Hiking!

This week…I am hiking in the woods without my laptop albeit I do have my copy of  Monotasking by Staffan Nöteberg. I am continuing to focus on using shortlists, which has been a fairly easy transition and also implementing both the panorama cues and panorama sessions. The panorama cues and sessions have been useful up to the point that my dairy becomes wall-to-wall meetings.  I am trying to devise an approach for using panorama sessions in this scenario.  Suggestions?  While I am out in the woods I have re-published the summary of one of the most popular Re-reads, The Goal.  We will be back to Monotasking by Staffan Nöteberg next week.

Re-Read Saturday: The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement Summary

Note: If you don’t have a copy of the book, buy one.  If you use the link below it will support the Software Process and Measurement blog and podcast. Dead Tree Version or Kindle Version

Chapters 1 through 3 actively present the reader with a burning platform. The plant and division are failing. Alex Rogo has actively pursued increased efficiency and automation to generate cost reductions, however performance is falling even further behind and fear has become central feature in the corporate culture.

Chapters 4 through 6 shift the focus from steps in the process to the process as a whole. Chapters 4 – 6 move us down the path of identifying the ultimate goal of the organization (in this book). The goal is making money and embracing the big picture of systems thinking. In this section, the authors point out that we are often caught up with pursuing interim goals, such as quality, efficiency or even employment, to the exclusion of the of the ultimate goal. We are reminded by the burning platform identified in the first few pages of the book, the impending closure of the plant and perhaps the division, which in the long run an organization must make progress towards their ultimate goal, or they won’t exist.

Chapters 7 through 9 show Alex’s commitment to change, seeks more precise advice from Johan, brings his closest reports into the discussion and begins a dialog with his wife (remember this is a novel). In this section of the book the concept “that you get what you measure” is addressed. In this section of the book, we see measures of efficiency being used at the level of part production, but not at the level of whole orders or even sales. We discover the corollary to the adage ‘you get what you measure’ is that if you measure the wrong thing …you get the wrong thing. We begin to see Alex’s urgency and commitment to make a change.

Chapters 10 through 12 mark a turning point in the book. Alex has embraced a more systems view of the plant and that the measures that have been used to date are more focused on optimizing parts of the process to the detriment to overall goal of the plant.  What has not fallen into place is how to take that new knowledge and change how the plant works. The introduction of the concepts of dependent events and statistical variation begin the shift the conceptual understanding of what measure towards how the management team can actually use that information.

Chapters 13 through 16 drive home the point that dependent events and statistical variation impact the performance of the overall system. In order for the overall process to be more effective you have to understand the capability and capacity of each step and then take a systems view. These chapters establish the concepts of bottlenecks and constraints without directly naming them and that focusing on local optimums causes more trouble than benefit.

Chapters 17 through 18 introduces the concept of bottlenecked resources. The affect of the combination dependent events and statistical variability through bottlenecked resources makes delivery unpredictable and substantially more costly. The variability in flow through the process exposes bottlenecks that limit our ability to catch up, making projects and products late or worse generating technical debt when corners are cut in order to make the date or budget.

Chapters 19 through 20 begins with Johan coaching Alex’s team to help them to identify a pallet of possible solutions. They discover that every time the capacity of a bottleneck is increased more product can be shipped.  Changing the capacity of a bottleneck includes reducing down time and the amount of waste the process generates. The impact of a bottleneck is not the cost of individual part, but the cost of the whole product that cannot be shipped. Instead of waiting to make all of the changes Alex and his team implement changes incrementally rather than waiting until they can deliver all of the changes.

Chapters 21 through 22are a short primer on change management. Just telling people to do something different does not generate support. Significant change requires transparency, communication and involvement. One of Deming’s 14 Principles is constancy of purpose. Alex and his team engage the workforce though a wide range of communication tools and while staying focused on implementing the changes needed to stay in business.

Chapters 23 through 24 introduce the idea of involving the people doing the work in defining the solutions to work problems and finding opportunities. In Agile we use retrospectives to involve and capture the team’s ideas on process and personnel improvements. We also find that fixing one problem without an overall understanding of the whole system can cause problems to pop up elsewhere.

Chapters 25 and 26 introduce several concepts. The first concept is that if non-bottleneck steps are run at full capacity, they create inventory and waste. At full capacity their output outstrips the overall process’ ability to create a final product. Secondly, keeping people and resources 100% busy does not always move you closer to the goal of delivering value to the end customer. Simply put: don’t do work that does not move you closer to the goal of the organization. The combination of these two concepts suggests that products (parts or computer programs) should only be worked on and completed until they are needed in the next step in the process (Kanban). A side effect to these revelations is that sometimes people and processes will not be 100% utilized.

Chapters 27 and 28 shows the results of focusing on the flow of work the bottleneck and only beginning work when it will be needed has improved the results at the plant,  Bill Peach pushes Alex for more using the threat of closing the plant as the stick to make the threat real.  Johan suggests cutting batch sizes in half as a way to improve performance and urges Alex to let the sales team know the plant can deliver quickly and quality.

Chapter 29 and 30 show that the plant has been able to deliver on the huge order from Bucky Burnside, the company’s largest customer, without impacting other orders or sacrificing quality. In order to meet the new demands on the plant, they reduced batch size again, which improved flexibility and efficiency. Burnside is so thrilled with the results and the staggered delivery schedule he flies to the plant to shake the hand of every production worker. Jons, the head of sales, confides to Alex that the success has led to the promise of even more business from Burnside. Despite all of the success, it is time for the plant review.

Chapters 31 and 32 deal with the plant review and the review’s immediate aftermath. Alex defends the changes he and his team have made to how work is done in the plant. The defense includes a summary of the theory of constraints. While Hilton Smyth is hostile, Alex’s performance has been noticed and Bill Peach tells him that he is to be promoted. Alex immediately reaches out to Johan who tells him that in the future he will need to trust his own judgement.

Chapters 33 and 34 reflect a shift in focus. With the plant saved, Alex is faced with a need to generalize the process that was used so that it can be used for different problems or scaled up to the next level based on his promotion. The problem is that finding a generalized process is hard and unless Alex and his team can find a way to generalize what they have done it will be difficult to replicate across the division.

Chapters 35 and 36.  Alex and his team struggle to generalize a process that Alex can use when he begins his new job based what the whole team has learned as they turned the plant around.  The process they find is:

1. Find the bottleneck in the flow of work.
2. Decide how to “exploit” the bottleneck (make sure you maximize the flow through the bottleneck).
3. Subordinate every other step to the bottleneck (only do the work the bottleneck can accommodate).
4. Elevate the bottleneck (increase the capacity of the bottleneck).
5. If the bottleneck has been broken repeat the process (a bottleneck is broken when the step has excess capacity).

As chapter 36 concludes the team reflects that the word bottleneck should be replaced with the slightly broader concept of constraint.

Chapters 37 and 38. Alex and his team continue to struggle to answer Johan’s final question.  During their discussions Alex and his team find that the plant has 20% extra capacity.  With the understanding that the plant needs (and can) to increase production, Alex, Lou and Ralph meet with Johnny Jons to explore new sales opportunities. Jons has a pending order that the plant can accept and is above variable cost of production.

Chapters 39 and 40 wrap Alex’s journey up.  In these chapters Alex finally answers Johan’s question, “What are the techniques needed for management?” During a  struggle to apply the five focusing questions to help the entire division leads Alex to the conclusion that, to manage, a leader must have the techniques to answer these questions:

1. What to change?
2. What to change to?
3. How to cause the change?

Alex realizes he has learned to think for himself which was the outcome Johan had hoped for when he stopped providing advice.

 

Re-Read Saturday – Waiting For The Election Results

Getting Ready To Assemble

We continue to our poll to select the next book in the Re-read Saturday feature.  Last week we announced that we would run the poll for two weeks — currently Thinking Fast and Slow has run away from the pack.  If you would like to weigh-in on the which book should be next, vote in the poll below:

The Re-Read Saturday feature was inaugurated in 2015 with a re-read of The Goal.  Over the years the re-read has served many purposes. I have pursued the Re-read to help remind the readers of the blog about power concepts that are core to software development or process improvement.  In some cases, readers have written to indicate that the books in the series were new to them (a few times they have been new to me). One of the selfish reasons I have continued to invest my time in the series is to reinforce my knowledge of the concepts. Several of the entries in the series are perennially top pages visited on the blog.  I am looking forward to the next book — whichever it is. You get to choose, and unlike the guy in the grocery store yesterday, I am not leaning on the scale (those bananas did NOT weight 17 lbs!).

One more thing, I want to say thanks to the help received from many sources that help get the blog and podcast to you. The people that make this possible include Meghan Cagley, Matt Williams, Tom Cagley Sr, Steven Adams, Barb Cagley and everyone that comments publicly and privately are a few of the people I am referencing when I say ‘we’.  If you are interested in getting involved you can be part of ‘we,’ let us know at spamcastinfo@gmail.com or leave a message at 01-440-668-5717 with your thoughts or how you would like to contribute.

If you are new to our Re-read Feature and want to get a sense of how this Re-read Saturday thing works, here are the entries for The Goal:

Chapters 1 through 3

Chapters 4 through 6

Chapters 7 through 9

Chapters 10 through 12

Chapters 13 through 16.

Chapters 17 through 18

Chapters 19 through 20

Chapters 21 through 22

Chapters 23 through 24

Chapters 25 and 26

Chapters 27 and 28

Chapter 29 and 30

Chapters 31 and 32

Chapters 33 and 34

Chapters 35 and 36.

Chapters 37 and 38.

Chapters 39 and 40

 

 

A Review: The Goal: A Business Graphic Novel

 

The Goal: A Business Graphic Novel
Eliyahu M. Goldratt
As adapted by Dwight Jon Zimmerman and Dean Motter

 

The Goal, by Eliyahu M. Goldratt, is one of those books that have changed the world. I personally keep it next to my copy of Deming’s, Out of the Crisis. When one picks up a graphic adaptation of a book that you recently have re-read and you have to answer three questions:

1. Is the material true to the original author’s ideas?
2. Are the critical concepts easier to consume?
3. Do the characters translate from text to pictures well?

 

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, Part 1

This is a re-play of our the re-read of The Goal. If you don’t have a copy of the book, buy one.  If you use the link below it will support the Software Process and Measurement blog and podcast. Dead Tree Version or Kindle Version 

I am running the poll for the next book in our Re-read Saturday feature.  We are nearly done with  The Science of Successful Organizational Change!  As in past polls please vote twice or suggest a write-in candidate in the comments.  We will run the poll for two weeks.  Let the voting begin!

 

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, Part 18

I am traveling this week in India for the 13^th CSI/IFPUG International Software Measurement & Analysis Conference: “Creating Value from Measurement”. Read more about it here. In the meantime, enjoy some classic content, and I’ll be back with new blog entries next week.

 

Extreme Programming Explained, Second Edition: Week 6

This week we tackle teams in XP and why XP works based on the Theory of Constraints in Extreme Programing Explained, Second Edition (2005). The two chapters are linked by the idea that work is delivered most effectively when  teams or organizations achieve a consistent flow.

 

Re-Read Saturday: The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement. Part 18

I had intended to spend the last entry our re-read of the The Goal waxing poetic about the afterward in the book titled “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants”. Suffice it to say that the afterward does an excellent job describing the practical and theoretical basis for Goldratt and Cox’s ideas that ultimately shaped the both lean and process improvement movements since 1984.

Previous Installments:

Part 1       Part 2       Part 3      Part 4      Part 5 
Part 6       Part 7      Part 8     Part 9      Part 10
Part 11     Part 12      Part 13    Part 14    Part 15
Part 16    Part 17

The Goal is important because it introduced and explained the theory of constraints (TOC), which has proven over and over again to be critical to anyone managing a system. The TOC says that the output of any manageable system is limited by a small number of constraints and that all typical systems have at least one constraint. I recently had a discussion with a colleague that posited that not all systems have constraints. He laid out a scenario in which if you had unlimited resources and capability it would be possible to create a system without constraints. While theoretically true, it would be safe to embrace the operational hypothesis that any realistic process has at least one constraint. Understanding the constraints that affect a process or system provides anyone with an interest in process improvement with a powerful tool to deliver effective change. I do mean anyone! While the novel is set in a manufacturing environment, it is easy to identify how the ideas can apply to any setting where work follows a systematic process. For example, software development and maintenance is a process that takes business needs and transforms those needs into functionality. The readers of the Software Process and Measurement Blog should recognize that ideas in The Goal are germane to the realm of information technology.

As we have explored the book, I have shared how I have been able to apply the concepts explored to illustrate that what Goldratt and Cox wrote was applicable in the 21st century workplace. I also shared how others reacted to the book when I read it in public or talked about to people trapped next to me on numerous flights. Their reaction reminded me that my reaction was not out of the ordinary. The Goal continues to affect people years after it was first published. For example, the concept of the TOC and the Five Focusing Steps proved useful again this week. I was asked to discuss process improvement with a team comprised of tax analysts, developers and testers. Each role is highly specialized and there is little cross-specialty work-sharing. With a bit of coaching the team was able to identify their process flow and to develop a mechanism to identify their bottleneck(s) to improve their through put. Even though the Five Focusing Steps were never mentioned directly, we were able agree on an improvement approach that would find the constraint, help them exploit the constraint, subordinate the other steps in the process to the constraint, support improving the capacity of the constraint, then reiterate the analysis if the step was no longer a constraint. Had I never read The Goal, we might not have found a way to improve the process.

Perhaps re-reading the book or just carrying it around has made me overly sensitive to the application of the TOC and the other concepts in the book. However, I don’t think that was the real reason the material is useful. Others have been equally impacted, for example, Steve Tendon, author of Tame The Flow, and currently a columnist on the Software Process and Measurement Cast suggests that The Goal and the TOC has had a significant influence on his groundbreaking process improvement ideas. Bottom line, if you have not read or re-read The Goal I strongly suggest that you make the time to read the book. The Goal is an important book if you manage processes or are interested in improving how work is done in the 21st century.

I would like to hear from you! Can you tell me:

1. How has The Goal impacted how you work?
2. Have you been able to put the ideas in the book into practice?
3. What are the successes and difficulties you faced when leveraging the Theory of Constraints?
4. Do you use the Socratic method to identity and fix problems?

Re-Read Saturday Housekeeping Notes:

• Next week we begin the re-read of The Mythical Man-Month (I am buying a new copy today, so if you do not have a copy, get a copy today.  I will be reading this version of Man-Month.
• Remember that the summary of previous entries in the re-read of The Goal have been shifted to a new page.
• Also, if you don’t have a copy of The Goal, buy one and read it! If you use the link below it will support the Software Process and Measurement blog and podcast. Dead Tree Version or Kindle Version.

 

Re-Read Saturday: The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement. Part 17

 

Epiphanies, the profound and sudden flash of understanding, in any field are rare; however, when they do happen they generally transform the person that has the revelation but don’t always have an impact on those around them. Sitting on a plane from Los Angles this week as I prepared to write this entry of Re-read Saturday, the person next to me pointed at my copy of The Goal and stated “I read that book, it changed my life.” As I have re-read The Goal I have been amazed at the number people that have stopped me to make sure I knew that they had read the book, also.  In today’s entry, the penultimate entry, Alex has an epiphany and discovers the answer to Johan’s final question to Alex.

Previous Installments:

Part 1       Part 2       Part 3      Part 4      Part 5 
Part 6       Part 7      Part 8     Part 9      Part 10
Part 11     Part 12      Part 13    Part 14    Part 15
Part 16

Chapter 39.  Bill Peach asks Alex to visit him and explain why his ideas are working.  Meanwhile, back at the plant all heck breaks loose.  The new orders have stressed the system.  Random problems in front of the bottleneck used up all of the buffer in front of the bottleneck steps.  The buffer had been used to keep he throughput through the bottleneck smooth and at maximum utilization. Once the buffer had been used up, the random problems caused work to get to the bottleneck in waves, causing the bottlenecks to be alternately starved and swamped.  This problem caused the plant to fall back to overtime and expediting work.

Alex leads a session with his team (soon to be Bob’s team) to find the root cause of the problem.  In the end the problem turned out to be that the new order had reduced the excess capacity in the plant.  Without changing the buffer in front of the bottleneck, the reduction in excess capacity meant that any shock to the system would quickly impact the bottlenecks which in turn would negatively impact the plants ability to deliver.  The team decides they need to rebuild the buffers to anticipate some level of shocks, using overtime and for the time being increase the delivery lead time.  Once a course was decided upon, Bob and “his” team put it into action.  Chapter 39 marks the transition of Alex to being division manager and Bob to plant manager.

Chapter 40.  Alex, now division manager, and Lou, now Alex’s division comptroller, discuss the problems they have in front of them as they make the commute home from division headquarters. The problems at the division level are seemingly insurmountable. Examples they discuss include a delay introducing new product models (even though there is demand) so that organization does not have to mark down old product currently in inventory.  Lou and Alex decide to apply the five step process to the problem: however, both agree, that while the problem is important it not urgent enough to need to break family commitments that evening both men had.  This is unlike earlier in the book when Alex and his team would practically live in the plant.  In the vernacular of Agile, Alex has discovered a sustainable pace.

The five step process is:

1. Find the constraint

1. Exploit the constraint
2. Subordinate every other step to the constraint
3. Elevate the constraint, then
4. Repeat if the constraint has been broken

When they reconvene in the morning they struggle with how to apply the five step process to the division.  They determine the constraints at the division level are the policies that drive the wrong behavior.  Both Alex and Lou struggle with how to apply the process when faced with concepts like policies rather than something tangible like a production process when the epiphany strikes.

Johan had left Alex with the task of answering, “What are the techniques needed for management?” The struggle to apply the five step process lead Alex to the conclusion that, to manage, a leader must have the techniques to answer these questions:

1. What to change?
2. What to change to?
3. How to cause the change?

Alex realizes he has learned to think for himself which was the outcome Johan had hoped for when he stopped providing advice.

Re-Read Saturday Notes:

1. I anticipate that the re-read of The Goal will conclude next week with part 18. Our next book will be The Mythical Man-Month (I am buying a new copy today so if you do not have a copy . . . get a copy today and please use this version of Man-Month).
2. Remember that the summary of previous entries in the re-read of The Goal have been shifted to a new page (here).
3. Also, if you don’t have a copy of The Goal, buy one and read it!  If you use the link below it will support the Software Process and Measurement blog and podcast. Dead Tree Version or Kindle Version.

 

 

Re-Read Saturday: The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement. Part 16

As part of my day job I am often asked to help a team, project or department find a way to improve the value they deliver.  When dealing with knowledge work having a single, prescriptive path is rarely effective because even the most mundane product support work includes discovery and innovation. Once we have discovered a path it is important to step back and generalize the approach so that teams can use the process in a variety of scenarios.  I have found that developing a generalized approach is rarely as straight forward as changing the personal pronouns in the process to refer to another group. Regardless of this hard won realization, I still read posts and hear about people that are considering adopting best practices or procedures from other groups without tailoring.  Adopting a process, procedure or even a tool using an untailored, out of the box approach is rarely a good idea in knowledge work.  Alex and his team continue to search for a generalized approach that can be used to transform the entire division

Previous Installments:

Part 1       Part 2       Part 3      Part 4      Part 5 
Part 6       Part 7      Part 8     Part 9      Part 10
Part 11     Part 12      Part 13    Part 14    Part 15

 

Chapter 37. Alex and his team continue their daily meetings do discover the answer to the question “What are the techniques needed for management?” In Chapter 36 the team had settled on a generalized five step process which was:

1. Find the bottleneck,
2. Exploit the bottleneck,
3. Subordinate every other step to the bottleneck,
4. Elevate the bottleneck, then
5. Repeat if the bottleneck has been broken.

 

Ralph (computer guy) voices a concern that they really had not done step three.  After some discussion the team finds that the by constraining how work and material enter the process they really had subordinated all of the steps in the process to the bottlenecks.  Remember that the work and material entering the process had been constrained so the bottlenecks were 100% utilized (no more, no less).  During the discussion, Stacey (materials) recognized that the earlier red/yellow card approach the team had used to control the flow of work into the bottlenecks was still in place and was the cause of the problems she had been observing (Chapter 36). In order to deal with the problems caused by earlier red/yellow card approach and to keep everyone busy, Stacey admitted to have been releasing extra work into the process therefore building excess inventory of finished goods.  The back of the envelope calculations showed that the plant now had 20% extra capacity therefore they needed more orders to keep the plant at maximum capacity.  Alex decides go see Johnny Jons (sales manager) to see if they can prime the sales pump.

These observations led the team to the understanding that every time they recycled through the process they should have re-questioned and revalidated EVERY change they had previously made. The inertia of thinking something will work because it has in the past or because it has for someone else is often not your friend in process improvement!

Chapter 38. Jons, Alex, Lou (plant controller), Ralph and one of Jons more innovative salesmen meet at headquarters to discuss where they can come up with 10 million dollars of additional orders.  During the discussion it comes to light that Jons has a potential deal that he about to reject because the prices are well below standard margins. Alex points out that since the plant has excess capacity the real cost to produce the product is far lower than Jons is assuming (labor and overhead are already sunk costs). The plant could take the order and make a huge profit.  Alex and his team convince Jons to take the order if the potential client will commit to a one year deal.  They further sweeten the deal by committing to a quick deliveries (something other companies can’t emulate) in order to avoid starting a price war.  Jons agrees to accept the order as the potential client is well outside of the company’s standard area of distribution therefore will not impact the margins they getting on other orders.  On the way back to the plant Alex, Lout and Ralph reflect that they had just seen the same type of inertia that the team discovered the previous day in their process improvement approach and that Alex’s new role in changing the whole division will need to address even more organizational inertia.

Later Alex and Julie (wife) reflect that the key to the management practices Alex is searching for lie in the application of the scientific method.  Instead of collecting a lot of data and making inferences, the approach Johan had taken begins with a single observation, develops a hypothesis, leverages if-then relationships and then tests those relationships.  Alex searches popular scientific books for inspiration to his management questions.  When they discuss the topic again, Julie, who has continued to read the Socratic Dialogs, points out that they follow the same if-then pattern that Alex has described as Johan’s approach.

Re-Read Saturday Notes:

1. I anticipate that the re-read of The Goal will conclude in two weeks with part 18. Our next book will be The Mythical Man-Month (I am buying a new copy today so if you do not have a copy . . . get a copy today and please use this Man-Month).
2. Remember that the summary of previous entries in the re-read of The Goal have been shifted to a new page (here).
3. Also, if you don’t have a copy of the book, buy one.  If you use the link below it will support the Software Process and Measurement blog and podcast. Dead Tree Version or Kindle Version

 

 

Re-Read Saturday: The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement. Part 15

The idea of continuous process has been part of the business landscape in one form or another since the beginning of time. The leaders of the Total Quality Movement of the late 1980s, such as Juran, Deming and Crosby, certainly hammered the need for continuous change home as US business refocused on product quality. Unfortunately in many cases, the message suffered from two interpretation problems. The first was that process improvement was implemented as a focus on controlling and reducing costs, rather than on increasing process throughput. Secondly, many process improvement programs focused on the one big change rather than finding a generalized process that could continuously generate improvement. Finding and implementing a repeatable process requires culture change and long-term thinking, which are hard to implement. Paraphrasing W. Edwards Deming, we will need constancy of purpose to make continuous process improvement payoff, but with that constancy of purpose we won’t need a single overwhelming change. Alex and his team are recognizing that finding a generalized, repeatable process is not easy.

Part 1       Part 2       Part 3      Part 4      Part 5 
Part 6       Part 7       Part 8     Part 9      Part 10
Part 11     Part 12      Part 13    Part 14

Chapter 35. Alex and his team reconvene thier meeting to discover the answer to question “What are the techniques needed for management?”  The team spends the time trying to determine how to reveal the the essential steps that are needed to make change happen in a repeatable fashion.  Goldblatt describes this concept as the “intrinsic order.” This chapter reflects a struggle to find a generalized order or approach that can be used as management structure changes in the plant or to generate change in the other plants that will be reporting to Alex. The meeting ends in frustration but with an agreement to try again the next day.

Chapter 36. Stacey, the material manager, reframes the conversation by asking, “What is our goal as a manager?” In the past the managers had been charged with generating ongoing process improvements. Organizationally, formal process improvement projects were focused on reducing operating expenses, whereas Johan had led Alex and his team to change their focus to throughput. Reducing operating expense went from the most important goal to a distant third place behind throughput and inventory control. This refocusing was tied directly to the goal of increasing profit by increasing plant revenue.

By refocusing the discussion on the goal of process improvement in the plant, the team is able to find a generalized process. It is:

1. Find the bottleneck in the flow of work.
2. Decide how to “exploit” the bottleneck (make sure you maximize the flow through the bottleneck).
3. Subordinate every other step to the bottleneck (only do the work the bottleneck can accommodate).
4. Elevate the bottleneck (increase the capacity of the bottleneck).
5. If the bottleneck has been broken repeat the process (a bottleneck is broken when the step has excess capacity).

As a test, Alex and his team cycle through the changes they made. Each change Alex and his team made to the flow of work, changed the nature of the bottleneck, which meant that the team had to cycle through the process again and again to continue to generate improvements. Each change Alex and his team had made used the same process which proved that had found a repeatable process to generate continuous process improvement. Before the team breaks up, it is suggested that the word bottleneck can be re-stated as constraint. A constraint a slightly broader concept and represents an obstacle to an organization achieving its goal whereas a bottleneck refers to a resource with capacity equal or less than the demand placed on it.  In this context not having enough sales orders to maximize the flow through plant would represent a constraint not a bottleneck.

Re-Read Saturday Notes:

1. I anticipate that the re-read of The Goal will conclude in three weeks with part 18. Our next book will be The Mythical Man-Month (if you do not have a copy . . . get a copy today).
2. Remember that the summary of previous entries in the re-read of The Goalhave been shifted to a new page (here).
3. Also, if you don’t have a copy of the book, buy one.  If you use the link below it will support the Software Process and Measurement blog and podcast. Dead Tree Versionor Kindle Version