Little's Law as Viewed on Its 50th Anniversary
by John D. C. Little · Operations Research (INFORMS), Vol. 59 No. 3
John Little's fiftieth-anniversary review of L = λW, the relation tying work in process to throughput and cycle time. Covers proofs, underlying assumptions, extensions, and applications across operations management and computer architecture. Peer-reviewed, the paper states exactly when the law holds and when it does not.
More resources on Manufacturing Systems
AllAboutLean.com
Christoph Roser, a production management professor and former Toyota employee, publishes free long-form articles on line balancing, buffer sizing, job shop versus flow shop layouts, pull systems, and the Kingman formula, with worked numbers and plant photos.
The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement
Goldratt's business novel follows a plant manager applying the Theory of Constraints to a failing factory, introducing throughput, inventory, operating expense, bottleneck identification, and the five focusing steps through narrative rather than equations.
Factory Physics: Foundations of Manufacturing Management (3rd Edition)
Hopp and Spearman build a quantitative science of production: variability, queueing behavior, Little's Law, push versus pull control, capacity and lead time, then connect those laws to MRP, lean, six sigma, and supply chain practice.