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John D. C. Little

John D. C. Little was an American operations researcher and MIT Institute Professor who published the general proof of Little's Law, L equals lambda times W, in 1961.

1928–2024 MIT professor, proved Little's Law

What they did and why it matters

Little's Law links how much work is in a system, how fast it arrives, and how long it waits, and warehouse managers use it to reason about backlogs and cycle times. It states that average work in process equals the arrival rate multiplied by the average time in the system. For example, if a fulfillment center receives 1,000 orders an hour and each order spends an average of 3 hours from release to shipping, about 3,000 orders are in process at any time. Cutting time in the building lowers open orders and floor congestion without changing volume.

Related people

Sources

  1. John D. C. Little In Memoriam (INFORMS OR/MS Today) pubsonline.informs.org
  2. John Dutton Conant Little, 96 (Cambridge Day) cambridgeday.com