Take the case of the nut. If you line up the processes needed to create it in a cell and then pass the nut or very small lots of nuts from one operation to another in a one-piece flow, what once took weeks to complete can now be done in hours. And this case is not unusual. The magic of making huge gains in productivity and quality and big reductions in inventory, space, and lead time through one-piece flow has been demonstrated over and over in companies throughout the world. It always seems miraculous and the results are always the same. This is why the one-piece-flow cell is the ultimate in
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