System Loss

Book chapter, 2015

System loss occurs with product layouts where operators are “paced”, or required to keep working at the speed of the line, so they cannot complete all their work within the cycle time or have idle time on a cycle. The line then needs to be stopped for work to be completed, or products remain unfinished at the end of the line and need to be completed later, or workers further down the line are forced to have idle time.