RS Glossary
Constraint Migration
The movement of a bottleneck or risk from one part of a system to another after an intervention appears to remove it.
- Review state
- Reviewed in POC
- Freshness
- Current
- Version
- 2
- Constraint Migration
Remember it this wayThe bottleneck disappeared here—but where did it go?
In plain language
A change may make one problem disappear locally while creating a new limiting point somewhere else. The constraint moved; the system did not necessarily become less constrained.
Why it matters
Local success can hide downstream delay, risk, cost, or workload. Looking for migration keeps improvement work focused on the whole system.
Example
Automating intake removes an office backlog, but incomplete requests now reach technicians faster and create a larger clarification queue in the field.
Common misconception
Constraint migration does not mean the intervention failed. It means the next limiting condition must be identified before claiming system-wide improvement.
Related terms
Sources
- Kevin Hein, “Continuous Improvement Using Theory of Constraints,” American Society for Qualitystates that after the current weak link is strengthened, the process returns to identify the system’s new constraint. This supports the mechanism behind the Renaissance Solutions term; the source uses Theory of Constraints language, not the label “Constraint Migration.”
Learn more
- Compare with [[bottleneck|Bottleneck]] and [[upstream-downstream|Upstream and Downstream]].
Public history
24 recorded events · 24 public summaries
A potential shared concept was discussed and selected for initial glossary drafting.
The captured candidate received a complete initial draft and entered section-level human review.
Radar reviewed the initial definition draft for human consideration.
Radar reviewed the initial plain-language-explanation draft for human consideration.
Radar reviewed the initial why-it-matters draft for human consideration.
Radar reviewed the initial example draft for human consideration.
Radar reviewed the initial common-misconception draft for human consideration.
Radar reviewed the initial remember-it-this-way draft for human consideration.
Radar reviewed the initial related-terms draft for human consideration.
Radar reviewed the initial sources draft for human consideration.
Radar reviewed the initial learn-more draft for human consideration.
A proposal was opened for section-level human review while preserving the current version.
A human reviewer opened a proposed revision while preserving the current approved or captured version.
definition approved by a human reviewer.
plain-language-explanation approved by a human reviewer.
why-it-matters approved by a human reviewer.
example approved by a human reviewer.
common-misconception approved by a human reviewer.
remember-it-this-way approved by a human reviewer.
related-terms approved by a human reviewer.
sources approved by a human reviewer.
learn-more approved by a human reviewer.
All section gates are approved; content version 1 is now a fully approved term.
Sources review recorded as approve-proposed.
Source: vault/Glossary/terms/constraint-migration/term.md · sha256:11b0ffcbfb50b26ba1b63591e0c15a7c76e19ec734c2071221114e58b57d87d3 · Release: rs-glossary-glossary-team-poc-0.5.5-2026-09-02