The Secret to Releasing Your Potential in 2025: The Theory of Constraints
Welcome back to a new year of industry insights and best practice tips and tricks. At Goldratt UK, we’re eager for the opportunity to partner with you to solve complex challenges and drive meaningful change in 2025.
In this January issue we will look at the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for UK Manufacturing and Project Management leadership – specifically within the Defence industry. Have a read for an outline of some of the challenges and opportunities anticipated for 2025, a game-changing solution to delivering more with less, and some exciting case studies from clients having embraced that solution…
Enjoy the read and subscribe for a new year full of valuable insights from industry experts! ?
UK Manufacturing
As we step into 2025, the manufacturing sector faces both fresh challenges and promising opportunities. According to the Executive Survey 2025 by Make UK in collaboration with PwC UK, rising employment costs and surging energy prices are poised to exert significant pressure on profit margins. Despite these coming challenges, optimism prevails, with 63% of manufacturers believing the opportunities in the coming year outweigh the risks. This optimism is fuelled by bold ambitions to drive productivity through innovation, digital transformation, and global expansion.
The survey reveals that manufacturers are prioritising strategies to offset cost pressures, with 68% focusing on productivity improvements and 36% planning to control costs as part of their growth strategy. Digitalisation, automation, and energy efficiency are seen as pivotal to achieving these goals, while emerging technologies such as AI and advanced materials hold the potential to reshape the industry's future. However, persistent challenges, such as the UK’s skills shortage and underdeveloped infrastructure, continue to weigh on competitiveness.
As employment growth slows and businesses turn to technology to enhance output, the sector’s success will hinge on decisive leadership and strategic investments.
Unlocking Growth: How Goldratt's Theory of Constraints (TOC) Drives Results in Manufacturing
The Theory of Constraints (TOC), developed by Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt, has consistently demonstrated its ability to boost productivity, increase output, and enhance capacity – all without requiring significant investment. At its core, TOC focuses on identifying and addressing the most critical bottleneck - or Constraint - within a process, enabling organisations to achieve more with their existing resources.
The very first applications of TOC were within manufacturing environments, and Dr. Goldratt’s business bestseller ‘The Goal’ follows the journey of a Plant Manager as he strives to save his plant from closure. TOC’s effectiveness has been proven time and time again in manufacturing organisations across the world, delivering measurable results in both operational performance and financial outcomes. To read some of Goldratt UK’s success stories, you can access some of our case studies here.
Typically, implementing the Theory of Constraints in manufacturing operations, we would expect to deliver:
Defence – Project Management
The global landscape continues to evolve, and with it, the UK’s defence and manufacturing sectors are stepping up to meet critical challenges and opportunities. In a recent joint statement, the UK Defence Ministers reaffirmed their unwavering commitment to Ukraine, emphasising the importance of international cooperation to support self-defence, deliver training, and strengthen doctrine. A robust European defence industry and secure supply chains are seen as vital to achieving long-term peace and security, with the upcoming NATO Summit in The Hague poised to further enhance deterrence and transatlantic collaboration.
On the domestic front, the UK’s defence manufacturing sector is making significant strides. A landmark ￡9 billion deal with Rolls-Royce will provide crucial support to the Royal Navy’s nuclear submarine fleet, boosting national security, creating 5,000 long-term jobs, and driving economic growth.
Additionally, BAE Systems is forecasting a record year for training young talent, with its investment in education and skills projected to reach ￡1 billion since 2020. These developments highlight the sector’s dual commitment to innovation and workforce development, reinforcing the UK’s leadership in high-technology defence manufacturing.
Internationally, collaboration with Australia on the SSN AUKUS programme marks a milestone in the delivery of nuclear-powered submarines, further strengthening global alliances and the UK's role in advanced engineering projects.
It’s set to be another big year for UK defence, with a number of highly complex projects being prioritised. There will once again be a focus on delivering more, with less – which is where Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) and the Rules of Flow come in.
Critical Chain Project Management: The Key to Delivering Complex Projects on Time and Within Budget
Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) is an ideal solution for managing the complexities of defence projects, where precision, reliability, and timely delivery are paramount.
Unlike traditional project management approaches, CCPM focuses on identifying and addressing the Constraints that hinder project flow, ensuring resources are allocated effectively to achieve optimal efficiency.
By emphasising buffer management and prioritising tasks along the critical chain, CCPM enables defence organisations to mitigate risks and maintain momentum, even in the face of unforeseen disruptions.
In an environment where cost overruns and schedule slippages are common, CCPM offers a disciplined yet flexible approach to managing large-scale, high-stakes projects. CCPM’s focus on realistic scheduling and the strategic use of buffers ensures that projects are delivered on time, while its emphasis on resource optimisation prevents unnecessary expenditure. Furthermore, by fostering a culture of continuous improvement and accountability, CCPM aligns with the goals of delivering value to stakeholders and achieving national security objectives efficiently.
领英推荐
Goldratt UK is looking forward to continuing its partnership with BAE Systems in 2025 to deliver more projects faster and to budget. It’s been exciting to see the success of CCPM initiatives over recent years. In 2023, the Challenger 3 Tank Development Programme (RBSL & BAE Systems) won Global Project Controls’ Innovation of the Year when they implemented CCPM to place ￡320M of major subcontracts on time. This innovation also enabled passing the quality and maturity Critical Design Review gate ahead of schedule and on budget, which exceeded customer expectations.?
Streamlining MRO Operations: How CCPM Enhances Efficiency and Minimises Downtime
Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) offers a transformative approach to improving Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) projects, where efficiency and minimising downtime are crucial.
MRO operations often face challenges such as unpredictable workflows, resource constraints, and tight deadlines. CCPM addresses these issues by focusing on the Critical Chain - the sequence of tasks that directly determines project duration - and strategically managing buffers to absorb delays. This ensures that resources are concentrated on priority activities, reducing the risk of disruptions and enabling faster turnaround times.
By streamlining task execution and eliminating inefficiencies, CCPM enhances the overall reliability and predictability of MRO processes.
In an industry where equipment availability and operational readiness are key, CCPM’s ability to improve project flow translates directly into reduced downtime and increased productivity. Additionally, CCPM’s focus on real-time monitoring and proactive adjustments allows MRO teams to adapt quickly to changing priorities, such as urgent repairs or unexpected maintenance needs.
Have a read of this Goldratt UK case study for a feel of what CCPM can deliver in an MRO environment, within a short period of time. Read the Embraer case study.
What’s New With Goldratt UK?
The Future of Flow: A New Framework for Success
One to watch out for in 2025…
At Goldratt UK, we are driven by continuous improvement and having over 30 years of experience implementing the principles of the Theory of Constraints and Critical Chain Project Management in hundreds of client organisations, our technical experts have devised a new framework for success.
The framework is in its final stages of development and is due for release this year… So, make sure you are following Goldratt UK on LinkedIn and subscribed to the newsletter to receive all the latest updates!
It's a very exciting time to work for Goldratt UK. We are growing!
We're looking for new UK-based talent in both Sales and Operations.
Thank you for reading this month's newsletter.
Don't miss out on any company updates, valuable content, or exciting opportunities...
Subscribe to the Goldratt UK newsletter and follow the company page.
Goldratt UK, 30th January 2025.
business restructuring, turn around specialist and strategic consultant
4 周Whatever we touched, whatever we did, became successful, grew and set new operational and managerial standards. Of course, not without objections, reservations, whether that be from internal team or largest shareholders. But with tools like 5 steps of Buy-in, with Andy, Phil, John, definitely also Martin, we overcame internal as well as external (PEG) obstacles to enable sustainable company growth. We managed to push constraints on to the market and developed sales strategy that paved the path of Andy and the Goldratt UK team into the hall of fame of more successful TOC restructuring cases. Eventually, the company grew from roughly 11 million EUR in sales in 2007, through a big drop in sales in 2008/2009 due to the Great Recession, but with an added acquired injection moulding company (in 2008 the second company produced approx. 8 million EUR in sales). However, we had also endured a loss of over 20 million EUR in sales/year between 2010 and 2014 as Ikea changed strategy and automotive sector dipped. We had to adapt fast, brutally, effectively! In spite of all these obstacles, we gained sales, produced new moulds and grew to nearly 40 million in 2014 and to over 52 million EUR in 2016, when the company was sold to another PEG.
business restructuring, turn around specialist and strategic consultant
4 周We continued our cooperation on strategy and introduced one of the first S&T trees in 2009/2010. The new strategy was a plan for the next 4 years and we had implemented it for both manufacturing companies. Our work was presented in a TOCICO conference in New York in 2011. In 2010 we started to introduce CCPM solution to our engineering department, which significantly shortened production of new moulds. The flow of new projects through our engineering department was second to none in our industry. Where the "standard" was up to 5 such projects per development engineer, we easily managed over 20 per person. We of course had to withhold this information from the VDA 6.3 auditors as well as auditors of TS16949 (today known as IATF). Because they would neither believe us nor accept such workload per engineer. Albeit, we became so productive that we managed to industrialise over 100 projects in 2013 and over 200 in 2014 (in 2007 under the old management, they produced up to 10 tools per year). Our work was presented in Washington TOCICO conference in 2014.
business restructuring, turn around specialist and strategic consultant
4 周I would like to contribute to this newsletter with a first hand experience with Andy and his team back in 2007/2008, when Andy helped me and my team bringing operations, project management and strategy in a manufacturing company to a completely new level. (And the company at the time was definitely not a restructuring case; the 2008 Great Recession proved this assumption wrong…!) We entered this manufacturing company in H1 2007 through a LBO, backed up by a PEG. When we entered the company, I reread The Goal and started to look for what else was there on TOC as the book only intrigued my interest. I rang Bedford and asked Andy to meet me in London, where we somehow agreed on our cooperation, which eventually lasted until 2014. The injection moulding company was lean, rather good, but totgerher with Andy and the SDBR solution we uncovered over 1/4 of addtional manufacturing capacities. Having acquired another injection moulding company, which added new industries with new clients, from different geographical regions, we managed to sail through the Great recesssion and achieve unprecedented growth, not seen in the industry before. I presented our work and achievements in Amsterdam in 2009.