Constraint Management
Constraint management is the structured identification, exploitation, protection, and improvement of the factor that most limits system performance.
What this term means in maintenance
Constraint management is the structured identification, exploitation, protection, and improvement of the factor that most limits system performance.
Typical process
A practical approach is to:
- Identify the constraint
- Use it effectively
- Align other work around it
- Increase its capacity where justified
- Repeat after the constraint changes
Practical example
A bottleneck oven loses output from frequent burner trips. Maintenance prioritizes permanent elimination of those trips.
Maintenance contribution
Maintenance can protect constraint equipment through reliability, spares, rapid response, PM, condition monitoring, and shutdown planning.
System view
Improving non-constraint equipment may not increase overall plant throughput.
Common mistake
Optimizing every machine independently can increase inventory and complexity without improving total output.
Related concepts
Related maintenance terms
Keep exploring connected CMMS, reliability, and maintenance planning terms.
Bottleneck Equipment
Bottleneck equipment is the machine, process, or resource that most limits the throughput of a production system.
Throughput
Throughput is the amount of product, material, or completed work produced by a system during a defined period.
Maintenance Strategy
A maintenance strategy is the selected combination of preventive, condition-based, predictive, corrective, and run-to-failure actions used to manage asset risk.
Constraint Management FAQs
- What is constraint management?
The structured control and improvement of the factor that most limits total performance.
- How does maintenance support Constraint Management?
Protect the constraint through reliability, spares, rapid response, PM, monitoring, and outage planning.
- Why not optimize every machine equally?
Non-constraint improvement may not increase total system output.