The one idea to remember
Every shop has one bottleneck.
Find it. Everything else is theater.
The output of your entire shop is set by one step. Speeding up anything else doesn't move the troop forward, it just creates inventory.
From 'The Goal' · Eliyahu Goldratt
Your shop runs at the speed of its slowest step.
Goldratt's boy-scout hike: no matter how fast the others walk, the troop arrives at the speed of Herbie, the slowest kid in line.
The lesson
Speeding up anyone but Herbie doesn't move the troop. It just makes the gap bigger.
Two kinds of bottlenecks
Some you can see. Others sit in an inbox.
On the shop floor, the bottleneck announces itself. Material stacks up in front of it. In the office, the same constraint exists, but you can't see it from across the room.
On the shop floor · Visible
You can walk to it.
- •Cabinets stacked at the same station
- •A spray booth that's never empty
- •Assembly waiting on CNC parts
- •Material piled because the next step can't keep up
In the office · Invisible
Nothing piles up. Except time.
- •Drawings waiting on a single approver
- •Change orders stuck in someone's inbox
- •Submittals queued behind the same desk
- •A PM whose to-do list is the real constraint
The fix
INNERGY's bottleneck report digitally surfaces where work is piling up, on the floor and in the office. You don't have to walk the shop to find it.
Does this sound like your shop?
“Everyone's busy but we're still behind.”
Work is everywhere. Output isn't.
“We keep missing delivery dates.”
The root cause stays invisible.
“We bought new equipment and it didn't help.”
Capital in the wrong step.
“Our profit doesn't match our revenue.”
High revenue, thin margins.
“We're growing but it's getting harder.”
Scaling feels like a trap.
“I'm always fighting fires.”
Reactive mode is exhausting and expensive.
Do these three things Monday morning
From a panelist's shop
See where your work is really piling up
See how the bottleneck report works in INNERGY.
The only tool built for custom woodworking that shows the bottleneck, on the floor and in the office. Tell us a little about your shop and we'll set up a walk-through.