In: Operations Management
Customer A's order arrived 8 days ago. Processing time is estimated to be 25 days. The promised due date is 40 days from now. What is customer A's flow time in the system?
Answer:
Given information are:
Customer A's order arrived 8 days ago.
Processing time is estimated to be 25 days.
The promised due date is 40 days from now.
Due date of delivery is always promised before or during order placement. This implies that the promised lead time of delivery was 8+40 = 48 days from placing the order.
As estimated processing time is 25 days, therefore, around 13 days may be considered as waiting period or any system lag. Now flow time covers both processing time and other kind of period that may require for whatsoever reason between the individual stages of the process. The flow time may include any idle time as well.
Therefore, if the product would be delivered after 40 days from today, then customer A's flow time in the system would be 48 days.
However, if practically the processing time got changed and or any sort of idle time increased or decreased, thereby changing the day of delivery, then the flow time will also change accordingly.