Tag
smed
Production-planning notes filed under smed.
- 01
Economic Production Quantity (EPQ): Sizing Batches When Your Line Makes and Ships at Once
Run long to dilute a painful changeover, or run short to avoid drowning in inventory? EPQ is the math for the sweet spot — built for a line that fills stock gradually while demand keeps pulling it down.
Read post - 02
Run Order Matters: Sequencing SKUs to Slash Total Changeover Time
You can't always make each changeover shorter, but you can make fewer of them expensive. Here's how to build a changeover matrix and sequence your SKUs to cut total cleandown time across the whole run.
Read post - 03
Drum-Buffer-Rope: How to Schedule a CPG Line Around Its One True Bottleneck
Most CPG schedules fight the wrong machine. Learn how Drum-Buffer-Rope builds the production schedule around your line's real constraint to protect throughput and ship dates.
Read post - 04
EPEI (Every Product Every Interval): How Often Should Your Line Make Each SKU?
EPEI is the one number that names your production rotation — how often each SKU comes around. Here's what it means, why smaller is usually better, and how to calculate and shrink it on a real CPG line.
Read post - 05
Heijunka for CPG Lines: Turning Lumpy Demand Into a Schedule the Floor Can Run
Forecasting tells you how much to make. Heijunka tells you in what rhythm and sequence. Here's how production leveling smooths lumpy CPG demand into a repeatable schedule that protects fill rate and your changeover budget.
Read post - 06
The hidden cost of changeovers
Two plans can make the same units in the same week and cost very different amounts to run. The gap hides in the changeovers — and there's a discipline for closing it.
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