Resource Optimization Orderings

Input: $ARGUMENTS

Overview

Order work to maximize throughput, minimize idle resources, reduce waste, and exploit batching. Lean and operations research principles applied to any process.

Ordering Rules

Rule 1: Bottleneck First (Theory of Constraints)

• Find the bottleneck (step limiting total throughput)
• Never let it be idle — schedule everything around it
• When: pipeline processing, clear capacity constraint

Rule 2: Batch Similar Work

• Group similar tasks to reduce switching overhead
• When: setup costs between types, cognitive overhead

Rule 3: Eliminate Waste (Lean)

• Remove non-value-adding steps (waiting, over-processing, transport)
• When: process optimization

Rule 4: Parallelize Independent Work

• Only serialize what has dependencies
• When: multiple resources available

Rule 5: Just-In-Time

• Don’t produce before needed (creates inventory/waste)
• Pull-based: demand triggers work
• When: reducing WIP, avoiding overproduction

Application

1. Map the value stream (all steps, times, waits)
2. Identify bottleneck
3. Optimize: maximize bottleneck utilization, batch, parallelize, eliminate waste
4. Measure throughput and cycle time

When to Use

• Manufacturing, pipelines, service operations, any efficiency-focused process

Verification

• Bottleneck identified
• Waste reduced
• Independent work parallelized
• Throughput measured