About this Presentation
In high-variability manufacturing, standard tools like Takt Time often collapse under complexity—especially when every product is different. While TOC typically guides us to establish the constraint early in the process, what happens when the real bottleneck reveals itself at the very end? This session explores a counter-intuitive but highly practical application of TOC logic: managing operations around a downstream constraint. You’ll see how aligning an entire business to a delivery-based drum created faster flow, greater clarity, and dramatic reductions in lead time—without adding capacity.
What Will You Learn
To help you get the most value from this session, we’ve highlighted a few key points. These takeaways capture the main ideas and practical insights from the presentation, making it easier for you to review, reflect, and apply what you’ve learned.
1.Why traditional TOC and takt assumptions can be difficult to apply in high-variability environments-Explore situations where product mix and variability make it hard to define or stabilize an early-process constraint. 2.How a downstream constraint can be used as a planning and coordination reference-Learn how treating delivery or late-stage capacity as the drum can help improve alignment and day-to-day decision-making without structural changes.
Practical considerations for rethinking constraints and synchronization -Take away a framework for questioning existing assumptions and improving cross-department coordination when the constraint does not behave as expected.
Instructor(s)
Michael Krajerski
Michael Krajewski is a manufacturing entrepreneur, author, and consultant passionate about transforming businesses through the Theory of Constraints. He is the co-author of Stand Back to Grow, a business novel written in collaboration with Jeff Cox, the legendary co-author of The Goal. While building what became a £10 million structural steel business in the UK, Michael experienced first-hand the limitations of traditional Lean tools in a high-variability, make-to-order environment. This led to a breakthrough implementation of TOC, where he restructured operations around a logistics-based constraint, ultimately reducing lead times from three weeks to just three days. Today, through his company Manufacturing Mastery, Michael helps other manufacturing businesses implement TOC thinking to unlock flow, profitability, and sustainable growth. He is also actively involved in acquiring and turning around underperforming companies by applying the same principles that drove his own success.