Theory of Constraints

Production: the Key to a Competitive Edge

A Brilliant Strategy Without Operational Excellence is Doomed Production is an Engine for Profit The production function can be a potent profit-generating machine. Traditionally, managers have regarded the production function as a necessary evil, a prerequisite to the real business of making money. This perspective is widely echoed in textbooks: the goal of production is “to […]

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image showing early stages of growth for a single plant

A Framework for Strategy; The Ever-Flourishing Company

“Productivity is the act of bringing a company closer to its goal. Every action that brings a company closer to its goal is productive. Every action that does not bring a company closer to its goal is not productive.” Eliyahu Goldratt The Theory of Constraints (ToC) challenges you to build your company to last – to

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Black queen on chessboard with pawns in the background

Theory of Constraints Applied to Strategy

The Gestalt of ToC “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.” – Isaac Newton The Theory of Constraints. What sort of management strategy is that? Who calls a management approach a “theory”? And “constraints”; isn’t that the same thing as a “bottleneck”? If you’ve read Eliyahu

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An Introduction to the Theory of Constraints

Decision Making – Focus on the Goal Almost every manager is aware of Pareto’s law, the important few – the trivial many which is often thought of as the 80/20 rule. 80% of results are generated by 20% of the actions. To improve your effectiveness, one only need to focus on the 20% and you’ll get

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Theory of Constraints & Strategy – An Introduction

The Gestalt of ToC “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.” – Isaac Newton The Theory of Constraints. What sort of management strategy is that? Who calls a management approach a “theory”? And “constraints”; isn’t that the same thing as a “bottleneck”? If you’ve read Eliyahu

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Pit Crews cut final assembly time in half, giving FMC Technologies “The Racer’s Edge.”

We did a very successful Theory of Constraints Implementation a while back, that incorporated a wide variety of approaches.

Critical Chain Project Management
Process Reengineering
Supply Chain Management

The results were great. So we made a presentation telling our story. Here it is on slide share.

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Throughput Accounting; Improving Decision Making

Today, companies are focused on increasing throughput – the rate at which a company generates money through sales. They want to expand products, customer base, markets, and so on. They want to grow as much as possible, as quickly as possible. They do not want to focus on shrinking their company or labor force. Yet, the most commonly used financial tools tell companies to focus on cutting costs in order to maximize profits, making expenses the focus of companies, not sales generation. This often leads management to make decisions that actually harm a company.

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Theory of Constraints Lean Six Sigma Podcast

Last week, I did an interview with Joe Dager of Business 901 on the topic of the integration of Theory of Constraints with Lean and Six Sigma. We discuss how it all fits together and the biggest problem facing managers who want to implement a continuous improvement program.

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A “Typical” Theory of Constraints Implementation

You’ve read all of the books on the Theory of Constraints and heard of the terrific successes other achieve with this method.  You may be wondering what a real implementation looks like.  I’ve led nearly 100 implementations and have seen a wide range of companies.  All implementations of the Theory of Constraints will follow this general

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Theory of Constraints Lean Six Sigma – Integrating Tools for Big Results

Here’s a short clip from my presentation last month. Many organizations struggle with their continuous improvement (CI) efforts; achieving real bottom line results, whether in cost savings or increased revenues, has proven to be difficult.  In spite of the widespread implementation of Lean and Six Sigma principles, poor results persist. The TLS process generates 15-20 times

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