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  7. The "2 for 1" rule to reduce lead times and work in progress

The "2 for 1" rule to reduce lead times and Work In Progress

In production as well as in projects, almost all companies need to go faster: they want shorter production cycles and projects finished sooner.

It is important to understand the correlation between work in progress and lead times: the more loaded the system, the slower it is; the reduction in work in progress, therefore, leads to a reduction in lead times, both in production and in projects. 

 

To reduce the levels of work in progress, it is necessary to ensure that there are more projects leaving the system than projects launched in the system, hence the "2 for 1" rule: "You are not allowed to launch a new thing into the system before you have finished 2 things”. Start finishing and stop starting!

 

By implementing the Theory of Constraints, and in particular Critical Chain Project Management in project portfolios, it is often recommended to slow down the launch of new projects to better manage "project flows".

 

Discover in this video how to implement this method.

 

 

 

 

  • How to choose the “things” controlled by the rule: work orders, projects, items, liters…

  • How to apply the “2 for 1 rule” in either production environments or project portfolios.

  • How to design the transition. Do I use "2 for 1" or should I do "3 for 2", or "4 for 3"?

  • How do I know when to stop using the rule?

  • Our lessons learnt.

to discover more about the Critical Chain method, the good practices that come along with CCPM implementation or real case studies: