Painting by numbers

Imagine we’re in a paint factory. There’s an automated production line and two warehouses, one containing ingredients for the paint: thinner, binder, colorant and additives, and one holding the cans of paint produced on the production line. The ingredients come in from two other plants, owned by the same company that runs the paint factory. The paint is made to order as well as in bulk – our factory supplies both specialist painting companies and wholesalers.

The bulk production runs 6 days per week, for 6 different kinds of paint. It’s interrupted whenever an order for a specialist company needs to be processed. Over time, management notices a number of issues starting to occur. First, special orders frequently have to be delayed because ingredients are out of stock. Second, production levels don’t match up with the calculated capacity of the production line. Also, at certain times, there appears to be a shortage of some of the additives.