Decision resources
Guides behind the decisions
Each resource explains the decision behind a cluster of engines in plain English, worked example included. Every figure comes from the same tested calculation the engine uses, so the explanation and the tool always agree.
16 resources.
Guides
A decision chain walked end to end across several engines, worked example included.
- Guide · Warehouse Sizing the Capacity Decision Finding out a warehouse breaches capacity in year 2 is not the end of the decision, it is the start of three more: how much room is actually needed, what kind of storage fills it cheapest, and whether expanding pays for itself. One chain, three engines, walked in order.
- Guide · Inventory Inventory Service Level vs Working Capital Higher service is valuable until its marginal carrying cost exceeds the stockout cost it prevents.
- Guide · Inventory Order Frequency and Rush-Order Policy The cheapest freight rate is not always the lowest total cost when stockouts and rush orders are part of the picture.
- Guide · Scheduling Promise Dates: Load to Completion A customer promise is credible only when the finite workload and the selected dispatch rule support it.
- Guide · Scheduling WIP Limits and Dispatch for Flow More released work can lengthen lead time when the bottleneck is already full.
- Guide · Material Handling Material Handling: Forklift or Conveyor The right handling method depends on flow pattern, capacity, labor, and the cost of inflexibility.
- Guide · Material Handling Line-Side Inventory and Milk-Run Design A replenishment loop works when delivery frequency, line-side capacity, and consumption variability are planned together.
- Guide · Energy Energy Projects: Demand Charge to ROI Energy projects earn priority when they reduce the cost driver that actually appears on the utility bill.
- Guide · Energy Backup Power Sizing and Operating Risk Backup generation should protect the loads whose outage cost exceeds the cost of capacity and fuel.
- Guide · Capital Automation at the Bottleneck Automation produces value when it releases a real constraint, not merely when it replaces visible labor.
- Guide · Capital Make, Buy, Outsource, or Expand Capacity Capacity strategy is a comparison of controllable cost, demand duration, and the risk of tying up capital too early.
Visual Resources
One idea, one crossover point, made intuitive on its own.
- Visual · Maintenance PM vs Run-to-Failure: The Real Crossover Priced without an unplanned-downtime premium, running an asset to failure looks $2,933 a year cheaper than a PM program. Price a realistic 150% premium on an unplanned hour instead, and running to failure costs $6,067 a year more.
- Visual · Palletization Pallet Cube: The Rotation Check That Finds More Cartons The same carton, the same pallet, the same stack height. Checked one way, 60 cartons fit. Checked both ways, 72 do. The 12-carton gap comes from a single comparison most quick pallet-cube math skips.
- Visual · Labor Overtime vs Hire: Where the Math Flips A 40-hour weekly coverage gap held for 26 weeks favors hiring, $35,800 versus $50,700 in overtime. Hold that exact same gap for just 2 weeks and overtime wins instead, $3,900 versus $4,600 to hire. The gap never changed. The duration did.
- Visual · Quality The Cost of Poor Quality Nobody Puts on the P&L A 3% defect rate on 100,000 units a year does not show up as a line item anywhere. Priced out with the standard prevention-appraisal-failure framework, it is $99,000 a year, and $46,000 of it goes away by cutting the rate to 1%.
Reference
A lookup or a pattern that spans several engines, not tied to one calculator.