Apply the five focusing steps to identify, exploit, subordinate, elevate and re-identify a production constraint.
Quality & Productivity
Theory of Constraints and Bottleneck Management for Production Throughput
Applies the five focusing steps, drum-buffer-rope scheduling and throughput accounting to identify and manage the constraint limiting production output.
🗓️Duration5 training days
📚Content4 modules · 8 sessions
🎓On completionAccredited attendance certificate
About the programme
Course Overview
Production managers frequently invest in efficiency improvements across an entire plant only to find that overall throughput barely moves, because the improvements were made everywhere except at the one resource actually limiting output. This course applies the theory of constraints to production environments, working through the five focusing steps to identify, exploit, subordinate and, where justified, elevate the system's constraint. Participants build a drum-buffer-rope schedule and a buffer management system that protects constraint throughput from upstream variability, and learn to apply throughput accounting to product mix, investment and pricing decisions in place of traditional cost allocation logic, which can lead to the wrong conclusion when a constraint is present. The course also introduces thinking process tools, including the current reality tree and evaporating cloud, for diagnosing the core problem behind multiple symptoms. Participants leave with a constraint identification method, a buffer management design and a throughput accounting model they can apply to their own production system.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Build a drum-buffer-rope schedule that protects the constraint's throughput from upstream variability.
Calculate throughput, inventory and operating expense using throughput accounting rather than traditional cost accounting logic.
Design a buffer management system that signals when a constraint is at risk of starving or a shipping buffer is at risk.
Distinguish a true capacity-constrained resource from a resource that merely appears busy under current scheduling rules.
Apply thinking process tools, such as the current reality tree, to diagnose the core problem behind multiple symptoms.
Integrate theory of constraints with existing Lean or statistical variation-reduction initiatives without duplicating improvement effort.
Who Should Attend
Production and operations managers responsible for manufacturing throughput.
Industrial and process engineers investigating recurring capacity constraints.
Continuous improvement practitioners extending Lean or statistical variation-reduction methods with constraint-based tools.
Supply chain planners scheduling constrained resources across a production network.
Plant managers under pressure to increase output without additional capital investment.
Finance business partners evaluating throughput accounting alongside traditional cost measures.
Course Modules
Select any module to see its sessions and points.
01Identifying the System Constraint
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Applying the Five Focusing Steps
- Identify the single resource or policy currently limiting the system's throughput using capacity and flow data.
- Exploit the identified constraint by removing idle time, changeovers and quality losses at that specific resource.
- Subordinate every non-constraint resource's schedule to the pace and needs of the identified constraint.
- Recognise when elevating the constraint, through added capacity or investment, is justified after exploitation is exhausted.
Session 2Distinguishing True Constraints from Busy Resources
- Differentiate a capacity-constrained resource operating near its limit from one that is simply poorly scheduled.
- Analyse work-in-progress accumulation points on the shop floor to locate the physical constraint empirically.
- Test candidate constraints against demand data to confirm the resource genuinely limits system-wide throughput.
- Recognise policy constraints, such as batch size rules or shift patterns, that behave like physical bottlenecks.
02Drum-Buffer-Rope Scheduling and Buffer Management
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Building a Drum-Buffer-Rope Schedule
- Set the drum schedule at the constraint that paces the release of work into the rest of the system.
- Size a time buffer ahead of the constraint that protects its throughput from upstream variability and breakdowns.
- Establish the rope mechanism that releases raw material into the system at the rate the constraint can consume it.
- Size a shipping buffer that protects due-date performance from variability occurring after the constraint.
Session 2Managing Buffers to Detect and Respond to Risk
- Divide each buffer into zones, such as red, yellow and green, to trigger different management responses.
- Use buffer penetration data to prioritise expediting decisions rather than relying on individual job urgency.
- Distinguish a buffer breach caused by a genuine disruption from one caused by inaccurate buffer sizing.
- Review buffer performance data periodically to resize buffers as system variability or demand changes.
03Throughput Accounting for Decision Making
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Calculating Throughput, Inventory and Operating Expense
- Calculate throughput as revenue minus totally variable cost rather than allocating overhead per unit produced.
- Distinguish inventory and operating expense definitions under throughput accounting from traditional cost accounting categories.
- Rank product mix decisions by throughput per unit of the constraint's time rather than by unit cost or margin.
- Recalculate a proposed cost-cutting initiative's actual system impact using throughput accounting rather than local efficiency.
Session 2Applying Throughput Logic to Investment and Pricing Decisions
- Evaluate a capital investment proposal by its effect on system throughput rather than isolated equipment utilisation.
- Assess whether local efficiency improvements at a non-constraint resource create genuine system-wide benefit.
- Price an incremental order using throughput accounting to reveal decisions that traditional costing would reject incorrectly.
- Present throughput accounting results to a finance team unfamiliar with the method in terms that connect to reported profit.
04Thinking Processes and Sustaining Improvement
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Using Thinking Process Tools
- Build a current reality tree that traces multiple operational symptoms back to one or two core underlying problems.
- Construct an evaporating cloud to surface the hidden assumptions behind an apparent trade-off or conflict.
- Develop a future reality tree that tests whether a proposed change resolves the core problem without new negative effects.
- Use a prerequisite tree to sequence the obstacles that must be overcome to implement a chosen solution.
Session 2Sustaining a Process of Ongoing Improvement
- Re-identify the constraint after an elevation action, recognising that a resolved constraint moves elsewhere in the system.
- Integrate constraint-based scheduling logic with existing Lean pull systems without conflicting control signals.
- Align statistical variation-reduction project selection with the current system constraint to focus statistical effort where it affects throughput.
- Establish a recurring constraint review cadence so the organisation continuously identifies and manages its next constraint.
What the participant receives
4 course modules
A structured syllabus
8 training sessions
across 5 days
32 detailed points
Applied, detailed content
Accredited attendance certificate
On completing the programme
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