Application of the theory of constraints to a bottleneck operation in a manufacturing plant

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to describe a study of the successful application of the theory of constraints (TOC) to a manufacturing plant operations problem. The TOC application required the identification of a bottleneck constraint in the manufacturing process which limited through-put and thus negatively affected plant productivity and efficiency. Design/methodology/approach - The methodology used was a detailed case study of the bottleneck in the manufacturing process. The bottleneck in this case was the mold-changing operations, consisting of a plastic injection process for heavy-duty truck-lighting systems components. Findings - It was found that to eliminate the bottleneck four separate solution approaches were applied to the problem, and these four solutions collectively eliminated the bottleneck constraint. Research limitations/implications - The limitation of this approach is that the application of the TOC method is highly specific to the particular operation. Originality/value - On completion of the study the mold-changing process improvements resulted in increased through-put and concomitant improvements in productivity and efficiency in the heavy-duty truck-lighting systems plant.