Thinking method · Goldratt, The Goal
Find the constraint first
Locating the one point that limits the whole, before improving anything. When real effort is producing no visible result.
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Locating the one point that limits the whole, before improving anything.
The steps
- Draw the whole flow, from start to finished result.
- Find where work piles up, or where everything waits.
- Decide: is that the constraint, or a symptom of one further upstream?
- Improve only the constraint. Measure whether the whole moved.
- When it stops being the constraint, find the new one — there always is one.
When to use it
When real effort is producing no visible result.
What it will not do
Improving anything that is not the constraint changes nothing, however hard it was.
Where it comes from: Goldratt, The Goal. Described in our own words.
The module it belongs to
- Systems Thinking — Understand connections and consequences