| 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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TOC strategy is vehemently opposed to job loss TOC Applications support satisfying working environments and promote job security Thinking Processes give employees some powerful problem-solving tools |
Theory of Constraints provides a management philosophy, applications, and tools that embed RESPECT for people
It is no accident that Theory of Constraints typically gains the support of union members and shop stewards when a unionized organization is involved in a TOC implementation. At a level of management philosophy the TOC aims at converting "surfaced" additional capacity into more revenues, rather than into cost saving through trimming the "surplus capacity." And with its Unrefusable Offer strategy, TOC takes away the usual defense for layoffs ... that cost reduction is the only path to profit improvement or productivity growth. The TOC's Thinking Processes are also excellent tools in support of genuine employee empowerment.
But there is much more to the TOC connection to people even than this; the Theory of Constraints embeds respect for people in every aspect of every application.
Thinking Strategy
The "generic" TOC strategy aims for three outcomes; benefits for the business owners (make more money, now and in the future); benefits for the employees (a safe, secure and satisfying job, without constant threat of lay-off); and benefits for the customers (ongoing, superior value for money spent, creating ongoing demand). All three are essential, each is a necessary condition for the sustained existence of the others. Capitalism and Socialism apparently hand in hand!
Most markets experience downturns. The only way a company can be assured of sustaining all three strategic goals is if it is immune to such market fluctuations. The Theory of Constraints market solution, the Unrefusable Offer, is the ONLY element in any formal body of knowledge that gives management a methodology to immunize itself ... to position itself to ALWAYS be able to win more business.
TOC Applications
In a TOC drum-buffer-rope implementation the quality of life of every person involved, from the shop floor to the boardroom, improves. The rules that everyone has always known to be dumb are removed, and replaced with rules that make sense to management and all employees, and eliminate the conflicts of alignment between a company strategy and the day-to-day operations needed to achieve it.
In a project management environment, the "institutionalized burn-out" of project resources is eliminated. Outrageous as this claim seems, when a project is managed according to Theory of Constraints rules, project resources will typically not work as hard from an individual standpoint (they will have the opportunity to have a life) ... yet they will collectively realize massive boosts in the productivity of those same resources. Users of the Critical Chain Project Management approach regularly report getting as many as two or three times as many completed projects out of a resource base that does not increase in size, yet does not drive people as hard as before.
Management Skills and Problem Solving
The Theory of Constraints Thinking Processes can be used to perform large-scale analysis of company performance and construct company-wide plans. But these same tools can be used by individuals in a wide number of ways to simply manage better on a day-to-day basis.
For example, one tool enables a worker who is caught between a rock and a hard place (ship on time but violate quality standards, or maintain quality standards and ship late, for example) to come up with a solution that meets all needs.
Another tool is used to identify the flaws in a poorly thought-out "good idea" and to improve the solution without at any time criticizing the employee or putting him or her on the defensive. It shifts things to "you and me against the problem" instead of "you versus me."
Another tool is the perfect team tool; it enables team members to surface all the obstacles facing them as they attempt to achieve a goal, plan a roadmap through the obstacles (or over them or around them), convert the roadmap into an action plan, and position everyone involved to monitor progress and know exactly how their tasks relate to everyone else's.
And the three tools above provide a solid foundation for true empowerment; when a worker can highlight policy constraints (policies, rules, measurements that no longer are aligned with the company's direction but to which he is expected to adhere); construct a plan to solve the problem, and have it scrutinized without defensiveness or resistance; and translate the plan into action.