Small Containers Move More

In this illustration a train empties a couple hundred people onto a platform. Before the train has left the station, about 1/3rd of the people have already left. Within 2.25 minutes, everyone has left.

There is a profit, a value above cost, in saving people time and money. JPods focuses on the value and quality of the trip to the traveler. JPods are respectful that the time of the travel is valuable. JPods, like the automobile or elevators, serves the customer on-demand.

Small packets stream resource to need more effectively than large batches. In nature delivery systems are streaming. Blood operates with small vehicles delivering needs on-demand and streaming away waste products as they are produced. If your red cells had a thousand times their capacity but were twice as large, you would be dead. Size must be tailored to need. Historically the right size packet for move people is feet, horse, chariot, carriage, bike and automobile.

• Capacity of PRT, a freeway lane and two light rail operating scenarios.
• Emptying a Stadium

Benefits of shifting from Mass Production to Just-in-Time can be gained by shifting from Mass Transit to Personal Automated Mobility.

Manufacturers experienced great productivity gains moving from Mass Production (focus on the capital asset) to Just-in-Time (focus on the quality, continuous flow and value of the process).

Here is a typical impact on a company in the early 1990's when they shifted from Mass Production to Just-in-time continuous flow ((Womack, Jones, 1996)

Batch & Queue/1991 Flow/1995
Development time for a new product family 3-4 years 1 year
Employee hours per machine 160 80
Manufacturing space per machine 100 square feet 55 square feet
Delivered defects per machine 8.0 0.8
Production throughput time 16 weeks 14 hours to 5 days
Product delivery lead time 4-20 weeks 1-4 weeks

Forty-eight U.S. companies using Just-In-Time work teams report (Waldo, 1991):
- 35% reduction in cycle time
- 24% reduction in late deliveries
- 30% reduction in hours/unit,
- 33% reduction in work-in-progress inventories
- 58% reduction in scrap rates
- 71% reduction in customer complaints
- 39% reduction in floor space required

Reference: Applying Lessons from Lean Production Theory to Transit Planning by Dunning and Richert.

Being ultra-light and on-demand, JPods service is available 24 x 7. Capacity is 100% available 100% of the time. Buses and trains have limited capacity often and zero capacity much of the night.