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Vector Consulting helps textile and apparels organizations to resolve conflict between the necessity to reduce lead times and the need to ensure work center utilization by implementing flow principles of Theory of Constraints.

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Why Your Organisation Needs Productivity Improvement Strategies

For a business, productivity improvement is synonymous with good management. It is the prime objective of any enterprise as it needs to increase its productivity to maintain its growth trajectory and stay ahead of the competition in the market.

As an improvement in productivity is the main requirement for any successful business, it is not a one-time process. It is a full-time process of change. Therefore one needs to manage the change by inducing, motivating and generating change. This means planning and coordinating change in all aspects of the organisation including but not restricted to people, values, attitudes, technology and more. When change is managed well it results in positive attitudes and a happier work culture where people welcome change and improvement in productivity. That is not to say the process will be easy. After all, it is not realistic to expect all organisational objectives to be in line with what people value. There will always be a contradiction and it falls upon the management to set the right balance. In certain cases, the change may need to be brought in despite internal resistance or reluctance.

The process of improving productivity, however, requires a full human commitment to the prospect of change. To get this commitment, managers use motivational and technical activities. The former build on people’s desire to better themselves. Motivational activities help employees get educated and encourages them to find newer and innovative means of improvement, Technical activities, on the other hand, offer people the organisational, analytical, behavioural and technical tools they need to implement improvement solutions. Neither set of activities is better than the other and in fact, good managers should use both regularly to maintain balance.

The unfortunate part about this entire process is that though everyone is aware that better human resource management leads to higher gains, few organisations act on this. This is because dealing with people is more complex than dealing with machinery or other processes.

What managers must realise is that the best productivity improvement strategies depend on human productivity which in turn, depends on the attitude of those who work in the organisation. This makes an attitude change a vital element in improving labour productivity. This is easier said than done as unlike a machine, human beings have a will of their own with their own set of values, perspectives and prejudices. A human’s response depends on a whole set of norms.

The necessary measurement and control are in direct conflict with the traditional needs, styles and attitudes of people in organisations. These barriers need to be overcome before the process of change can even begin.

All these considerations, especially technical fix and human behaviour and attitudes, call for a sound long-term productivity improvement strategy.

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Implementing Drum Buffer Rope?  Here’s How Consultants Can Help!

It is no secret that the market of today is highly competitive. Newer products and services are constantly flooding the market and the business that is unable to catch up often loses out. In such a scenario, production scheduling gains prime importance and while there are quite a few production scheduling processes available, one stands out due to its ease of implementation and that is Drum Buffer Rope.

What is Drum Buffer Rope?

Derived from the Theory of Constraints, Drum Buffer Rope is a production scheduling system that focuses on the bottlenecks present in a system and manages it. According to Drum Buffer Rope, these bottlenecks are the elements that control the overall throughput of the system and eliminating them is the key to improve productivity and thus profitability. The bottleneck or the drum is given priority in the system and exploited to work at its maximum capacity. The buffer is put in place to protect the drum from uncertainties and ensure it is never starved of resources. The rope refers to the subordination of the other processes to the drum.

While the entire system may seem rather simple to apply, the truth is that it requires a complete transformation in the mindset of the entire company and incorrectly implemented can do more harm than good. This is why one should always reach out to DBR consulting firms to ensure proper implementation. Engaging the services of a Drum Buffer Rope consultant also ensures lower resistance to change, better identification of problems plaguing the company and better focus. The consulting process also leaves the company free to concentrate on their day to day business instead of running around implementing DBR. Consultants like Vector Consulting Group routinely partner with businesses across industries to help them enjoy higher productivity, lower costs and better profitability, so the breadth of experience offered is quite high. This is of huge help when it comes to dealing with obstacles as they most likely might have experience dealing with them before.

What can one expect from DBR consulting:

An undertaking of thorough business process mapping, data collection, analysis and research to identify the constraint or the drum. Often this can take multiple sessions with the business stakeholders and management.

The development and implementation of strategies to exploit the drum, subordinate the other processes and strategic insertion of buffers in the production process.

In-depth training in Drum Buffer Rope, the Theory of Constraints and related planning and execution methodologies

Regular follow-ups and support to ensure the smooth progression of all ongoing processes and obstacle elimination.

For businesses that are not experiencing an increase in productivity, despite investments in capacity improvement, Drum Buffer Rope is the way to ensure better outcomes.

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Applying Theory of Constraints to your business can help you build unique capabilities that can be leveraged as a competitive edge in the market. Click here to know more!

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The logic of Critical Chain Project Management or CCPM appeals to common sense. Anyone looking for a way to tackle the damages done by bad multi-tasking and “date driven” behavior would readily embrace the solutions offered by CCPM.