Finding the bottleneck, not always that simple!

Basically, a bottleneck is the slowest step in a process, the machine having trouble keeping pace. To find a bottleneck, go and have a look at where the inventories pile up and from where the machines are starved from upstream supplies, there is your bottleneck. Well, it’s not always that simple.

4 reasons to consider SMED

SMED is a structured approach to reducing changeover durations. Here are 4 good reasons to consider deploying SMED. >Lisez-moi en français 1. More production capacity is required A critical resource of the production process is not able to deliver the expected quantity, due to lack of capacity. Such a resource is usually called a bottleneck, …

How to identify the constraint of a system? Part 5/5 – The valley of despair

This is part 5 of a series of posts about identifying the constraint of a system and time for wrapping up and a conclusion (of the series, not the topic!). Newcomers to Theory of Constraints understand quite easily the concept of bottleneck but are frequently puzzled when looking for them in a real-life process. Furthermore, …

How to identify the constraint of a system? Part 4/5 – Check beyond production

Since the publishing of early books on Theory of Constraints, the world grew more complex and the system’s constraint got more and more elusive. Globalization and extended supply chains give a constraint opportunity to settle literally anywhere in the world and extend its nature. It can be a physical transformation process in a supplier’s facility, …

How to identify the constraint of a system? Part 3/5 – Check V, A & T

Inventories and Work In Progress (WIP) can be helpful clues to visually identify the bottleneck or constraint in a process, but they can also be insufficient or even misleading as I explained in part 2 of this series. It is often also necessary to study material and parts routes to really understand where they get …

How to identify the constraint of a system? Part 2/5 – Visit Gemba

When trying to find the system’s constraint, why not simply asking the middle management? At least when Theory of Constraint was young, our world spinning slower and processes simpler, the foremen usually had a common sense understanding of their bottleneck. They knew what machine to look after, and what part of their process to give more …

How to identify the constraint of a system? Part 1/5 – The usual suspects

A very common question once people get familiar with Theory of Constraints and the notion of bottlenecks and constraints is how to find them in a process. Identifying the constraint is key as the constraint, by its nature, it controls the performance of the whole system. The trouble with examples given in textbooks or case …

My blog’s third birthday

January 2014 - January 2017, my blog is now online for 3 years and counts 347 posts. Thanks to all of you my audience is gently growing on this blog, as well as on my Youtube channel and on tweeter. All organic! What is the most read here? According to the stats, Constraint vs. bottleneck …

When enough is… enough

This is a behavior I’ve noticed quite often in food industry, in chemical or pharmaceutical plants: cleaning and sanitation processes (mainly their duration) are extended beyond the standard procedures at the expense of costs and production capacity. Fear of harming In the regulatory-constraint industries like food, chemical or pharma, people on shopfloor are trained and …

My takeaways from throughput accounting, the book

I knew the author, Steven M. Bragg from his podcast series “Accounting Best Practices with Steven Bragg” before I came across his book “throughput accounting, a guide to constraint management” published by Wiley & sons, 2007. Book presentation The hard cover book has 178 pages, 10 chapters, easy to read in neat presentation and legible …