WIP Analysis Agent – Keep work in progress in view: analyze open cases, backlogs and aging items in your processes
Counts open cases per process step, shows their age and detects where a backlog is building up.
What does the WIP Analysis Agent do?
The WIP Analysis Agent answers a question classic cycle time analyses leave out: what is currently open in the process? It counts the work in progress – every case started but not yet completed – shows which step each one is in and for how long, and detects where a backlog is building up. You don’t learn after the fact that a process has slowed down; you see it while work is piling up.
Questions the WIP Analysis Agent answers
“How many cases are open right now, and which step are they in?”
“Which open cases are older than 30 days?”
“How has the number of open cases developed over the last twelve weeks?”
“Are more cases coming in than we complete?”
How the WIP Analysis Agent works
- 1
Identify open cases
The agent determines which cases have started but not finished, and in which activity they were last.
- 2
Show age and distribution
It groups open cases by step and age and shows where aging items accumulate.
- 3
Compare inflow and outflow
It compares newly started and completed cases per week or month and so detects whether a backlog is growing or shrinking.
- 4
Show the effect on cycle time
According to Little’s Law, inventory, throughput and cycle time are directly linked. The agent uses this to show what a growing backlog means for future cycle times.
KPIs and methods
- Work in progress (WIP)
- Number of open cases at a cut-off date – overall and per process step.
- Age of open cases
- How long open cases have been in the process, grouped into age buckets.
- Throughput
- Completed cases per unit of time.
- Inflow/outflow balance
- Started minus completed cases per period – positive means the backlog is growing.
A practical example
In an application process the number of open cases has been rising for weeks, yet the cycle time of completed cases looks unremarkable – because the difficult cases have not been completed yet. The agent shows the growing backlog, its concentration in the step “query to specialist department” and the age distribution. It makes visible what cycle time would only reveal weeks later.
Matching end-to-end processes
What you get
A snapshot of open cases per process step, the age distribution, the inflow/outflow balance as a time series and a list of the oldest cases – as a table, chart or Excel file.
What data the agent needs
A perspective that includes cases not yet completed, plus a definition of which activity completes a case. If the data does not make this clear, the agent asks.
WIP Analysis Agent: frequently asked questions
What does work in progress (WIP) mean in business processes?
Work in progress means all cases that have started but are not yet completed – open purchase orders, unprocessed invoices, pending applications. A high or growing WIP is an early indicator of longer cycle times and overloaded teams.
What is Little’s Law?
Little’s Law describes the relationship between inventory, throughput and cycle time in a stable system: cycle time = inventory ÷ throughput. If inventory rises while throughput stays the same, cycle time inevitably rises too.
How is the WIP Analysis Agent different from the Cycle Time Analysis Agent?
The Cycle Time Analysis Agent looks at completed cases and asks how long they took. The WIP Analysis Agent looks at open cases and asks what is piling up right now. Together they show the past and the present of a process.
Part of Minerva 2.0
The WIP Analysis Agent is an agent in Minerva, the AI assistant in Noreja. It uses the same data sources, the same choice of model – local or cloud – and the same access rights: it only reads what you are allowed to see and changes nothing in Noreja.
More agents from the library
Cycle Time Analysis Agent
Measures cycle times per case, transition and variant, shows the distribution rather than just the average and explains the outliers.
View agentWaiting Time Analysis Agent
Finds the time in which nothing happens: idle time between steps, bottlenecks and the reasons why work sits still.
View agentOn-Time Performance Agent
Measures on-time delivery, OTIF and SLA compliance and shows at which step commitments are missed.
View agentSee what the WIP Analysis Agent finds in your process data
In a demo we show you what answers the agent delivers on one of your processes – with numbers, reasoning and sources.
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