Official skill · Strategy
Theory of Constraints: five focusing steps
Finds the one step that limits your output, then plans how to exploit it, subordinate the rest, and add capacity there only if needed, with owners, dates and measures. Use it when work piles up and output doesn't grow, though everyone is busy.
AI skill
Have your AI find the one step that limits your output
14 days free · No card needed
Works in Claude, ChatGPT, and coding agents. On Team and Business, the official skill in your pod updates itself when we improve it.
When to use it
- Work piles up and output doesn't grow, though everyone is busy
- Before hiring or buying tools to go faster
- Teams optimize their own step and the end result doesn't move
What you give it
- The system's goal and output measure
- The steps work passes through, in order
- Capacity, queue and wait time at each step
- Planned hires or purchases
What you get
A constraint review: the flow table, the named constraint with evidence, exploit, subordinate and add-capacity actions with owners, the likely next constraint, and weekly measures.
How it works
- Define the goal and the flow
- Identify the constraint
- Decide how to exploit it
- Subordinate everything else to that decision
- Add capacity at the constraint only if steps 3 and 4 are not enough
- Plan the repeat
- Close with decisions and measures
Example
What you give it
We're a 9-person content agency. Flow: sales books a client, a strategist writes the brief, 4 freelance writers draft, our one editor (Mia) edits, the client approves, we publish. Writers can do about 30 drafts a week between them. Mia edits about 18 a week. There are 26 drafts waiting for her right now and they wait about 8 days. About a third of drafts come back to writers for a rewrite after Mia reads them. Clients want 25 articles a week in total. Sales wants to sign 2 more clients. We're thinking of hiring a second editor.
What you get back (the start of it)
Constraint review: content production
Goal: publish client articles on time · Output measure: articles approved per week · Owner: [check: owner] · Date: [date]
The flow
| # | Step | Who | Capacity per week | Waiting in front | Typical wait |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brief | Strategist | [check] | [check] | [check] |
| 2 | Draft | 4 freelance writers | ~30 | [check] | [check] |
| 3 | Edit | Mia | ~18 | 26 drafts | ~8 days |
| 4 | Client approval | Client | [check] | [check] | [check] |
| 5 | Publish | [check] | [check] | [check] | [check] |
The constraint
Editing (Mia) limits the system: clients want 25 a week, Mia edits about 18, and 26 drafts wait about 8 days for her. Writers produce more than she can absorb. Type: capacity
The rest of this output, the full steps and the checks the AI runs before it answers are in your pod once you add the skill.
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Changelog
- v1.0.1 · · Example: the subordinate step now says writers' drafting capacity will sit partly idle and why that is correct, as the skill's own check asks.
- v1.0.0 · · First release.
Sources
- The Five Focusing Steps - Theory of Constraints Institute (read 2026-11-04)
- The Goal Summary - Theory of Constraints Institute (read 2026-11-04)
- The Goal, 30th Anniversary Edition - North River Press (read 2026-11-04)
- The Basics of TOC and Operations - Goldratt Marketing Group (read 2026-11-04)