POV: You're the head of process engineering at a manufacturing company

• Each letter represents a sub-process (e.g. sales, design, operations, customer invoicing, payment collection / coding, PR review, CI running)
• The report below details the efficiency of each subprocess
• Where will you focus most of your attention?
• Where will you avoid putting any of your attention?

POV: You're the head of process engineering at a manufacturing company

• Then you receive a report containing the maximum capacity of each subprocess

Identifying the constraint

• Most people think Process B, but Process D is the constraint
• What happens if you optimise Process B?
• What is the maximum possible output of the system?

The Core Idea

• Every system has a limiting factor or constraint
• Focusing improvement efforts to better utilise this constraint is the fastest and most effective way to improve profitability/performance
• A chain is only as strong as its weakest link

The Core Idea

• Strengthening other links can never increase the overall strength of the chain
• Strengthening the non-weakest link will decrease the strength of the chain due to the added weight
• A constraint limits the output of every system, whether we acknowledge it or not
• When properly identified and managed, constraints provide the fastest route to significant improvement

The Five Focusing Steps: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

1. Identify the Constraint

• Need to identify the right constraint
• Constraints vs. bottlenecks - the weakest link vs. the weak links
• Three forms of constraints
  • Resource constraints - resources such as a particular machine that block flow based on limited capacity
  • Policy constraints - policies/practices/metrics that artificially distort flow due to poor alignment
  • Permanent constraints - limiting factors that are present in every process

2. Exploit the Constraint

• Squeeze as much as possible out of that link in the chain
• Maximise utilisation and productivity of the constraint (not of other non-constraint processes in the system)
• Look at availability/quality/performance

3. Subordinate everything else to the constraint

• Any non-constraint has more capacity to produce than the constraint itself
• Results in bloated WIP inventory and elongated lead times
• Don't produce more than the constraint can handle
• Bring the constraint to the front of the line
• Manufacturing - choking the release of raw material in line with the constraint
• The constraint should never be starved - always operating at 100% capacity

4. Elevate the constraint

• Steps 1 - 3 don't involve adding more resources (spending more money/time)
• Expand by adding more resources
  • More people
  • More money
  • More computing power
• (Manufacturing) Implementing the first 3 steps properly typically expose a minimum of 30% hidden capacity within the first few months

5. Rinse and repeat - find the next constraint