She gasped. The bottleneck wasn't the slow Assembly line (which everyone blamed). It was the . The template’s "Value-Added Ratio" formula spat out a brutal number: 2.3%. Only 2.3% of the 42-day lead time was actual work. The rest was waiting.
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The Bottleneck at BlueFin Electronics
BlueFin Electronics, a mid-sized manufacturer of industrial sensors, was in crisis. Their flagship product, the T7 sensor, had a lead time of 42 days. Customers were defecting to a competitor who delivered in 21. The CEO, a man who thought "Lean" was something you did to a steak, had given Marina an ultimatum: Fix the flow, or we cut your department. She gasped
By Tuesday, the team had used the tab to design a new flow. They reduced the changeover, moved the gauge calibration to Mondays, and added a visual kanban column. The template’s "Value-Added Ratio" formula spat out a
She clicked. The file opened in under three seconds.
Marina smiled. "Zero dollars. Just an Excel template I downloaded for free."