Personal Computers and the theory of Constraints

If you're reading this on a dial-up connection then you can probably point out where your PC system's bottleneck - or constraint - is. 

Yup, it's the modem.  When I had a dial-up connection I used to, without even thinking about it, do things to limit the effects of the bottleneck - for instance:

• I didn't stay connected all the time since it tied up your phone line and the connection was pretty flaky,
• I got really annoyed when someone sent me a large email attachment and I wouldn't forward it on even if it was a good one,
• I bought PC magazines because the cover CD had the latest version of Adobe, WinZip, whatever - it was easier and quicker than downloading it from the internet site.
• I ran Windows Update just once a month, when things were quiet.
• I tried software that promised to double my internet speed, but didn't make any noticable difference.

A few months ago I upgraded to broadband and suddenly my whole way of using the PC changed.  The internet connection was no longer the bottleneck ... I was!  The PC was working much faster than I could type.  So, I adapted my behaviour to exploit - get the most out of - my own time. 

• I now send large email attachments to my friends (whether they had broadband or not). 
• I now have the PC connected 24/7, with windows update running constantly in the background. 
• I download large files without even thinking. 
• I've  even started sending my digital photo's to an online printer. 

Trouble is, with my new found freedom I upgraded my version of MS office and installed Norton Utilities and then - although the internet connection was fine -  the whole PC got really, really sluggish.  It had became the bottleneck again - and so I ended up buying a new one.

Let me describe this in TOC terms.  Intuitively, in this case, I followed TOC's 5 focusing steps :

1. Identify the constraint - i.e. what's the bottleneck? - it's the dial-up connection
2. Exploit the constraint - i.e. squeeze as much out of it as you can - use a good quality phone line, tweak the system settings, install software, etc
3. Subordinate everything else to the constraint - i.e. do everything else in a way to maximise your dial up connection - buy the CD magazines rather than download, restrict email's with large attachments, install a download manager and do big downloads overnight
4. Elevate the constraint - i.e. you've got as much out of this beast as you can, time to spend some money - upgrade to broadband
5. if the constraint is broken, then start again -i.e. if your bottleneck no longer exists then change your behaviour to get the most of the new bottleneck and start the loop again

This is all intuitive.  We do this anyway.  TOC just names the steps and explains the reasoning.  But imagine if we didn't work like this - image say a company where one department (say IT, for example) is the constraint, but no one recognises that it is nor manages the company like it is.  The constraint/bottleneck exists no matter what.  It determines what we can get out of a system.  If we don't intuitively or deliberately manage it, it doesn't care, but we suffer for it.