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Constraints are useful.
No system performs without constraints. We either know where the real system constraint is or we ignore this important question. In case of companies which don’t take efforts to identify the real system constraint, various functions and teams intuitively start working on what is visible to them – the local constraints.
We often see multiple initiatives and improvement efforts running in such companies. While the employees are overwhelmed by these programs, we don’t see a substantial improvement in company’s overall performance.
It’s crucial to spend efforts to identify where the real system constraint is. We should then embrace it, as it represents the current reality. Since management attention is always scarce, most of it should then be focused on exploiting this constraint to the best we can. Every improvement at this system constraint, whether big or small, has a magnifying effect on the system performance.
Knowing the real constraint is indeed extremely useful.