“This is how you are to make it; the length of the ark three hundred cubits. its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.” – the Holy Bible. From the beginning of recorded history man has been employing the benefits of building guided by numeric specifications. In the case of Noah, the proportions for his ark made it seaworthy. We still use the same proportions afforded by these numeric instructions today when we design and create the ships that sail the high seas. Numbers have guided the builders of virtually everything for all recorded history. Until the advent of Computer Numeric Control, the craftsmen read and interpreted the recorded numbers and created the desired item. In Noah’s case, with God arranging the details, it is very possible that 3 numbers were all that was needed to get the job done. At least that was all that Noah needed.
Modern manufacturing is the convergence of a whole lot of processes that have been converted to numbers. At the beginning of the process is the quote. As we migrate to mass customization, every customer wants a price assembled just for him. Money is usually expressed in numbers. Calculating a custom sales price for every order has only become possible with the implementation of ever more computer horsepower. The airline model of charging an unique price for every ticket sold is spreading. Get used to it.
A lead time is a number. In pretty much all cases this number is greater than zero. I am sure that the people who needed an ark when the rain started to fall, discovered that the lead time number was a lot greater than zero. In this digital age, we place an order and expect it to be shippped in the next day or two. It is a good thing that other people start the manufacturing ball rolling a whole lot earlier. Modern transportation management systems use numeric GPS coordinates to track every item real time. This coordination is needed for all the items to arrive together. It is more complicated than simply ordering everything you need to build at once. It is necessary to take into account the lead time of each item including transportation time. The longest lead time items need to be ordered first.
No, not even the latest computer implemented numeric build methods can deliver you an ark in a couple of days. However under the new Pack Mule Prime program the sum of the latest numeric build systems enable you to configure an electric vehicle to your needs and have it shipped out in a couple of days. Just keep watching for the rainbow, you might not ever need an ark.