For Educators · Little's Law
Little's Law for a bottling plant
Built for educators teaching it to a class. Drop a live demo into a lecture or assign it as a shareable link — no lab installs. Simulate a bottling plant live below — adjust the inputs and watch it respond, right in your browser.
Little's LawLive
the law of flow
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Presets
Little's Law is deceptively simple and astonishingly general: the average work-in-progress equals throughput times lead time. It holds for any stable queue — a factory, a hospital, a software backlog, a checkout line — regardless of the details. It means the only ways to cut lead time are to raise throughput or reduce work-in-progress, the core insight of lean and agile.
Data Inspector
Work in progress20.0 units
Throughput5/hr
Lead time4 hr
Governing equation
Reading this result: At 5/hr throughput and a 4 hr lead time, about 20 items sit in progress at once — so the only ways to cut lead time are to raise throughput or shrink work-in-progress; you cannot move one without the others following.
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Frequently asked questions
- Is this good for educators?
- Yes — this version of "Little's Law for a bottling plant" is framed for educators teaching it to a class. Drop a live demo into a lecture or assign it as a shareable link — no lab installs.
- Do I need to install anything?
- No. It runs in any modern browser, free, with no account required.