From The Goal [audiobook]: How to double thru-put – an analysis.

Posted: July 25, 2017

I just spent the last nine hours ringing my brain out. Every so often (when needed) I play hero. This feels like a hero moment. It's not. I actually under preformed because I was mugged. They took off with my time and focus. That is something to pay attention to. That is not sustainable. And it is definitely not scale-able. I am asking myself:

What just happened?

The Goal audiobook is playing in my head, “How can we double throughput?” I have a theoretical throughput capacity. Individual heroism is great, but it doesn't scale. Neither do muggings. Like David Bowie says, "we can be heroes, just for one day."

For data to be useful track it consistently. Apples to apples indicates units as well. You can't track crates of apples if everyone else is tracking the actual apples. Data can identify economies of scale. Data can identify new opportunities but it helps if it is clean.

The Goal audiobook is still playing in my head, "What can we do to double current weekly throughput in the future?"

Load balance the week. If Mondays are particularly heavy ask yourself, what can wait for Tuesday? What can get shipped early? The Friday before? Shipping early is a big deal!

How do you double throughput? Double you ability to ship on any given Monday by load balancing to spread delivery across days. Track data consistently. Don't rely on heroes.If you want to better understand the principles I'm using to construct these thoughts check out the Goal audiobook.