TOCICO

Rami Saajoranta shows how Fingrid, Finland's transmission system operator, applied Goldratt's Rules of Flow to work queues that had grown far faster than the organization's planning processes. The external context is substantial: Fingrid reports 14,900 kilometres of transmission lines, 76.3 TWh of transmitted electricity in 2025, and a 2026-2035 grid investment plan of EUR 5.2 billion. At the same time, connection enquiries expanded dramatically. In the transmission grid planning process, enquiries grew from 22 in 2019 to more than 900 per year from 2023 onward, leaving a backlog of about 5,000 enquiries and creating a major workload for planning engineers. The intervention was deliberately process-focused: define the transmission grid planning process, make work queues visible, establish common management practices, and apply the Rules of Flow. The deck shows triage by customer managers acting as gatekeepers, full-kit requirements so work does not begin without the necessary information, standardized work-item templates to reduce rework, and explicit WIP limits for planners - no more than three active studies and no more than eight workdays of total WIP per engineer. These rules made utilization and multitasking visible. Saajoranta reports that utilization above 80% and more than three active studies per engineer lead to delays, while improved visibility makes workload management more proactive and allows existing resources to handle a significantly higher workload. The constant firefighting mindset has largely disappeared, although refreshers are needed because people can revert to old habits. A second case examines Fingrid's Grid Crossing Statement process, which receives about 600 requests per year. Applicants cannot proceed with nearby cable, fibre, road or infrastructure work until the statement is issued. Although touch time was only about nine hours to 2.5 working days, the queue had grown to eight months. The revised process used full-kit checks, standardized responses, triage, outsourcing for selected requests, and AI for a large share of requests. The deck reports lead time falling from eight months to four months. Saajoranta closes by mapping the practical application of the Rules of Flow: triage reduces demand on constraint resources; full-kit protects them from incomplete work; lower multitasking improves throughput, lead time and quality; synchronization improves information flow; standardization stabilizes quality and enables AI; and global-optimum thinking directs improvement toward the few points that matter most for flow. His conclusion is that the Rules of Flow provide a common, systematic language for making meaningful improvements quickly.