[...]... Of ces You save the best for last, and we go on a lengthy tour of Manufacturing You point out the Press Area, the Machine Shop, the Lathes, the Robots, the Plating Line and Assembly Area, the Rework Area, and the Shipping and Receiving Docks Do you notice the functional orientation of the tour? I’ve been led on well over a thousand imaginary and real tours They are almost always functionally oriented Imagine... components of any organization are defined by TOC as follows*: • Thr oughput : the rate at which the system generates money through sales This is the term used to describe “value added.” • Inventory: all of the money the system spends on things it intends to turn into throughput This is the money we’re paying our vendors for the inputs into our system • Operating expense: all of the money the system spends to. .. was the capacity of the Software Design Engineers Finding Software Design Engineering capacity was the key to this company’s ability to increase its new product speed -to- market, and also to the company’s ability to make improvements to existing products (in terms of manufacturability and marketability) Here was the key to this company making more money now as well as in the future Exacerbating the. .. issue was the fact that these types of engineers are very hard to come by, at least in this part of the country Companies steal engineers from each other and offer large rewards for referrals If you are a software design engineer, it is not difficult for you to go from company to company and, over a year’s time, raise your salary and benefits by 25% Decide how to exploit the system’s constraint The company... off-load some of his or her work early on, which increases the capacity to do the more difficult and specialized work It also helps the company to develop the capacity it needs in spite of the external constraints (availability of degreed engineers) At the same time, the program will help the company’s people to grow, which makes a very positive impact on the company’s culture and loyalty of its employees... Over the years, the constraint of the Jennifer-as-student system has shifted At times, it’s been external — the degree to which the school programs and curriculum offered enough of a challenge to keep her interested At other times, it has shifted back to Jennifer, in the form of homework-study time As she grows, though, the old solutions don’t work, and our challenge as a family is to continue to find... product or thousands, the flow looks the same over space and time, as shown in Figure 1.1 The inside of the “box” represents your organization The inputs to your organization’s process are the raw materials, or whatever your organization acquires from outside itself Your organization takes these inputs and transforms them into the products or services that it provides to its customers These products... long When we’re viewing the organization from the 40,000' perspective, we begin to consider it as an interdependent group of resources, linked by the processes they perform to turn inventory into throughput Just as the strength of a chain is governed by its weakest link, so is the str ength of an organization of inter dependent resources * Goldratt, Eliyahu M and Cox, Jeff, The Goal., 2nd rev ed.,... 20 Step 3 Step 4 Thinking for a Change lazy, goofing off, or playing hooky They were working, and they were working very hard In fact, Engineering was the most highly stressed, overworked area of the company At this point, we asked, “What do the software design engineers do that only they can do, and what do they do that others can do?” Some of the tasks involved in the software design engineering job... engineers in the region, the company is putting in place an apprenticeship program In this program, an interested nonengineer will be partnered with an engineer Over the course of a couple of years, the apprentice will be able to acquire the software design engineering skills that the company needs through a combination of mentoring by the engineer and some courses This will enable the engineer to off-load . on a lengthy tour of Manufacturing. You point out the Press Area, the Machine Shop, the Lathes, the Robots, the Plating Line and Assembly Area, the Rework Area, and the Shipping and Receiving. many of these companies went out of business. Their paradigm constraints prevented them from seeing this until it was too late to change the policies that would have enabled them to expand their. associated with the Goldratt Institute. She is considered one of the best in the world concerning the teaching and application of these tools and is a sought- after public speaker on TOC and its applications,