses about the importance of WIP Limits, and how I arrived at an optimized WIP limit for one of my projects.

 

Key Takeaways:

  1. What are WIP limits
  2. Need for WIP limits
  3. Arriving at optimized WIP limits
  4. Benefits of WIP limits