The five focusing steps

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The five focusing steps

The theory of constraints is based on the idea that that the rate of goal achievement by a goal-oriented system is limited by at least one constraint.

The view point by reductio ad absurdum is that if there were no constraints present, then there would be nothing to stop the system from attaining higher throughput and that the throughput would be infinite which is not possible in a real time basis. It is only through increasing the flow through a constraint can the overall throughput be greater.

If the goal of the system has been defined as well as its measurements are fixed, the steps are:

1. Identify the system’s constraint(s).
2. Decide how to exploit the system’s constraint(s).
3. Subordinate everything else to the above decision(s).
4. Elevate the system’s constraint(s).
5. 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.

The purpose of every organization is to create revenue, the measurement for revenue are given by throughput accounting as: throughput, inventory, and operating expenses.

The five focusing steps are present to make sure that the ongoing improvement efforts are focused on the organization’s constraint(s). In the TOC, this is defined as the process of ongoing improvement (POOGI).

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