What is Little's Law and why does it apply to operations?

Little's Law (J. D. C. Little, 1961) states that average lead time equals work-in-progress divided by throughput. It applies to any stable queueing system, including approval queues, request inboxes and ticket systems. The implication is that to shorten lead time you must reduce WIP or raise throughput — not chase harder.

Why does routing fail when it follows the org chart?

The org chart shows reporting relationships, not decision authority. ITIL 4 distinguishes hierarchical escalation (up the chain of command) from functional escalation (to the role that can actually decide). Routing rules built around real authority shorten the path from request to decision.

When is follow-up still useful?

When an item is in the right queue but blocked on a known dependency, a single targeted nudge can help. Follow-up becomes counter-productive when it substitutes for routing fixes — i.e. when the same items get chased every cycle because they keep landing in the wrong place.

Why Better Routing Reduces Bottlenecks More than More Follow Up

An insight on why better routing reduces bottlenecks more than more follow up from CodeCraft Enterprise.