The Slowest Hiker Sets the Pace

You've added people, bought software, and pushed harder, but output barely moved. The problem may not be where you've been looking.

When I was a teenager, I went on a 60-mile backcountry hiking trip with 10 other boys my age. We packed our backpacks, took a slow train to New Mexico, and were dropped off at a ranch near Cimarron, New Mexico. Before we left, we took a group picture: everyone in a clean Boy Scout uniform, feeling somewhere between excitement and nervousness. We were experienced campers, but for many of us, this would be our first true backwoods experience. Civilization would be miles away, there would be no latrines or camp showers, and every night we’d have to string up anything with a scent so bears couldn’t get to it. We were going to hike 5-10 miles of mountainous terrain nearly every day. Most of us had done day hikes, but never 60 miles. The first few days were incredible. We’d wake with the sunrise, pack up camp, hike a few hours to the next site, then spend the rest of the day exploring, fishing, reading, and making dinner. Life was good. But by day 5, tension started to creep in, caused by the daily hikes. Our tight-knit group would start together, but within a mile or two we’d split into a faster group and a slower group. By day 8, the split happened within the first mile, on a steep grade. The trail leader, a varsity athlete who hiked all the time, was barely breaking a sweat. He stopped so the slower group could catch up. When the slower group arrived, one boy walked briskly up to the leader, shaking mad, and yelled at him to go slower. We were all taken aback; this boy was not the type to do that. The next day, we put the slower boy in front as trail leader, and we all stayed together. We reached camp faster as one group than we ever had as two. Once the slowest hiker set the pace, everyone moved faster. By mile 60, we were exhausted, dirty, and ready for a shower, but the tension from earlier had long since melted away.

What ‘The Goal’ Says About Your Business

I tell this story because it parallels an idea from The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt. If you ’re involved in business process management or manufacturing and haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. Goldratt’s insight: when a group is hiking, it can only go as fast as its slowest hiker. Business processes work the same way: a workflow is only as fast as its slowest step. You may try to optimize around it by getting other links in the chain moving faster, but ultimately, you can only deliver as fast as that slowest step can produce. If you want to find that step in your business, ask: where is the work piling up? I’ll give you an example. I once worked as operations manager for a furniture company. We upholstered our own products, so our workflow included fabric cutters, sewers, and upholsterers. Our slowest step was sewing. It’s precise, detailed work where one missed stitch can lead to broken seams and disappointed customers. We were tempted to speed up cutting, or hire more upholsterers, but neither would have raised output. Faster cutting would only mean more fabric waiting to be sewn. Faster upholstery would only mean upholsterers waiting for the next sewn cover to come through. Our constraint was sewing, so the only way to increase production was to increase the throughput of the sewing team.

Constraints Show Up in Every Business

If you aren’t in a manufacturing business, you may be thinking ‘so what?’ But constraints are all over most businesses. Look for the pile-up: are your buyers consistently following up with vendors on late deliveries, or has that slipped for more urgent work? Is your accounting team behind on AP reconciliations? Are invoices sitting for days waiting on someone’s approval? If you’re the owner - who’s waiting on you for a deliverable or a decision? What information are you lacking, or waiting on, before you can take action? Many business owners can name the symptom, such as late orders or a growing backlog, without knowing which step is causing it. If you know your constraint but aren’t sure how to fix it, book a call with us. If you know you have constraints but can’t identify them, we can talk about that too. Let’s fix that bottleneck and get work flowing again.