What to do when the way ahead is blocked

By Selwyn Parker

A backlog of irritated out-patients building up in the radiology department? The obvious solution might seem to be to boost staff and equipment and clear the overflow. Mistake.

Need lots of start-up capital to launch a winning software package? Just take a deep breath and borrow $1 million on the motto of "who dares wins". Wrong again.

You are a highly-qualified immigrant but can't get a job in New Zealand because nobody is impressed by your skills. Sign up for a local course of study? Not necessarily. There could be a much easier and faster way.

These are some of the diverse, real-life problems to which a young, management trouble-shooting operation called Probsolv has applied its methods. Launched only in February by Gary Bartlett, who has qualifications in engineering, philosophy, business marketing and information technology, and his wife Lynne, a chartered accountant, Auckland-based Probsolv claims its inspiration from the theory of constraints.

This is an elegant hypothesis which argues that the performance of any system is limited primarily by a single factor. Economics dictionaries define a constraint as "a restriction on the natural degrees of freedom of a system." Put more crudely, we are talking about the bottleneck theory first argued by Israeli physicist Dr Eli Goldratt. He was the egg-head who devised a method of applying in the world of commerce problem-solving techniques that were routinely used in the "hard" sciences like his beloved physics.

Goldratt's insight was that it is relatively easy to uncover relationships that quickly lead to the discovery of the underlying causes of most management problems. These are the bottlenecks, and they are not too hard to spot.

"Just walk down the [manufacturing] line until you meet a big stack of product waiting to continue along the process," points out an American convert. "In a service environment, look for stacks of files in someone's office."

The trouble with bottlenecks, as any manufacturer will vouch, is that they limit productivity, tie up capital in excess inventory, frustrate customers and raise collective blood pressure. So, in a series of books including The Goal, Critical Chain, and It's Not Luck, Goldratt helped take a lot of the hassles out of manufacturing and service companies.

Bartlett launched Probsolv on the insight that the bottleneck theory has a much wider application. He and his wife do not profess to be management gurus so much as trouble-shooters. "There is no shortage of stuff wrong in any company," the enthusiastic Bartlett explains in the bottom half of the North Shore house that serve as his offices.

"But the problem is not in the components, it's in the bottleneck. There is always one bottleneck at a time in a complex system." Ergo, find the bottleneck, ask the right questions, and use the answers to figure out how to widen the neck, to continue the metaphor.

You don't try and fix everything, just the big thing. You don't need to spend a fortune on consultants or stop running the business while you are closeted with them.
All you have to do is budget a couple of hours of executive time, book an hour or so later for verifying and refining Probsolv's conclusions, and finally set aside another hour or two for the presentation. Then you fix it.

Bartlett usually finds that the bottleneck is not where people suspect it is. For example, when called in to look at delays in the radiology department at Auckland Healthcare, the bottleneck turned out to be in the way the orthopaedics department was booking in the out-patients. As it turned out, the radiology department had more than enough spare capacity. When a more streamlined system was devised, patients went through much more smoothly.

Probsolv aims for the heart of the problem. When a group of highly-qualified but frustrated immigrants turned to Bartlett after being unable to find jobs in New Zealand, he had a look at their CVs. "The problem is not one of qualifications", he told them. "It is one of presentation."

Bartlett suggested they rewrite their CVs in ways to which prospective employers could relate, for example by providing an equivalent company, organisation or qualification in New Zealand to the overseas one. In short, to "New Zealand-ise" their CVs. This was much simpler, cheaper and less time-consuming than going back to school to acquire New Zealand qualifications.

The software engineer accepted Probsolv's advice not to plunge into debt. Instead he set up a consultancy which in effect finances, markets and refines the software without risking home, boat and the kids.

Next up? Bartlett thinks the Auckland Warriors are ripe for a dose of Probsolv's version of the theory of constraints. Now if he can figure out why they have been so inconsistent, Probsolv can expect all the business it can handle.

Meantime there is something rather attractive about a consultant who doesn't take any fees unless the client is happy. Now if that catches on and consultants only earn by results, Probsolv will eliminate one of the biggest bottlenecks in the advice business.