U.S. Steel's Fairless Works reduced its cycle times by 35 percent. Although they don't want to, steel mills often carry large in-house inventories.
Finished products sit for weeks before they're shipped.
They cost money by tying up a company's assets in nonproductive ways. And inventory takes up space. Ford and GM are trying to help steelmakers by improving their steel-demand forecasts. Mills, particularly those with long lead times, need to hold additional inventories because these forecasts often differ from the orders actually placed by auto stamping plants. Eliminating one week Bethlehem Steel started a companywide work team to reduce cycle times and inventories for all processes at all the steelmaker's mills.