"How Constraints Management Enhances Lean and Six Sigma"
January/February 2006, pp. 42-47
The author of this article states that although there have been some dramatic successes, many Lean manufacturing efforts and Six Sigma efforts have had trouble staying on track. A recent survey by the Lean Enterprise Institute found that 36 percent of lean practitioners saw "backsliding into old ways of working" as a major obstacle. Also, many Lean or Six Sigma implementers eventually have too many projects, and prioritization and diminishing returns become problems. In addition, local optimization may not actually optimize the entire organizational system.
Constraints management is proposed to address these issues. Constraints management argues that the greatest improvements can be obtained by identifying and addressing the weakest links to overall system performance optimization. In most cases, this means the emphasis should first be on increasing throughput, then on reducing inventory, and then on reducing operating expense: "Constraints management is a systems-based way of thinking to determine where the organization should focus its efforts. In short, constraints management can be used to focus on the right problem and the right situation at the right time in the right place. Lean and Six Sigma tools and techniques can then be applied where they will drive the most benefit-eliminating waste and reducing variation at the constraint."
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