John D. C. Little

John D. C. Little was a renowned researcher in operations research who developed a fundamental principle called Little’s Law. This law explains the relationship between three key aspects of a system: how many items are in it (like customers in a store), how long each item stays (average time), and how many items are processed or served per unit time. Essentially, it shows that the average number of items in a system equals the rate at which they arrive or are processed multiplied by the average time they spend in the system. This insight helps businesses optimize operations and manage flow effectively.