V A professor trying to become tenured

V A business school's struggle to improve

enrolment
V Applying the Theory of Constraints to project
management
V 2 at we wa t to o is: V 2 at we o is:
6 Mi is rojects o ti e 6 {a a e to fi is tasks
6 Mi is rojects o et o ti e
6 Mi is rojects o sco e 6 {eas re reso rces o
6 S orte roject lea tilisatio
ti es 6 Detaile risk a alyses
6 Mi is ore rojects 6 Detaile s ecificatio s
V Oudget overruns

V Time overruns

V Compromising the content

V Minancially, overruns are much less important than the

overdue

´Companies are so immersed in the mentality of saving

money that they forget that the hole intention of a
project is not to save money but to ma e moneyµ(62)
V Jroduct Life Span ² 6 months
V Jroduct evelopment Time ² 2 years

V Mission to cut development time

V Motivated by giving 10,000 shares
V ©eadline Effect (Student·s Syndrome)
V Multi Tas ing
 Synchronizing
 High Set-Up Times
V ©elays Accumulate, Advances ©on·t
V End of the month syndrome

 



 



 



 


 
V Jrojects seem to be longer than necessary
V Jar inson·s La : or expands to fill the time available
V Tas s seldom finish early
V ´Student syndromeµ prevails: 2/3 of or done in last 1/3
of time








V A critical path for a project is longest chain of dependent
steps.
V The critical path determines the time it ill ta e to finish the
project.
V ©elay in critical path  ©elay in project completion
 { 
  

 
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V Late start-
D Jostpone the investment until necessary
D No time slac
D Any delay on that path  delay in the project
D Mocusing not possible

V Early start-
Too many things at a time  tend to lose focus

V Mocusing is lost
V Thin about it:
´Weigh the savings from postponing an investment against
chance of damage resulting from finishing the project a little
lateµ
V What is been done?
D e ard for starting each path at the earliest possible
time  Encourages project leader to start unfocussed

V esult?
D Jrogress on one path compensates for the delay on
another
D ©ifficulties accumulate  Jroject overruns
V Uncertainties exist in projects.
V A buffer is additional time to complete a tas .
V Murphy·s La states that if something can go rong, it ill.
V In traditional estimates, people often add a buffer to each tas
and use the additional time hether it·s needed or not.
V Time estimates are self fulfilling prophesy.(48)
V Critical chain scheduling removes buffers from individual
tas s and instead creates:
 Jroject buffer Meeding buffers esource Ouffer
V Jroject Ouffer

 Oet een the last tas of the aggressive project schedule critical chain and the

committed end date

V Meeding Ouffers

 Jrotect the critical chain from being impacted by non-critical chain

V esource Ouffer

 The resource buffer is an information signal to resources planned to or

on the project critical chain that the project tas is coming up for or
V Every tas has some safety
V The greater the uncertainty and ris of the tas , the
greater the safety included in your safe estimate
 This is hat the project loo s li e

V A set of dependent tas s

 Ac no ledge tas s safety buffer

V A set of dependent tas s

V Every tas has some safety in it
Consider moving the safety into the pool
Consider moving the safety into the pool
Until you have created a project buffer
 Consequently
V We can reduce project duration ith no increased ris

V One can no cut the project duration by 20 to 50 %

  

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Cost orld Throughput orld(90)

Mocus to reduce cost Mocus to increase

Any local improvement
automatically translates into
an improvement of the org.
Any improvement is
appreciated.
throughput
If one lin drops, the
throughput of the company
drops
Improvement of the ea est
lin appreciated.

´At the beginning of the month these companies are managed

according to the cost orld, at the end of the month according
to the throughput orld.µ
V Throughput World The strength of any chain, process or system is dependent

upon its ea est lin

V Cost World The only ay to achieve good cost performance is through good

local performance every here

V If produced more, it ill lead to accumulation of unnecessary inventory

V If inventory goes up, cost goes up Bottle Neck

Ô

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20 20 10
10 10
Increase Increase Increase

Net Profit ROI Cash Flow

Fundamental operating measurements bridge

Operating
Throughput Inventory
Expenses

Increase Decrease Decrease

Local
Actions
V Milestones emoved
6 Student Syndrome
6 Trimmed the Safety Jad
V Multi Tas ing
V esource Ouffer in Jlace
V educed Meeding Ouffer
V educed Jroject Ouffer
 Îou manage the constraint

Or the constraint manages you