
STRATEGIC LE A D -T I ME M A N A GEMENT
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there would be no need for a forecast and no need for inventory and at the same
time a greater variety could be offered to the customer.
Whilst clearly zero lead times are hardly likely to exist in the real world, the target
for any organisation should be to reduce lead times, at every stage in the logistics
pipeline, to as close to zero as possible. In so many cases it is possible to find
considerable opportunity for total lead-time reduction, often through some very
simple changes in procedure.
Lead-time concepts
From the customer’s viewpoint there is only one lead time: the elapsed time from
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