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Delays and overshoot

Concept

Delayed information or action can cause a response to continue past a target.

Explanation or usage

When a decision is based on an outdated state, a system may continue adding to or removing from a stock after enough adjustment has already occurred. Repeated corrections made with delayed feedback can produce oscillation. Recognizing the lag can help avoid repeatedly increasing or decreasing a response before earlier changes become visible.

Common misunderstandings

A delayed response always improves accuracy.

In Thinking in systems

General context reviewed · book attribution and sources pending

An illustrative inventory model can be used to reason about how delays affect adjustment.

Linked books

Practice this item

Illustrative inventory model: deliveries take two weeks, but a shop repeatedly orders more each day because its shelf stock is still low. What risk does the delay create?