Various benefits accrue to using the one-piece flow production system which includes
- Reduced waste in waiting, inventory and transportation
- Less overhead in managing because:
- It is more stable and predictable.
- Lead times are reduced.
- More responsive to customer needs, particularly as they change volume or mix
One-piece flow describes the sequence of product or transactional activities through a process one unit at a time. In contrast, batch processing creates a large number of products or works on a large number of transactions at one time – sending them together as a group through each operational step. In one-piece flow, focus is on the product or the transactional process, rather than on the waiting, transporting, and storage of either. One-piece flow methods need short changeover times and are conducive to a pull system.
