Consequences of planned lead time adaptions in scope of the Lead Time Syndrome of Production Control

If order due dates are missed, a frequent reaction of production planners is to adapt planned lead times. How often and to what extent updates are reasonable has previously been unclear because, while trying to improve logistic target achievement, the opposite effect may be caused, which is known as the Lead Time Syndrome of Production Control. This paper investigates correlations between Lead Time Syndrome variables using a control theoretic model to gain knowledge about system transient response and the influence of the lead time updating frequency and information delay on due date reliability. These investigations lead to fundamental improvements in practice in setting planning parameters.