Situation: A manufacturing company had grown from a small specialty shop to a much larger operation. The sudden growth spurt left the company with some serious management issues and a near-terminal situation. Because of a management void, the plant was losing ground quickly and falling more than 12 weeks behind in production jepordizing their customer loyalty.

Solution: The founder of the company was introduced to the Theory of Constraints that enabled him to see that some quick changes were necessary if the company was to survive. A master flow analysis showed that the plant had 100 hours of capacity and 800 hours of accepted work. It also became obvious that projects had more than a dozen dependencies, which significantly slowed production. Two new shifts were implemented to increase capacity, a master schedule board was implemented so all employees could see the status of projects, who was getting backed up and who could be deployed to help. Processes were optimized and employees empowered to work more efficiently.

Result: Product velocity improved 350 percent. Production capacity was quadrupled and earnings increased by a factor of ten, year-over-year. The company was able to quickly regain its repuation in the marketplace without having to make long term capital investments.