I ran the Bottleneck Game again last evening, this time at XP-Manchester. During the course of 3 rounds our brave little factory team achieved remarkable improvements in throughput and overall cost-effectiveness:
| Round | Products | Cost | WIP | Investment |
| #1 | 4 | 6 | 27 | 31 |
| #2 | 10 | 6 | 8 | 18 |
| #3 | 14 | 6 | 2 | 16 |
That’s more than tripled throughput (products accepted by the customer) for about half the investment in raw materials, and with significant reduction in WIP. Well done to the “factory workers” and the “consultants”!
For those who were there last night and want a bit more background reading, here are some links:
- The best introduction to the Theory of Constraints is the novel The Goal by Eli Goldratt
- For more on the overall TOC philosophy, read the novel The Choice, also by Eli Goldratt
- To see how TOC applies to supply chains and retail, Goldratt’s novel Isn’t It Obvious?
- More background and info on the Bottleneck Game
If you would like me to come to your workplace and run this workshop, contact me using any of the means listed on http://myonepage.com/kevinrutherford
