Kanban Little’s Law WIP Calculator

Method and input definitions

Little’s Law: average WIP = average throughput × average cycle/lead time. This page converts the entered five-day workweek throughput to items per workday, multiplies by lead-time workdays, and compares that estimate with current WIP.

Worked example

A flow of 25 items per five-day workweek is 5 items/workday. At 4 workdays of lead time, implied average WIP is 20 items; a current WIP of 24 is 4 items above that estimate.

Assumptions and limits

Little’s Law describes stable long-run averages, not a daily target or a causal guarantee. Throughput and lead time must cover the same process and time basis.

Inputs are bounded to finite values shown in the form. Displayed results are rounded for readability (probability percentages and proportion fractions to four, other measures to two decimal places); whole-count outputs remain exact. A changed field clears a prior result so an outdated estimate is not presented as current.

References and related tools

These are direct calculations over user-supplied values; no external empirical benchmark is assumed.

• Task Time Estimator
• Meeting Time Savings Calculator

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