ABSTRACT
The “dice game” (Appendix A) shows that variation and dependency affect all systems. It also demonstrates that even if we balance capacity throughout the system, it won’t stay balanced for very long because of the combined effects of variation and dependent events. Trying to balance a manufacturing system will create interactive bottlenecks that seem to move from one location to another, maybe even daily. Balanced manufacturing lines eventually put you in a continual reactive mode, chasing problems from one part of the process to another.
