TOCICO

Decision making in non-internal constraint organizations and why it is difficult to gain the true support of accounting and finance professionals in TOC implementations

Throughput Accounting (TA) often uses T/constraint time (T/CU) for product mix decisions with internal constraints. This session explores how TA can address decision-making in businesses without internal constraints, showing TA's superiority.

Pulling TOC step 0: How to overcome fear of moving (and staying) on TOC

TOC is slowly accepted; advocates push knowledge, leading to underachieved results and backsliding to cost world. The objective is to share a generic mechanism using a "new left edge" to pull stakeholders to buy-in and enhance implementation.

Investing with TOC (Part 2)

TOC Equity Partners acquired Hawkeye Engine Services, increasing its value 30X in 18 months using TOC. The goal is to spread TOC by buying conventional companies, making them profitable, and selling for profit.

UNIVERSE BEYOND THE EARTH: Standing on shoulders of the giant (replenishment solution)

TOC replenishment solutions often focus on availability, but the author created additional value by helping end customers (e.g., farmers) improve overall profit, going beyond product sales. This method is now a generic process.

Lessons for production management for MTO using G-Sim simulator: How-to upgrade workshop

The workshop re-introduces the Goldratt Simulator (GSim), developed by Eli Schragenheim, demonstrating its use for transferring updated Theory of Constraints (TOC) knowledge to manage Make-To-Order (MTO) production and operations.

TOC thinking processes – TP basics

TOC (Theory of Constraints) Thinking Processes (TP) are tools by Eli Goldratt to systematically develop and communicate reasoning for improvement, structured in five groups: Mindset, Current Reality, Future Reality, Transition, and POOGI.

What I learned about leadership from my dog

Improving leadership (the "farmer") nurtures better culture ("soil") for growth. Two models are mentioned: gap-focused attribute and self-awareness (adapting style, where dogs give instant feedback). Trust is key.

TOCICO resources at your service: Using, sharing, and developing the TOC body of knowledge

TOCICO membership offers key resources to advance the Theory of Constraints body of knowledge, including a website, presentation/webinar database, portals (Basics of TOC, Project Mgmt, etc.), white papers, a book list, and a journal article database.

Better, faster, cheaper: Practical applications of TOC in government

Level 1 basics workshop: TOC in government: Nuts and bolts of launching and sustaining an enterprise TOC process improvement effort

A 3-part workshop by the Utah Governor’s Office of Management and Budget (GOMB) will share details of their new Theory of Constraints based operational excellence initiative called the SUCCESS Framework, featuring GOMB and TOC experts.

Pilots the TOC way: Navigating the change

TOC projects face high resistance due to significant changes & risk perception, often failing to meet goals. This presentation explores why and proposes TOC-style pilots, guided by a two-level S&T, as the solution for ongoing change management.

Creating a holistic shipbuilding operation

Japanese shipbuilding, pressured by South Korea and China on cost, shifted from cost-down to a new approach. They implemented CCPM in ship design, reducing lead time by up to 67%. Now, they are spreading TOC holistically.

Sorting out organizational conflicts through organizational interest conflict cloud transferred into a series of dilemma clouds

Workshop on resolving organizational conflicts among influential stakeholders. Learn to analyze interest conflict clouds, transfer them into internal dilemma clouds, and use techniques for mediation, focusing on finding common objectives (A).

Back to basics: The power of POOGI

POOGI implementation, beginning at management, found 40k to 60k hidden battery capacity. POOGI Junior, led by middle management, revealed 18% additional capacity. Baby POOGI, at operational levels, is producing cultural change.

Fostering on-going improvement in government operations

Mr. Fox will share lessons learned from TOC improvement projects in Utah, Hawaii, and Texas state governments. The presentation focuses on common challenges, a simplified TOC model for a "snowball effect," and project results.

How-to upgrade workshop: TLS-Breakthrough of just another tool?

TLS's mixed success stems from inconsistent usage and varied perspectives (TOC, Lean, Six Sigma) which are insufficient. To unlock its power, organizations must define improvement goals, focus areas, and success metrics.

Simplifying the simplicity: Application of TOC in a NGO

MarketPlace: Handwork of India,' a US NGO started in 1980 to employ poor women in India, adopted simplified TOC solutions to combat rising inventory costs, improving supply chain performance and increasing employment.

Delivering value - Removing business constraints for growth

Exceptional value removes significant customer limitations. Focus on understanding value first, not competition. Value creation generates competitive assets: paradigm shift, leadership, unique processes, and scale benefits.

KANBAN + CCPM CCPM 2.0: Simpler, better, scalable

Gantt Charts lead to inconsistent project results & inhibit planning/execution. Sanjeev Gupta of Realization Technologies will present workstream-based project management as a simpler, better alternative.

Basics workshop: TOC project and multi-project management

Intro to Project Management the TOC way. Discusses project nature, tasks, interdependency, variability, and core conflict. Introduces Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) scheduling and buffer management. Prepares for the TOCICO Basics CCPM exam.

Resource loading in multi-project environments: An algorithmic approach and a surprise benefit from the resource bench

Overloaded resources cause poor multi-tasking in projects. This paper offers a simple algorithm that acts as a 'good enough' indicator to help management decide on starting new projects or delaying active ones.

Why TOC says that companies on the red curve should hire more managers

Management attention is often the most limited resource. For growing companies, thinking process tools like the 5 focusing steps and conflict cloud injections suggest that the company should hire more managers.

Does merchandising improve or hurt store performance?

Presentation on retail TOC body of knowledge, based on a Goldratt Consulting implementation in India. It addresses how to treat slow-performing stores and whether the cause is traffic or merchandising.

Healthcare’s “adaptive design” and TOC

Adaptive Design, inspired by Toyota's problem-solving DNA, uses the scientific method (A3) for healthcare improvement. The argument is that Adaptive Design's benefits can be adopted without conflicting with fundamental TOC principles.

Criticality - The key to resource management and decisions in critical chain

Presentation on resource management and critical chain. It addresses key issues, flawed assumptions of most penetrating chains, and introduces a model of task criticality and the use of criticality load to availability for capacity assessment.

Breaking the code with executives - A key to improved external and internal sales

A consultant shares models and simple steps, based on 28 years of experience, for communicating TOC and quality-based solutions to various organizations to gain access, close sales, and maintain internal alignment.

What’s in the banana – How to write better cause and effect

Workshop teaches creating a "Skeleton" framework for a branch to identify and clarify assumptions and write better branches immediately. Participants use a newspaper article example to identify root cause, effect, and connections.

Upgrade workshop: How to implement TOC successfully (What is not in the literature)

This workshop identifies missing ingredients—undocumented and poorly understood requirements—essential for successful TOC implementation, addressing why teams fail or take too long, and providing new knowledge from 20 years of global experience.

Improving global healthcare with the theory of constraints

Presentation addresses global healthcare struggles (demand, costs, slow system management) by answering: 1. Need for change (expenditure trends); 2. What to change (common core cloud); 3. What to change to (TOC approach, S&T tree, results).

Level 3 basics workshop: Healthcare: Gaining agreement to implement TOC in healthcare-The practical approaches to stakeholder engagement in a healthcare environment

This session will cover introducing the approach to new hospitals, the dos and don'ts of working in this area, sharing implementation experiences from an experienced CEO, and addressing unanswered questions from the three workshops.

Level 2 basics workshop: Healthcare: Achieving ongoing improvement-The importance of analysis and the scientific approach

The session will highlight, challenge, and upgrade key healthcare strategy assumptions using the dice game and simulators. It will also introduce a new healthcare simulator and summarize implementation steps.

Level 1 basics workshop: Healthcare: Applying TOC in healthcare-The practical applications

The presentation will demonstrate the core TOC-based application and common methodology used in health environments, focusing on how to determine which patients to treat next and which areas to improve for greatest performance breakthrough.

Nu-Business, a business model for entrepreneurs based upon TOC

The Nu-Business model, a TOC-based approach, challenges conventional TOC practices to reduce the high start-up failure rate, slash required investment, ensure positive cash flow at opening, and grow sales exponentially.

Does the theory of constraints understand motivation?

Focusing on Daniel Pink's "Drive," this presentation explores the three elements of true motivation—Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose—to help understand why customer plans and solutions fail, and how to improve TOC implementation.

8 tools to over manage the bottleneck

Consulting focuses on TOC-101 to find & fix bottlenecks, often by spotting inventory piles. Tools and training are provided to exploit the bottleneck, moving customers from opinion-based to data-based decisions.

TOC marketing for consultants

Consultants seeking more business will learn marketing how-to’s, common mistakes to avoid, immediate improvement tips, and how Theory of Constraints thinking and tools relate to marketing.

What is TOC? A basics workshop

Theory of Constraints (TOC) is more than a production philosophy. This workshop details TOC's evolution, expanded scope, and new system based on solving business problems and constraints, emphasizing "Focus."

Case study of a TOC implementation in a T-plant with mixed environment

TOC implementation in Motors Division at Bharat Bijlee, India, for a mixed MTA, MTO, and ATO environment with T-plant configuration. Achieved significant operational and financial results, but challenges remain in Build and Capitalization.

Journey starts with chaos part II: Organizational maturity model for projects management environments

Chaos in multi-project management (PM) stems from lack of plans, periodic control, or unified methodology. The text describes a 7-stage PM maturity model, from chaos to connecting PM strategy with organization strategy.

One decade's case study of the implementation of projects S&T tree for software development

Being's decade-long journey implementing TOC in Japan, starting with single-project and then multi-project CCPM. They overcame challenges and later implemented the S&T Tree, resulting in a V-shaped recovery in their performance.

Riachuelo’s fast fashion journey: Challenging the fashion retail paradigms with TOC retail thinking

Riachuelo, Brazil's largest fashion group, launched "Fast Fashion" using TOC across Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Retail. This initiative yielded breakthrough results and high scalability, giving them a competitive edge.

Rapid process improvement efforts at Texas Workforce Commission a Texas-Sized undertaking

The Texas Workforce Commission adopted TOC as its lead methodology in a 2012 initiative. The talk will cover the journey, challenges (resistance to change, budgeting), successes, and lessons learned from this process improvement.

Godrej Security Solutions: Viable Vision journey continues even in a slowdown

Godrej Security Solutions, a 50+ year market leader, implemented TOC across its supply chain, resulting in tripled output and nearly tripled profits in two years. The company aims to make sales equal to profit in five years.

The project manifesto: Explaining TOC through values

Rob contrasts "traditional" vs. "relay race" cultures, linking the latter to critical chain scheduling. He explains how "project manifesto" values foster this new culture, driving sustainable change and aligning with TOC/corporate values.

New sales and marketing innovation – Sales buffer management starting from mafia offer

A new implementation method & supporting software for TOC sales & marketing, called "S&T Tree detailed to level 6," was developed based on experience with URO/S&T Tree level 5, using the LAMDA process for clarity.

Implementing dynamic replenishment for higher availability with less inventory: Results from Turkish Airlines Technic

A dynamic pull replenishment system for selected consumables was implemented in three phases over 30 months at Turkish Technic Inc., addressing undesirable effects like lost volume discounts and increased order processing load.

Steady growth by breaking inertia with the use of thinking tools in the financial segment

Mas Kapital, a Mexican microfinance company, adopted the TOC philosophy after fearing loss of process control. They identified credit analysis as the main constraint, subordinated efforts to reduce risk, and designed a new, successful market offer.

Range, refreshment, and sales in the fashion environment

The challenge in retail is effective Range management, addressing saturation and starvation in a fashion environment. The solution is Pull allocation—adjusting range and refreshing only when consumed—which improves store freshness.

Taming the chaos in the annual capital budgeting process with multi-project critical chain

St. Alexius Medical Center constantly updates its 100-year-old facilities, but a tight labor market and pressure to start new projects caused delays, unreliable due dates, and budget issues. CCPM was used to manage resources.

The three-one-one focused value creation model for public and private hospitals

A focused model is proposed to enhance hospital value by improving performance in a complex managerial environment. It suggests focusing on improving mainly "three+one+one" units, contrasting with CCPM and independent unit models.

Inertia and the impetus injection (do something)

Significant improvement is often limited by being stuck inside the system. This presentation offers a method to introduce outside ideas to overcome inertia, by viewing problems as general examples, thus "nudging" the system toward improvement.

Push seasonality versus pull seasonality

The presentation distinguishes between external (e.g., season) and internal (e.g., promotions) seasonality. It stresses removing internally induced seasonality because it causes system instability, complicating Theory of Constraints (TOC) efforts.

Sales people compensation

A Hyde-Park session introduced a new method for measuring salespeople, replacing traditional periodical quotas with a rolling 12-month sales figure. Bonuses are awarded upon reaching the quota, after which the accumulation restarts.

Basics workshop: TOC supply chain solutions

Workshop covers TOC solutions for supply chain management: three conceptual approaches (5 focusing steps, planning vs. execution, 4 rules of flow), Simplified-DBR for MTO, buffer management, and stock management using MTA.

What can we learn from the development of Goldratt's profound ideas?

Dr. Goldratt's ideas evolved through key changes (OPT, DBR, Buffer Management, S-DBR, MTA/Replenishment, S&T) that offer substantial lessons on paradigm shifts and achieving a decisive competitive edge via superior operations.

Using two different types of buffers as one protection mechanism

The current TOC methodology uses one type of buffer. The author will present situations where multiple buffers are needed, like MTO+ for client forecasts and a capacity buffer for global performance on top of individual order buffers.

Erase T/CU from the BOK of TOC

T/CU, stemming from a bottleneck focus, is rarely appropriate—only suitable with a single active CCR and minor choices. Misapplying it causes harm, damages standing, and diminishes the use of superior decision metrics, like delta-T minus delta-OE.

The right rules & tools before smart metrics

Debra Smith discusses optimizing flow and its ROI connection, tracing its history in operations management. She will reveal the hidden prerequisite to fully embracing flow: realizing the rules governing complex systems for driving shareholder return.

Advanced-level workshop: Demand driven performance - Using smart metrics Part 1

This 90-minute session covers 5 steps to shift from a cost-centric to a flow-centric strategy: 1. Explain the "New Normal" (CAS); 2. Embrace flow/ROI; 3. Design an operational model; 4. Implement the model; 5. Use smart metrics.

Enterprise-wide promotion framework for CCPM implementation in NTT Data

NTT Data implemented CCPM enterprise-wide in 2009 for shorter delivery periods. They created a "Promotion Framework for CCPM Implementation" for IT projects, resulting in up to a 30% reduction in work periods.

Sales restructuring delivered

Tomplast, under pressure from PE investors, faced challenges like dying projects and a poor sales focus. They successfully repositioned as a system and development supplier, expanding sales, industries, and clients, despite the strain on engineering.

TOC - A unifying theory?

The presentation clarifies the Theory of Constraints (TOC) as a theory, its fit with criteria for a good theory, and promotes discussion on its application boundaries compared to other operations management laws and theories.

A holistic solution for community health and social care

Presentation on applying the Theory of Constraints (TOC) approach (via QFI Consulting) to UK community health and social care over 5+ years, covering 3 research cycles, discharge management, outpatient care, 5 focusing steps, and buffer management.

The 12 questions model for current reality branch, chronic conflict and generics: The Excel app how-to advanced workshop

A workshop will feature the 12 Questions Excel Model, based on TOC thinking, using the "Little Prince Pediatric Hospital" (LPPH) study on US healthcare. Participants will apply the model to analyze a discomfort (UDE) about the government's role.

Quality improvement without improving quality - How to use TOC to create breakthrough in the Gemba where kaizen/5S efforts are showing diminishing returns

Presentation debunks quality management assumptions: 5S for "neatness" yields diminishing returns by focusing on effects, not causes. Drastic quality improvement comes from solving stagnated flow (flooded Gemba) using TOC.

Distribution as the key competitive edge in a FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) supply chain

Managing thousands of SKUs across 29 locations created inventory/availability issues for COOP. NeoGrid advised a responsive supply chain using dynamic inventory management. This led to 23% less inventory and 13% less stockouts.

TOC for mental health

Mental health issues, like depression, are a serious problem in Japanese workplaces. Despite growing concern, self-help books, and corporate counselors, little improvement suggests a fundamental issue with the current approach.

TOC's answer to agile -- An intuitive way to be more agile with CCPM and to get significant result in “complex” environments

Agile is preferred over CCPM for its agility and flexibility, especially in dynamic environments like software development. The "Agile CCPM" workshop will share experimental knowledge, covering full-kitting, planning, and execution.

Too big to change! The cost side of CCPM

CCPM is an effective project management methodology that improves lead-time, on-time delivery, and resource efficiency, especially for project-based businesses. While it better manages projects, it often complicates financial processes.

New paradigm of information system (business application) design

Hitachi created "Ex-Approach," a new methodology utilizing TOC, to overcome the limitations of the traditional "functional approach" in IT applications. It prioritizes "needs, not wants" for a win-win between IT users and service providers.

An exploration of the inherent simplicity of the TOC thinking process applications

The presentation will focus on the Theory of Constraints (TOC) applications, emphasizing the evaporating cloud. TOC assumes simplicity in complex systems; reducing degrees of freedom increases leverage in rational systems.

Deconstructing critical chain: A failed implementation leads to an evolution

Traditional CCPM focuses on planning, delaying executive benefits. A better approach engages senior management earlier by focusing the transformation on the correct conflict and assumptions, which improves project execution and accelerates benefits.