Dive Brief:

• An Israeli physicist's understanding of managing manufacturing led to the Theory of Constraints, and that can be a very useful tool for builders prioritizing what to do as work ramps back up and delayed maintenance and improvements all demand attention.
• The theory makes perfect sense on a simple level – find what part of your business is slowing down the rest and focus on fixing that.
• Breaking your process down into appropriate pieces, comparing them to figure out where the roadblock is and then understanding what will make the most improvement is a lot more work, but worth doing.

Dive Insight:

Consultant Scott Sedam, who works with builders on achieving lean processes in their businesses and their products, also calls on the teaching from the "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" to avoid the "tyranny of the urgent" in understanding how to get the biggest reward from your management effort.