[!todo] Seed note. A starting point, not a finished note yet.
Drum-buffer-rope (DBR) is Goldratt’s production-scheduling method. The drum is the system’s constraint, whose rhythm sets the pace for every other station, since nothing can ship faster than the slowest necessary step. The buffer is a small time-based inventory placed just ahead of the constraint so an upstream disruption never starves it, because throughput lost at a starved bottleneck can never be recovered. The rope ties material release at the front of the line to the drum’s consumption, capping total work-in-progress without needing a separate limit at every station. It is the operational sibling of Kanban Work-in-Progress Limits and CONWIP release. Seeded from Theory of Constraints.