Focused Management in a court system: Doing more with the existing resources

Abstract

As in many countries, the court system in Israel suffers from long lead time, inadequate due date performance, and poor service quality. This paper shows that putting into practice the Focused Management techniques and philosophies can significantly improve the judicial system: It will achieve much more in terms of higher throughput, shorter lead time and better quality, while using the existing resources. The paper discusses the various components of the focused management philosophy adapted to the specific court environment, such as the Theory of Constraints, the global performance measures, the Just in Time concepts and other tools and techniques. The paper describes a methodology to improve the court system and analyzes the potential outcomes of the process as perceived by 94 presidents, vice presidents and senior judges who hold most of the managerial-judicial positions in the system.