Reducing Work in Process at an Emergency Assistance Center

An important principle of lean manufacturing (cf. Womack and Jones 2003) is that it strives for low levels of work in process (WIP). Work in process or in-process inventory consists of all unfinished jobs or parts in a process at a particular moment in time. Disadvantages of high amounts of WIP include inventory costs, increased throughput times, and other kinds of nuisance. On the other hand, WIP makes a process less vulnerable to disruptions, because it provides a buffer of jobs to work on.

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