Reaching the Goal: How Managers Improve a Services Business Using Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints

A. Resource Optimization

• Replenishment for Services

• Assumptions

• Cost Factors

• Noncost Factors

• Optimization Model

• Optimal Buffer Sizing for Nonconstrained Resource

• Optimal Buffer Sizing for Constrained Resource

• Resource Management Notes

• Summary

Chapter 4, "Resource Management," covered the basic method for buffer sizing and buffer management under Replenishment for Services (R_S). For many skill groups, the intuitive approach presented in that chapter works well. If the buffer level doesn't reliably synchronize supply with demand, manually tweaking the thresholds between buffer zones or the buffer size itself can be sufficient to tune R_S until the buffer level is just right.

The basic method, however, omits several factors that ...