We Don't Have Enough Capacity! This is always the cry when asked to increase the throughput. Read this to get inspired from the play on Mulla Naseeruddin - the legendary witty genius.

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We do not have Enough Capacity!
Shridhar Lolla
Draft:26th Jan 2014
Whenever asked to increase the throughput, what did the Production Manager say?
"We Don't have enough capacity! We need more capacity, more people, more machines, more
space, ..." A hallmark statement of the firefighting zone of production.
This is where the improvement initiatives radical or small start in an organization.
Incidentally, two days back I accompanied my kids Krishna and Kavya to Rang Shankara, the iconic
theater of performing arts in Bangalore to watch a play on Mullah Naseeruddin. Mullah is a legend
of folklore for his witty ideas. Here is how the play goes.
One day a lady comes to Mullah complaining about her home being too crowded with all the
relatives, kids and elders. And then, she requests him for a solid advice to get additional space to
improve their living conditions.
Never refusing anybody an advice in real need, Mullah asks her if she has any pets at home. Upon
knowing that she has a dozen chickens in the poultry, he advices to let all the chickens live inside
her home. Surprised by his advice, the lady goes home and lets all the chickens inside her home.
Next day the lady returns with a grim face complaining how difficult was the past 24 hours due to
tantrums of chickens. Then, upon knowing that she owns a couple of goats, Mullah advices her to
bring in the goats inside home. The disgruntled lady with all the faith in the legacy of Mullah's
intelligence, returns home and lets the goats inside home.
The following day, she again returns to Mullah and starts complaining how difficult life has become
since past two days. Mullah hears patiently and then asks her if she owns any other pets. Upon
knowing about her owning two horses, he advices to let the horses live inside home. Disbelievingly,
the lady returns home having faith in the legacy of Mullah and against all wishes of her family
members lets the horses inside the home.
Twenty four hours later, she returns to Mullah all weary and exhausted. Mullah looks at her and
says that her problem is just about to evaporate. He advices, "Go back home and drive out all pets
from home". She goes back and at once drives out all the pets from home.
Early morning the following day, she returns to Mullah and thanks him profusely with gleaming
face. She starts describing how good the home has become, how spacious it is with so much place
to move around and so much air to breath. Everybody could sleep soundly. The house somehow
looks bigger.
Moral of the Story : No matter what the current capacity of your office, factory or plant is, huge
capacity is hidden just around there. And, there is always an opportunity to quickly improve it
substantially!
Actually, a lot of capacity (with 'throughput' being the real measure) is hidden inside factories,
plants and offices. It requires a belief in people who work there that they can reveal the hidden
capacity (additional throughput). Once we have this belief then there are uncountable numbers of
tools available to identify and reveal hidden capacity.
Capacity Hunt Program is one such program that helps organizations in systematically identifying
and revealing hidden capacity. It helps organizations in identifying 'one thing' or 'just the few things'

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that prevent it from making more throughput ('money'). And, most importantly, such significant
improvement in capacity can be obtained in surprisingly shorter time, often in one lead time
without resorting to costly investment.
Check the details here: Capacity Hunt Program (http://www.slideshare.net/shridharlolla/capacity-
hunt-program-reveals-huge-hidden-capacity)