When manufacturing leaders talk about improving performance, the conversation often drifts toward small, incremental gains. A bit faster here, a bit cheaper there. But according to Mark Greenhouse, a consultant with decades of hands-on manufacturing experience, that mindset often misses the real opportunity.
In his recent podcast episode with Mark Bracknall Greenhouse makes a simple but powerful point: "In any business, there’s always one point that’s stopping everything else from flowing."
That point is the bottleneck - what Goldratt famously called "Herbie" in The Goal. And if you focus your energy there, the results can be dramatic. Greenhouse shared an example where a company increased weekly output from £120,000 to £190,000 in just three weeks. No major capital investment. No company-wide overhaul. Just relentless focus on the constraint.
This is where the popular "1% improvement everywhere" philosophy falls down in manufacturing. While marginal gains have their place, spreading effort thinly across the operation often delivers underwhelming results. "If we’re talking 20%, 30%, even 40% improvements,” Greenhouse says, “that only comes from dealing with the bottleneck."
In many cases, businesses can unlock 30-35% more output simply by fixing what’s slowing everything else down - rather than trying to improve everything at once.
Why your business model matters more than you think
Another common blind spot is misunderstanding the underlying business model.
As Greenhouse puts it, most manufacturing businesses don’t start with a grand plan. They start with "a couple of people in a shed" and grow organically from there. Over time, layers of processes, assumptions, and workarounds pile up - often without anyone stepping back to ask whether they still make sense.
At its core, a manufacturing model is shaped by a few key factors:
- How often orders repeat
- How predictable demand is
- Whether you’re make-to-order or make-to-stock
When those elements aren’t aligned with how work actually flows through the operation, inefficiency creeps in fast. And this isn’t just a manufacturing problem. Greenhouse has applied the same thinking in service environments - including legal firms - helping them increase output by as much as 40%.
Different sectors, same principle: understand how work should flow, then design the operation around that reality.
Process control: the unglamorous superpower
If bottlenecks are the headline act, process control is the quiet force that makes high-performance manufacturing possible.
Greenhouse reflects on his time working in food manufacturing, where process control is non-negotiable. At one point, the journey from raw material to finished product took 13.5 days - largely because moisture levels had to be managed so carefully. Today, with tighter control and better understanding of the process, that same journey can take just 24 hours.
Across industries, the same variables crop up again and again: temperature, humidity, time, acidity. Small changes in these conditions can massively affect quality, speed, and consistency. "Get those wrong," Greenhouse notes, "and everything slows down."
The manufacturers who win are the ones who obsess over consistency. They reduce variation, make outcomes predictable, and build systems that allow speed without sacrificing quality.
The bigger picture
The conversation between Mark Greenhouse and Mark Bracknall cuts through a lot of conventional wisdom about efficiency. Instead of chasing small wins everywhere, it argues for focus: fix the bottleneck, understand your business model, and get serious about process control.
For UK manufacturers facing rising costs, tighter margins, and global competition, this kind of thinking isn’t just helpful - it’s essential. The businesses that thrive won’t be the ones doing a bit of everything better. They’ll be the ones doing the right things better, with discipline and intent.
Doing more with less doesn’t mean working harder. It means knowing exactly where to apply your effort.
Want to go deeper?
If you’d like to hear the full conversation and explore these ideas in more detail, you can listen to the complete podcast episode with Mark Greenhouse and Mark Bracknall. We dig into real-world examples, common mistakes manufacturers make, and how to unlock significant gains without major investment.
Tune in to the full episode here.
