Where is the bottleneck?

Define system

First, we determine the area we want to examine. Should it be the entire company? Or just one department such as production or sales? This boundary defines the bottleneck. There are different bottlenecks in the entire company than in individual departments.

Set up hypotheses

We make assumptions as to why the workflow is not running optimally. In the next step, these working hypotheses help us to identify more quickly whether it is actually the suspected weak points that are causing the problem – or whether there are completely different, hidden bottlenecks. It often happens that entrepreneurs believe they have a bottleneck in the project world. But it’s not there at all, it’s in an upstream department. The goal, of course, is to focus on the right place as quickly as possible.

Identify bottleneck

Does the bottleneck really exist at the assumed location? If the bottleneck is in a department, then this is often easy to verify. This is because the tasks then pile up in this department. More tasks come in than can be processed. It is somewhat trickier to expose bottlenecks in product development. Is it the amount of tasks, DevOps, or the software architecture? “The bottleneck is rarely where you think it is,” knows bottleneck management consultant Wolfram Müller. “Through my experience, I have a good sense of where a bottleneck might lie. After all, it is not always recognizable at first glance.”

Develop solution ideas

Once the bottleneck is identified, the next step is to create a list of ways to relieve the bottleneck. It makes sense to involve the affected employees in this step. After all, the people around a bottleneck are often the ones who suffer. When the bottleneck is resolved and workflow is restored, they breathe a sigh of relief. “Output or not. At the end of the day, bottleneck optimization is always about the people. When they can work more relaxed and joyfully again and are no longer under so much pressure, everyone has gained the most in the long term,” Wolfram Müller knows.

The Theory of Constraints has also developed lightweight and flexible controls over the last 30 years. They sustainably ensure that too much work is never started and that everyone knows what is currently urgent, so that the bottleneck can always work optimally. There are solutions for agile working, for classic project management and of course all sensible combinations.