Reflections on Lean Philosophy and the Theory of Constraints
Lean manufacturing and the theory of constraints (TOC) may well go hand in hand. Lean manufacturing makes value flow through the factory, for instance, by trying to separate value streams so that they use dedicated resources sized to the same capacity (even if kanbans do not optimize the constraints). TOC takes this idea further by recognizing critical bottlenecks, which are the most overloaded resources that determine the maximum flow rate of production, and making value flow through these bottlenecks. It does this by allowing manufacturers to optimize production through their critical bottleneck in order to meet market demand.
This is Part Seven of a multipart note entitled Lean Manufacturing: A Primer.
For these reasons, a TOC production planning solution might be appropriate for manufacturers with make-to-order (MTO) environments, where demand is volatile and where different product lines share the same resources, resulting in bottlenecks. It could also be used for mixed mode manufacturing. In fact, by offering daily production planning for customer orders received, TOC enables business performance improvements in such environments in terms of lead time or cycle time reductions, increased throughput and sales, service level improvements, and inventory level reductions.
Thus, despite the fact that many people immediately invoke a vision of kanban when lean manufacturing is mentioned, TOC supports a lean philosophy where there is a complex environment. However, where lean planning focuses on the flow and the takt of the flow through the factory, TOC optimizes the flow through the factory by focusing on planning the takt of the flow through the bottleneck. TOC is also consistent with lean manufacturing in that both kanban, which is a part of the just-in-time (JIT) philosophy, and drum-buffer-rope (DBR), which is a part of the TOC philosophy, represent synchronized and pull signal production control approaches.
This is Part Seven of a multipart note entitled Lean Manufacturing: A Primer.
For these reasons, a TOC production planning solution might be appropriate for manufacturers with make-to-order (MTO) environments, where demand is volatile and where different product lines share the same resources, resulting in bottlenecks. It could also be used for mixed mode manufacturing. In fact, by offering daily production planning for customer orders received, TOC enables business performance improvements in such environments in terms of lead time or cycle time reductions, increased throughput and sales, service level improvements, and inventory level reductions.
Thus, despite the fact that many people immediately invoke a vision of kanban when lean manufacturing is mentioned, TOC supports a lean philosophy where there is a complex environment. However, where lean planning focuses on the flow and the takt of the flow through the factory, TOC optimizes the flow through the factory by focusing on planning the takt of the flow through the bottleneck. TOC is also consistent with lean manufacturing in that both kanban, which is a part of the just-in-time (JIT) philosophy, and drum-buffer-rope (DBR), which is a part of the TOC philosophy, represent synchronized and pull signal production control approaches.
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