Operations

A bottleneck is the slowest step in a process, the one that sets how much the whole business can deliver. In a small business, it is often the owner.

A business process is a repeatable set of activities that turns inputs into a result a customer values, like a WhatsApp inquiry that ends in a paid invoice.

An SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) is a written step-by-step guide to a routine task, so everyone gets the same result. It lists purpose, owner, steps, date.

A process map is a diagram of the steps in a process, who does each one and where work passes between people. Mapping the current process first exposes delays.

Capacity is the most work a business can deliver in a set period with its current people, tools and hours. Booking it to 100% creates queues and delays.

Throughput is the rate at which a business delivers finished work to customers, like cakes sold per day. The bottleneck sets it, not how busy the team is.

PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) is a four-step improvement cycle: plan a change with a prediction, try it, check the result, then adopt the change or drop it.

Kaizen is the Japanese approach of continuous improvement in small steps: everyone makes small changes, and each change that works becomes the new standard.

Gemba is Japanese for the actual place where work is done, like the shop floor, a counter or an inbox. It is where value is created, not where it is managed.

Genchi Genbutsu is a Toyota principle: before you decide, go to the actual place, see the actual thing and check the facts yourself, not in a report.

5S is a Japanese method for organizing a workplace in five steps: Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize and Sustain. It reduces waste and makes gaps visible.

5 Whys is a way to find the root cause of a problem: you ask why it happened, then why again, usually about five times, until you reach a cause you can fix.

The Pareto principle, or 80/20 rule, says a small share of causes usually produces most of the results, such as a few products bringing in most of the profit.

Poka-yoke (Japanese for mistake-proofing) means designing a process so an error cannot happen or is flagged at once, like a SIM card that fits only one way.

OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) multiplies availability, performance and quality into one score for equipment. Low OEE reveals hidden waste.