Feeling Stuck? Apply TOC.
Feeling Stuck?
Don’t be like Blueberry the budgie… See the bottleneck and remove it.
From Bottleneck to Benefit
Every system has parts that do not flow. Tasks pile up for a variety of reasons and hinder progress downstream.
For example:
You can't invoice a job because job details are missing,
You can't finish a quote because a supplier has not provided adequate info, or
You go to site for a job because a critical part has not been ordered.
The Theory of Constraint suggests finding the key bottleneck in a system. However, I would tackle each bottleneck in a small business and not spend hours analysing which is the main one.
Delve in and explore the reason. Ask questions as you go.
Five why questions often lead to the true bottleneck.
Why is this not done? Because we are waiting on a part.
Why are we waiting on a part? Because someone forgot to order it?
Why did they forget? Well nobody was assigned to do it.
Why was nobody assigned to do it? We have no system for assigning people.
The answer - no system exists and that is on the business or management to put in place.
We can now fix the bottleneck and move on to the next one.
Want help finding bottlenecks and scaffolding them with processes to minimise or eliminate them?
Get in touch. We use simple but powerful technology like Trello, Kanban visuals and more to help plot solutions.