The Goal

At the next meeting, Ralph realizes that something is wrong with the list they have compiled. If the list is true, then the team should have seen a huge change in the way non-bottlenecks operated, but they didn’t. Stacey mentions what they did change, namely the red and green tag system, and then sees the problem. The only place the red and green tags matter is at a non-bottleneck machine, where forcing workers to prioritize the red tags leads to delays of green tag parts to other assembly lines. They catch it too late, and then make those green tags into red tags. Eliminating the tags entirely and asking workers to work on a first come first serve basis will put parts “in the right sequence” (305).

Their second constraint is shipping. Now that they have begun shipping orders so early, the constraint “is no longer in production but in the market” (306). They simply don’t have enough orders. Alex decides that he will ask Johnny Jons for more orders. They change their process list to include this:

WARNING!!! If in the previous steps a constraint has been broken, go back to step 1, but do not allow INERTIA to cause a system’s constraint.