Content Calendar · Capacity · Component
The constraint
Which step limits throughput, which is rarely the writing — and adding capacity elsewhere lengthens the queue.
The deliverable
What it is
The constraint is found by looking at where work sits, not at where people feel busy. Those are usually different places.
In editorial operations it is approval more often than anything else, and the relief is procedural rather than financial.
One level in
What it is made of
Each element is a constituent part of the component. Follow one to see the attributes it carries.
The next constraint
Where the queue moves once this one is relieved.
3 attributes: Next step · Its capacity · Worth relieving
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Count what is sitting at each step. The constraint is where work waits, not where people feel busiest.
The other components in capacity
The available capacity
What the organisation can actually produce and approve per period — the figure the plan should be built against rather than compared with afterwards.
LearnThe buffer
The reserve that lets the schedule survive an ordinary disruption — because a plan at full capacity breaks visibly.
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