Finding the leverage points is the key for quick and substantial improvements

System thinking teaches us that focusing on a few leverages points, we are able to create a big impact in our organization faster. The different between leverage points and other improvement initiatives is that leverage points attack problem root causes rather than problem symptoms.

Turnaround need to attack urgently the main problems and that means finding the leverage points quickly. But many managers fail to identify the right leverage points because they use a silo functional view (sales, manufacturing, etc.,) of the problems rather than a system/company view. For example, it is very common finding companies in which the sales department is focusing on maintain some overstock to satisfy “unpredictable” sales demand; manufacturing is creating overproduction in order to optimize production resources; and so on when other system solutions like lean manufacturing could improve much more the company results without overusing stock strategy.