Exploiting embedded supply-chain real options creates powerful opportunities for competitive manufacturing in high-cost environments. Rather than seeking competitiveness through standardization as is common to lean production, real-options reasoning explores opportunities to use supply-chain...

Although it is generally agreed that companies are better off with shorter manufacturing lead times, investment in lead time reduction is often difficult to justify using traditional project valuation techniques such as net present value (NPV). In this article, we suggest that evaluating...

The concept of heijunka--controlling the variability of the job arrival sequence to permit higher capacity utilization--plays an integral role in lean production theory. In situations where the customer defines the delivery sequence, however, scheduling production to maximize utilization becomes...