- Constraints and bottleneck management
can give an inspiring sense of empowerment.
It provides clarity of what to look for, what to focus on,
and prioritize within your operational system.
So let's finish up by looking ahead
to what to do with that constraint to increase its capacity
and your system's capacity in more detail.
The output capacity of a process
is a function of its speed and availability.
And so having identified the constraint
that gives us the clues of what to work on,
increasing its speed and availability.
Let's look at speed first.
Is the constraint already running
at its top sustainable speed?
Does it know that it is the constraint
and its speed is limiting the capacity of the whole system?
Life isn't fair. Being the constraint is special.
Whilst other teams, machines, processes
can be permitted to chill for much of the time,
every second at the constraint is uniquely valuable,
limiting the output of the whole system.
Sustainable speed capabilities
are often not known until they're tested.
Try a higher speed.
You might be surprised.
When you come across speed-related problems,
work on solving them.
If the processes are human-based,
support them in whatever way you can
to let them focus on that key role.
Can better tools or lighting be provided?
How about ergonomics
or training for best practices?
Remember, speed has to be sustainable, not just rushing.
For technical processes,
common powerful tools include cycle time analysis,
the ultra powerful Lean methodology of SMED.
How about slow motion cameras to study high speed movements
and look for improvement ideas?
Reprogramming or improved power supply and cooling.
Alongside improving speed,
we look at improving availability.
This means reducing causes of lost time,
downtime, time when the constraint is not operating.
Study and continue to systematically record
the causes of lost time at the constraints,
and then work on reducing the biggest
and easiest to tackle.
When capacity constrained
and therefore seeking to maximize output,
we should work to keep the constraint busy all the time,
not letting it stop due to other non-bottleneck processes,
waiting for materials nor random bureaucracy.
The most common general causes of downtime
are things like waiting for materials or information,
slow running, setups and changeovers,
cleaning, breakdowns, maintenance, rework,
shortstops, jams, and distractions.
Now we know the value and significance of time lost
at the constraints,
we can bring to bear our skills, experience, and resources
to make a difference where it really matters.