| Article ID: | iaor20021820 |
| Country: | United States |
| Volume: | 31 |
| Issue: | 3 |
| Start Page Number: | 16 |
| End Page Number: | 27 |
| Publication Date: | May 2001 |
| Journal: | Interfaces |
| Authors: | Ward James, Dada Maqbool, Schmidt Edie, Adams Duane |
| Keywords: | inventory, production |
ALCOA makes aluminum-tubing products to order. The product lines' success caused a backlog of customer orders and long customer lead times. This problem was exacerbated by frequent machine breakdowns at a bottleneck operation. ALCOA implemented cyclic planning to improve capacity management. The results were immediate and dramatic. Over eight months, output increased by over 20 percent, almost eliminating the backlog of customer orders. The cyclic-planning implementation resulted in additional benefits throughout the organization, including improved workforce planning and better machine maintenance scheduling.