6 things you learn in operations

1. Don't starve the bottleneck
2. L = λ W ( thanks John Little)
   
3. Manage the bullwhip ( reduce information latency)
4. Variability Causes congestion
5. Real problems are often NP Hard, use a heuristic or simulate the hell out of it
   
6. Forecasts are always wrong, good forecasts are just less wrong and for a near horizon

Some of these you learn in school, some of these you learn on the job. Real world learnings that almost made the cut are below

• Grads students are cheaper to hire than undergrads or consultants and produce better work
  
• Real supply chain optimization is an exercise in contracts not math
• No one really cares about the best solution, any improvement is met with praise
• Performance Metrics only have to be representative, not truly meaningful, if they are truly meaningful and not deftly named they'll never get monitored