For anyone who is working, I think it’s probably safe to say we are always on the lookout for a book and article or even some sage words that are going to help us do our job easier, better, faster, cheaper. (And if you’re clever, in that order)
There are so many management philosophies I doubt we could count them all. I believe the two prevailing ones in our industry are “Lean manufacturing (based on the Toyota production system) and Theory of Constraints (referred to as TOC)”. Now if you talk to your lean gurus they will probably say TOC is ok but all you really need is lean. And the TOC zealots say the same thing just with the words switched around.
I have been studying the Toyota production system a.k.a. lean, for about 15 years when I discovered TOC. I absolutely fell in love with the work of Eli Goldratt author of the book the goal and father of TOC. I dedicated several years to learning everything I could about his work.
Now, I suspect that I’m not alone here, having a love affair with two manufacturing mistresses. but unlike in real life they actually work better when they know about each other!
Take any manufacturing principal and trying to boil it down to one word. This would be a challenge for any of us, so fortunately our physicist friend Dr. Goldratt has done the work for us. That word is FOCUS.
Perhaps that word is not the exciting breakthrough you were hoping for, probably because deep down you already knew it.
Let’s examine this from the lean/TOC view point. What is “Lean?” The definition is probably something like this: the elimination of waste through continuous improvement. And TOC? Probably: find the bottleneck & destroy it.
A purely lean company It’s likely to have a great culture, engaged employees, and everybody participating in continuous improvement. I haven’t yet seen another philosophy have such a wonder impact on a workplace. A strict TOC manufacturer is focussed on exploiting the bottleneck wherever and whenever it appears. Dramatically increasing the throughput of the company.
The downside to the lean approach is you only see a financial return when and if one of the continuous improvement efforts touches the bottleneck. This is a little known fact in the Lean world. But the reality is a minute saved on a non-bottleneck operation is a mirage. And in the TOC world, they are keenly aware of this. The downside to the TOC approach is you may be missing out on the joy of having amazing people and a wonderful lean culture.
Circling back, it’s easy to see how we can mix these two powerful concepts. If we use the five focussing steps of TOC and identify our constraint.
- Focusing Step #1: IDENTIFY the system’s constraint.
- Focusing Step #2: EXPLOIT the constraint.
- Focusing Step #3: SUBORDINATE everything else to the constraint.
- Focusing Step #4: ELEVATE the constraint.
- Focusing Step #5: PREVENT INERTIA from becoming the constraint!
THEN we implement all of our amazing lean tools and techniques on the Constraint. Talk about a powerhouse combination. TOC becomes the focusing mechanism for our Lean activity. And by no means do we stop all of our Lean Maniacs for making improvements everywhere they go, we simply have to make sure that one of them is always working on the bottleneck. This keeps our workforce happy and engaged and the management satisfied because throughput is going up.
So before you dismiss the simplicity of our word FOCUS. What is a lean Kaizen event? Simply put, a team of people focussed on solving a specific problem. Even a daily improvement is a person(s) focused on fixing what bugs them.
And to really appreciate focus let’s examine the Opposite word. Could be something along the lines of: Distracted.
So if the secret to success is focus, the first step in that direction maybe to ask yourself what I’m doing in direct contradiction to this? Am I running around all day putting out many fires, How many projects do you have on the go? Perhaps you struggle delegating and your to do list just keeps getting longer and longer. Another key indication is you simply don’t have time to slow down and make any improvements yourself. I don’t know many owners / managers that are not guilty of this to some degree, after all, it’s our jobs to be the impatient visionary!
I know many many very successful companies that are “Lean” and I know some that are “TOC” based and anyone who has worked with us will be a bit of both. Perhaps that’s you too! Regardless of whether you’re one, the other or both, you cannot avoid bumping into the need to focus.
The key is where to focus when, followed closely by how. If you’re the leader of an organization should you be focused on company culture? Or growing sales? Or increasing productivity? The reality is, you have to do all 3. But trying to accomplish that simultaneously is a recipe for disaster. Pick the one you think you most need, focus on it. When you make satisfactory gains, then change gears. Here are some of my favourite books to help you with each.
Culture:…… “The Advantage” by Patric Lencioni
Sales:……… “Ultimate Selling Machine” by Chet Holmes
Throughput: “The Goal” by Eli Goldratt
Lean…….:“2 Second Lean” by Paul Akers
Here is a hot tip for all those Lean / TOC maniacs that really helped me.
“Think in TOC, speak in Lean”. Everyone who has been trying to explain TOC to people just had an “AH HA moment”, and if that doesn’t make sense to you, I’d be happy to explain, I’m just a phone call away.
Click on this link https://youtu.be/5HStf-XbsSo for an amazing lecture on TOC for Eli Goldratt himself, but settle in, its 2 hours of pure gold !