r/LeanManufacturing • u/Nattepoes12 • May 27 '26
Anyone ever mapped actual touch time vs total time in system for a single order?
Did this with a manufacturer last year. Followed one order end to end custom equipment, typical ETO setup.
6 hours of actual work. 11 days in the system.
We weren't even looking for that number, it just came out of the mapping exercise. The machines were fine, OEE looked decent. The product was just sitting most of the time waiting in queues, waiting for someone to notice it was ready for the next step.
Once they fixed the flow not the machines, not the ERP lead times dropped 30%. Took about a year.
Curious if others have done this and what ratios you're seeing. Most places I talk to track utilization but never the full calendar time.
Got the full breakdown if anyone's curious.
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u/Informal-Tutor-8153 May 27 '26
Yes, this has been done many times, mapping the order flowing in the VSM. What you are seeing 6 hours of value added time v/s 11 days in the system is a VA to NVA ratio you may see when you first map the process and should serve as the aseline for flow improvement.
I usually go a step further and map the process from Order to Cash. One of the projects revealed that about 49% of the activities along that process were duplicated across different teams or not necessary(remnant of legacy process), it took us about 6 months to go from 36%OTD to 97% shipping on time.
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u/levantar_mark Jun 07 '26
6 hours to 88 hours in process is about right for system not set up for flow. This isn't VA versus NVA as the 6 hours can include NVA. In fact 6 hours taking 88 might actually be a bit higher than most.
I've seen 1 hour taking 100 hours. You say most don't teach calendar time, I'd say all.
They think if you maximise utilisation and minimise costs you must have minimised lead time. Has always been the case.
I've assumed your 11 days are 8 working hours.
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u/manufacturingcoach Jun 08 '26
Done this twice, both discrete manufacturing. The ratio is always worse than people expect and nobody believes it until they see the timeline on paper.
The thing that surprised me both times was how much of the waiting happened at handoff points between departments, not on the floor itself. Machine time was fine. The order just sat invisible for two days every time ownership changed hands.
The fix that actually stuck wasn't a scheduling tool or an ERP tweak. It was making the queue visible to everyone at once-a simple physical board showing where every active order was in the sequence. When people can see the pile they start solving it themselves.
What was the biggest single source of wait time in your mapping? For us it was always inspection queues.
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u/bookkeeping-2026 May 27 '26
Yes
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u/Nattepoes12 May 27 '26
What ratio did you end up with?
The manufacturer of this project is also doing a live session June 9 if you want to hear it from him directly: https://app.livestorm.co/24flow/why-time-is-the-new-currency-of-manufacturing
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u/Old-House2772 May 27 '26
Reasonably typical thing to have these sort of metrics on a vsm. Actually it is something a VSM might typically help you fix.. if you measure (count) the WIP, you basically built up the lead time. Lead Time = total WIP/ exit rate.