--- title: "Insights: Operations | Common Sense Systems" url: https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/ description: "Articles by John Sambrook tagged Operations, newest first." --- [Insights](https://common-sense.com/insights/) # Operations 18 articles, newest first. [All](https://common-sense.com/insights/) [AI 33](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/ai/)[Theory of Constraints 30](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/)[Strategy 28](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/)[Small Business 26](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/small-business/)[Healthcare 20](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/)[Operations 18](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/)[Practical Tips 16](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/practical-tips/)[Medical Devices 9](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/medical-devices/)[Leadership 8](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/leadership/)[Case Studies 4](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/case-studies/)[Government 3](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/government/)[Workforce 3](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/workforce/) - [The Clipboard and the Whole Picture](https://common-sense.com/insights/the-clipboard-and-the-whole-picture/) October 26, 2026 · [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Small Business](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/small-business/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/) Most people would rather fill out intake forms at home, on their own schedule. A practice that makes that easy shows patients it respects their time, and that is a chance to win more of them. - [The Business That Is Too Painful to Scale, but Too Good to Quit](https://common-sense.com/insights/too-painful-to-scale-too-good-to-quit/) October 5, 2026 · [Small Business](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/small-business/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/) A plumbing contractor called me out of the blue, stuck between not being able to hire and not being able to run the business he has. The constraint was not labor. It was the machine that was never built. - [The Same Seven Mistakes, Every Company, Every Decade](https://common-sense.com/insights/the-same-seven-mistakes-every-company-every-decade/) July 20, 2026 · [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Medical Devices](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/medical-devices/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/), [Leadership](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/leadership/) What 500 FDA enforcement actions reveal about how organizations think. The same seven failure patterns appear across medical device companies, decade after decade. The root cause is not poor procedures. It is cognitive biases that evolved for small-group survival but break down in modern industrial settings. - [Why CAPA Systems Rot (And Why Naming Names Does Not Fix It)](https://common-sense.com/insights/why-capa-systems-rot/) July 20, 2026 · [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Medical Devices](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/medical-devices/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/) A deep dive into conflict avoidance as the root cause of FDA quality system failures. Analysis of 500 enforcement actions shows that CAPA failures are not procedural problems. They are cognitive problems that require a different objective function. - [Why Software Defects Kill (And Why Optimism Is the Real Bug)](https://common-sense.com/insights/why-software-defects-kill/) July 20, 2026 · [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Medical Devices](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/medical-devices/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/) Software/firmware defects account for 12 Class I medical device recalls, the most of any category. The root cause is not poor engineering. It is planning fallacy, a cognitive bias that makes every team overestimate their timeline and underestimate their defect rate. - [The First Session](https://common-sense.com/insights/the-first-session/) March 18, 2026 · [AI](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/ai/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/) Twelve people walk into a working group carrying separate problems and walk out carrying a shared one. Episode 05 of the Cascade Valley audio drama series. - [The Budget Trap That Hits Every Public Institution](https://common-sense.com/insights/the-budget-trap-that-hits-every-public-institution/) March 12, 2026 · [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Government](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/government/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/) King County faces a familiar cycle: deficits, targeted cuts, new taxes, repeat. A Theory of Constraints lens on their own public data suggests the measuring stick itself may be the problem. - [When the Measuring Stick Lies, Good People Stop Trying](https://common-sense.com/insights/when-the-measuring-stick-lies-good-people-stop-trying/) March 12, 2026 · [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Government](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/government/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/) Distorted cost accounting in public institutions does not just produce bad budget decisions. It produces learned helplessness in the people who manage those budgets. The system, not the people, is the cause. - [Is Cost Accounting Accelerating Your Decline?](https://common-sense.com/insights/is-cost-accounting-accelerating-your-decline/) March 11, 2026 · [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/) A question for CFOs at Washington State critical access hospitals: could standard cost allocation be distorting your service line decisions at exactly the wrong time? - [How a Print Shop Found 35% More Capacity in a Week](https://common-sense.com/insights/print-shop-found-capacity-in-a-week/) March 8, 2026 · [Small Business](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/small-business/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Case Studies](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/case-studies/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/) A fine art printing company in Kent, WA was drowning in rework and backlog. The constraint was obvious once we looked: the graphic artist was doing every job twice. A pre-flight checklist and a simple scheduling change fixed it. - [The Other Calculation](https://common-sense.com/insights/the-other-calculation/) March 7, 2026 · [AI](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/ai/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/) A hospital CFO runs the same numbers two ways and gets answers that disagree by a factor of five. Episode 04 of the Cascade Valley audio drama series. - [From 'Cost Center' to 'Growth Engine': A Theory of Constraints Success Story](https://common-sense.com/insights/cost-center-to-growth-engine-toc-case-study/) March 5, 2026 · [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Medical Devices](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/medical-devices/), [Case Studies](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/case-studies/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/) How applying the Theory of Constraints 5 Focusing Steps transformed a reactive, email-only support model into a white-glove customer success engine for a high-value ultrasound research systems manufacturer. - [The Compass and the Toolkit: Why Healthcare Needs Both TOC and Lean](https://common-sense.com/insights/compass-and-toolkit-toc-lean-healthcare/) March 4, 2026 · [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/) Healthcare has adopted Lean almost exclusively for process improvement, but the Theory of Constraints answers the question Lean cannot: where should you focus? Using both together produces dramatically better results. - [The One Thing Slowing Down Your Business (And How to Find It)](https://common-sense.com/insights/one-thing-slowing-down-your-business/) March 4, 2026 · [Small Business](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/small-business/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/) Every business has one thing that limits how much it can get done. Find that one thing, fix it, and everything improves. Fix anything else, and nothing changes. A practical guide for small business owners. - [Your Website Looks Great. So Why Isn't the Phone Ringing?](https://common-sense.com/insights/website-looks-great-phone-not-ringing/) March 4, 2026 · [Small Business](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/small-business/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/) You invested in a professional website. It gets traffic. It looks right. But the phone barely rings. The problem is not the website. It is what the website is saying. - [When Your Business Is Full But Something Is Missing](https://common-sense.com/insights/when-your-business-is-full-but-something-is-missing/) March 4, 2026 · [Small Business](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/small-business/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/) You built a practice around work you love. Now it is full, and somehow that is the problem. A guide for wellness practitioners who want their business to work better without losing what made it worth building. - [The Post-Acute Care Plan: A Proactive Approach to Discharge Readiness](https://common-sense.com/insights/post-acute-care-plan-concept/) December 15, 2025 · [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/) A concept for addressing the complex discharge problem at its source—by capturing discharge-relevant information during routine primary care, before any hospitalization occurs. - [The Physics of Patient Flow: Why 'Discharge Planning' Is a Mathematical Impossibility](https://common-sense.com/insights/physics-of-patient-flow/) September 4, 2025 · [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/) Trying to plan a complex discharge at the moment of exit violates the basic physics of flow. Here is why the process must move upstream.