Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

This article is a version of Theory of Constraints[0] aka Value Stream Mapping:

- every system has a bottleneck

- fixing things _after_ the bottleneck will have no effect

- fixing things _before_ the bottleneck will make the bottleneck worse

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_constraints



TOC has its applications and is simple in principle to operate, but the focus on global bottleneck constraints leads to sub-optimal behavior when the bottlenecks stall or fill queues. A big problem is once you are clogging the bottleneck, upstream queues become progressively more clogged as well and restarts are a mess. Local queue constraints on pull systems (kanban is an example) give quicker constraint signals and smoother queue restarts. Reinerstsen's "Principles of Product Development Flow" has some great discussion of this




Consider applying for YC's Summer 2026 batch! Applications are open till May 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: