Bottlenecks
A system moves at the speed of its constraint
A bottleneck is the single constraint that sets throughput for an entire system, however much spare capacity exists everywhere else.
Working the bottleneck means improving a system by:
- Locating the stage where work accumulates and waits.
- Directing effort there, and only there.
- Finding the constraint again after it moves, because relieving one creates another.
Improvement anywhere but the constraint is an illusion of progress.