TOC in the Kitchen

One of the principles in the Theory of Constraints (TOC) states that all the non critical resources should be made subordinate to the critical resource. Since it is the critical or the bottleneck resource which will determine the output of the system, there is little need to worry about the utilization of the non-critical resources. On the other hand, if the non-critical resources work faster than the critical resource, they will lead to creation of a lot of inventory deposits in the system.

Often if it is found that despite the simple logic, having a resource (even if non-critical) sitting idle, is viewed as inefficiency and is hence very discomforting to the observer or the management. Mr. Goldratt has beautifully explained and illustrated the use and violation of his principles at the corporate/factory settings in his business-fiction books.

I have observed similar violation in everyday life and some of it is rather absurd and funny. One such example is about the cooks in Indian households.

In most families, members are often worried about the ‘utilization’ levels of the support staff, especially the cook. As a result, in order to increase his/her utilization, the cook is asked to create more delicacies and snack items for each meal. This is often to the detriment of the health of the residents. But who cares, for the health implication is not visible, whereas an idle sitting cook is. No doubt such excess utilization of the non-critical resources leads to excess inventory around the waist of the family members :)

Off course this is simplistic observations and many cooks and their bosses do a fantastic job of maintaining the health of the residents.

One of the solutions to optimize the utilization could be multi-tasking although Goldratt’s theories highly advice against it. Multi-tasking by doing multiple chores inside the house does improve utilization levels. Again, for socio-religious-hygiene reasons, a cook may not be permitted or be interested in doing other work like cleaning. The other solution could be to do more in-house processing of ingredients and less reliance on processed ingredients like purees, spices etc. This is no doubt healthier but also economical and certainly improves the utilization levels of the cooks without affecting the health of the residents adversely.

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