Suggestions for Resolving Conflicts

We have seen how the basic decision framework provided by TOC can be applied to scheduling practices in both manufacturing and project environments. Both constraint theory applications share the common elements of identifying the constraint, eliminating excess safety time, establishing protection through the creation of appropriate time buffers, and the resulting coordination of all tasks.

A complicating issue in most product and project environments has to do with the conflict that arises when managers are faced with the necessity to sequence multiple products or multiple projects. The conflict is between starting new products or projects in the midst of trying to make sure that existing products or projects flow through the system. The existing products or projects must flow through without interference from the new products or projects entering the system. Otherwise, the new orders or projects may cause the existing items in the system to become late. We can recommend three strategies for managing the conflicts that exist in both manufacturing and project environments.

1. Conflicts may be greatly reduced by "metering", or allowing into the system only those orders or projects that the organization has the capacity to fulfill. However, we realize it is difficult to turn down new orders or reject seemingly worthwhile new projects.

2. Resource contention problems may be significantly reduced by staggering individual orders or projects according to their relative priority and according to the available capacity of the firm. However, in dynamic environments, even the successful resolution of resource contention may be short-lived.

3. To promote stability and establish proper priorities, select what appears to be the most heavily loaded resources and declare that resource to be the bottle-neck or constraint resource for the organization. Then develop a schedule for that resource based on the strategic priorities of the organization. If necessary, follow this approach for a second constrained resource. Release new orders or new projects only according to the available capacity of these constraint resources.

Project managers might employ one or more of the above suggestions to achieve higher performance and better control of their environment.