| Recommended: If you want to learn more on this topic.. Unless you are willing to commit to a workshop with a TOC Expert, you cannot beat the educational material developed by Eli Goldratt, the originator of the Theory of Constraints. He is an amazing teacher. The 8 Videos in his Satellite Program are a best-buy for a company, intended for use by groups of employees. His provocative coverage of every industrial application of TOC challenges managers to think in new directions, and to recognize the sacred cows in their organization and their own thinking. The 16-CD Self Learning Program is extracted from the same material but intended for use by individuals on their own PCs, rather than groups. The TOC Insights is a new interactive PC-based tool for individuals. As a TOC Expert I thought they were too "cute" ... until I used them with clients. They proved to be highly effective learning tools for the 5 major applications, and the Distribution and Supply Chain solution is documented in detail here for the first time anywhere. |
Planned: a Monthly TOC EZine This EZine is intended to be 100% practical, offering tips, advice and illustrations of users' experiences with the different TOC applications. TOC Experts with practical suggestions to real problems encountered with clients will also contribute. The EZine will promote the use of TOC in combination with other technologies, for improved results. We will be taking subscriptions soon. |
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Finds the Core Problem in a Problem Soup Provides "what's really going on" cause-effect explanations Proves or validates the cause-effect connections in even complex systems |
Current Reality Tree: this Theory of Constraints tool provides the cause-effect connections between a Core Problem and the symptoms it generates
Nothing happens by chance in a real system. Every performance symptom is an effect of one or more causes. The Current Reality Tree is a cause-effect technique that serves three main purposes:
- To understand the deep-rooted causalities underlying any set of performance problems, and how they relate together.
- To pin-point the area of a core problem which contributes to ALL the performance problems.
- To prove that a suspected core problem surfaced by any other technique genuinely does cause the performance symptoms.
The power of the Current Reality Tree can be found in some characteristics:
- It is not unusual for an analysis to go 20 or more "why" relationships deep to find a core problem.
- Many seemingly unrelated performance symptoms can be connected through a CRT analysis
- The technique actually forces a rigorous validation of the cause-effect connections; unlike cause-effect diagrams where anything can be proposed as a cause
- The technique can be used to highlight cause-effect in a way that surfaces a belief; the policies arising from that belief; the procedures and measurements arising from the policies; and the behaviors attributable to the procedures and the measurements. This feeds directly into the Future Reality Tree technique, where the solution is developed and tested. Managers can take the output from the CRT and see precisely what has to be changed in order to eliminate the performance problems.