Find the fulfillment bottleneck before adding labor
Apply the Theory of Constraints focusing steps to a fulfillment throughput problem.
Throughput stall Pick carts are full, pack stations are half idle, and open orders are rising. The team is about to add labor to the most visible queue. Adding effort away from the constraint can increase WIP without increasing shipped orders. Theory of Constraints Identify, exploit, subordinate, elevate, repeat The system improves when the constraint improves. Everything else must support that step. Shortcut Add labor where the queue looks biggest Throughput increases without unnecessary WIP. A non-constraint improvement can make the operation busier and the customer no better off. 01 Identify 02 Exploit 03 Subordinate 04 Elevate
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