5 ms·
Yep, I used to work in a factory. Target utilization at planning time was 80%. If you over-predict your utilization, you waste money. If you under-predict, a
by georgeburdell 2y ago
Yep, I used to work in a factory. Target utilization at planning time was 80%. If you over-predict your utilization, you waste money. If you under-predict, a giant queue of “not important” stuff starts to develop
- eru 2y agoFor some scenarios that's fine, and you can slash the queue whenever necessary. Eg at Google (this was ten years ago or so), we could always spend leftover networking capacity on syncing a tiny bit faster and more often between our data centres. And that would improve users' experience slightly, but it also not something that builds up a backlog. At a factory, you could always have some idle workers swipe the floor a bit more often. (Just a silly example, but there are probably some tasks like that?)
- 082349872349872 2y agoUnlike merchantmen, naval vessels were crewed at a level allowing for substantial attrition (bad attrition would be casualties; good attrition would be prize crews); I believe they traditionally (pace Churchill) had many, many activities which were incidental to force projection (eg polishing the brightwork) but could be used to occupy all hands.
- eru 2y agoYes. And, well, you can also always train more. Especially in the age of sail.
- scott_w 2y agoThis reminds me of something my mother told me she aimed for when she ran her catering businesses: she always wanted 1 serving of pie leftover at the end of every day. If she had 0, she ran the risk of turning customers away and losing money. Any more than 1 is excess waste. Having just 1 meant she’d served every possible customer and only “wasted” 1 slice.