Idea Architecture

Manangement techniques and aproaches argue that there are constraints which govern any business model and the businesses need to exploit their available resources to the maximum extent therby achieving the best possible outcome that is ‘allowed’, as defined by the limits imposed by the constraints.

A thought came to me when I was travelling on the local suburban trains here in Mumbai. Amongst the three suburban rail corridors which run in Mumbai, the Western Railway system is considered to be better than that of the Central Railway and the Harbour Line. Not that the Western Railway is any less crowded, but what one observes is that rakes on the Western corridor are better maintained and rattle and sway less, literally!

I was being thrown about on the Central Railway earlier today, between the Currey Road junction and Victoria Terminus; and this dichotomy came to my mind. I wonder if the members of the Central Railway management, who may have lesser funds to work with than their Western Railway counterparts, be victims of the ‘Exploit to the maximum the available resource to get the best possible result under the situations imposed by the constraints’ management theory? One justification, which the Central Railway management might be coming up with, to justify poor quality of their suburban lines (when compared to the Western Railways ones) could be “We lack the funds they have. We are doing the best utilization of our resources under the constraints”

I think this management approach is a poor one. Why can’t one instead, think differently, and use the available resources not to strain the maximum out of the constraint, but rather render the constraint irrelevant – thereby removing the ‘limits’ imposed by them? Opportunity costs and feasibility are generally the variables which are thrown against such an arguement; but I think this approach needs to be further examined.