Assemble-To-Order describes a production environment in which a good or service can be assembled after receipt of a customer’s order. The key components (bulk, semi-finished, intermediate, subassembly, fabricated, purchased, packing, and so on) used in the assembly or finishing process are planned and usually stocked in anticipation of a customer order. Receipt of an order initiates assembly of the customized product. This strategy is useful where a large number of end products (based on the selection of options and accessories) can be assembled from common components.

Synonyms for Assemble-To-Order include Finish-To-Order and Make-To-Order.

Reference:  Supply Chain Insights - Assemble to Order

  Little's law was named after Mr. John Little who was a professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management.  The law states that by reducing work in progress and maintaining a processes average completion rate the lead time will be reduced too.  On the same note, according to little's law increasing the average completion rate while maintaining the same level of work in progress will reduce also reduce the lead time.  

How to calculate?

  Little's law can is expressed with the following equation:

     - Lead time = Amount of work in progress / Average completion rate

  Does your company make goods only after receiving an order?  Do they make goods before and then stock them?  These two questions can help clarify how your organization plans and schedules the production or execution of goods and services.  There are many different methods that companies may use, some examples are:  Make to stock, Make to order and Assemble to order.  Whichever strategy a company selects will have a varying degree on the amount of inventory a company holds, how they will produce and how resources are spread through the organization.  The biggest impact is the amount of inventory the company carries which as you may know already is cash availability.

Chase Strategy 

  The chase strategy is one method organizations use to maintain a level inventory while producing at varying rates in order to support demand.  The chase strategy is sometimes referred to as demand matching because the strategy varies production to meet demand.  

Benefits

  The main benefits associated with a chase strategy are:

• lower inventory levels (free capital resources).
• Reduced carrying costs 

Example

  When you go to a restaurant for food and place an order the staff will normally pull supplies from a "stable inventory" level and make the order, or in other words "chase the demand."

  A make to order production environment is one in which manufacturing or in the case of a service, service, starts only after receiving a customer's order. 

  A make to stock production strategy is used mostly in forecasting environments.  The Apics dictionary 14'th edition defines Make to Stock as a production environment where products can be and usually are finished before receipt of a customer order.  Customer orders are typically filled from existing stocks and production orders are used to replenish stocks.

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  Learning a new term can be hard when there are so many different terms available in Lean and Six Sigma.  The one definition we can all agree upon that matters is the voice of the customer.  Formally defined the voice of the customer is a process by which we can collect requirements, needs, wants and expectations or feedback from our customers.  Collecting this type of information can reveal new insights and form trusting bonds between customers and vendors.
  Along with the voice of the customer another great way to gather information is through a community.  As many of you probably know already you can search a term and most likely one of the top search results will be none other than Wikipedia.   A wiki is a website that provides a collaborative and interactive community where professors, experts, practitioners and even casual readers can go to share knowledge with one another.  It's like Yokoten on a global environment.  There are a few wonderful ideals about this approach that standout:

1. Users can add and share knowledge with each other freely.  
2. Users can interact with one another challenging, learning and continuously improving the language that our vast strategy includes.
3. Users can advertise their knowledge and expertise on a subject.
4. This type of environment is empowering and reinforcing the underlying ideal to share knowledge and advance the global marketplace by collectively adding to community.

  We would like for each of you to take full advantage of these 4 wonderful ideals and share your Lean and Six Sigma knowledge right here on Lean Strategies International LLC's Lean and Six Sigma Glossary.  Please feel free to visit the link below and submit a term to the community and let's start creating solutions that ignite our power! Together.

  Nagara refers to the smooth production or service flow of both materials and information.  The ideal or perfect condition would be one piece flow that is perfectly balanced and uses the entire capacity available.