Variability & QueuesVariability and queues
Variability and queues
The team runs near 100% utilization, but Lead Time has tripled over the past months. Leadership wants everyone "fully utilized." You must show and fix why the queue exploded.
In 4 rounds, use queueing theory to bring Lead Time down: create capacity slack, reduce variability, and level the intake without falling into the max-utilization trap.
The concept behind this mission
Queues are not born from a lack of capacity, they are born from variability combined with high utilization. The closer you run to 100% occupancy, the more any surprise turns into waiting, and that waiting grows non-linearly. This is why an overloaded team gets slower even while working more. Here you face irregular demand arrival and very different item sizes, and decide where to leave slack so the system can absorb what cannot be predicted.
Starting point and target
The mission opens with these numbers. Closing within the target depends on the decisions you make each round.
- WIP16 items
- Lead Time24 days
- Blocked1
- Predictability40%
- Lead Time up to 14 days
- WIP up to 10 items
- Predictability at least 68%
- LevelAdvanced
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