About this Presentation
TOCICO's Government Special Interest Group explores how Theory of Constraints can improve the flow of public value - the outcomes government creates for citizens. Eli Schragenheim, Alfredo Mycue, Andrew Kay, and Guido Bacharach begin with the government goal of improving quality of life and the challenges that make that difficult: conflicting values and objectives, limited budgets, weak goal-unit measurements, and declining public trust. They propose a system view centered on goal-oriented management, causal Thinking Processes, flow management, decisions under uncertainty, and measurement aligned with outcomes. The deck draws on government applications including Utah government, Medicaid, workforce development, corrections, justice, housing, waste management, and Amsterdam Dienstfabriek. Across successful examples, common gains appear in flow, throughput, timeliness, quality, and visibility of constraints. The group identifies two especially important areas: resolving recurring conflicts and improving the operational systems where public value is produced. A "spend it or lose it" budget conflict illustrates how accountability rules can encourage end-of-period spending even when needs and priorities change. The proposed injection is a centrally managed budget buffer that preserves accountability while allowing flexible funds to be reallocated to urgent needs, higher-priority work, or successful programs. A budget-segmentation model argues that only the flexible, discretionary portion of a budget should be buffer-managed, reducing the scope of change while concentrating on high-leverage resources. The session also outlines a TOC toolkit for government: selection matrices, Thinking Processes, core solutions such as DBR, CCPM, replenishment, and Throughput Accounting, implementation aids, measurement techniques, and case evidence. A generic public-value operating system is framed around intake, full kit, triage, synchronization, constraint management, and quality output. Measurement remains a central challenge because quality of life combines competing values and different citizen preferences. The presenters explore measures such as public value throughput, quality, timeliness, cost per quality unit, and citizen experience and confidence. They also consider how AI could support pattern detection, assumption testing, causal modeling, and measurement improvement. The proposed three-layer framework combines manager heuristics, TOC cause-and-effect models, and AI-assisted learning. The session closes with a 2026-2028 GovSIG agenda to develop government throughput models, measurement architecture, case studies, a TOC toolkit, and certification.
What Will You Learn
To help you get the most value from this session, we’ve highlighted a few key points. These takeaways capture the main ideas and practical insights from the presentation, making it easier for you to review, reflect, and apply what you’ve learned.
How TOC can be translated into a public-value context by focusing government on goal-oriented management, flow, constraint visibility, conflict resolution, decisions under uncertainty, and measurements tied to outcomes.
Why government budgeting creates a recurring accountability-versus-flexibility conflict and how a centrally managed budget buffer could preserve control while reallocating flexible funds toward urgent or higher-value needs.
What a practical TOC-for-Government toolkit could include: high-yield application selection, Thinking Processes, DBR, CCPM, replenishment, Throughput Accounting, implementation aids, measurement heuristics, and a generic throughput operating system.
Why public-value measurement remains difficult and how throughput, quality, timeliness, cost per quality unit, citizen experience, causal models, and AI-assisted learning could support a more coherent system for ongoing government improvement.
Instructor(s)
Eli Schragenheim
Eli Schragenheim is a well-known international management educator, author and consultant active in various fields of management. He worked with a huge variety of organizations all over the world, including public-sector organizations, industrial, high-tech and start-ups.
Since he had joined Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt, the famous creator of the Theory of Constraints (TOC) in 1985, Eli Schragenheim had taught, spoke at conferences, and consulted all over the globe.
Eli Schragenheim is the author of several books on various aspects of management. His last book, Throughput Economics – Making Good Management Decisions, together with Henry Camp and Rocco Surace, was published in July 2019.
Eli Schragenheim first book Management Dilemmas (1998) showed a variety of problematic situations in management and the rigorous analysis leading to the right solution. Next he collaborated with William H. Dettmer in writing Manufacturing at Warp Speed. In this book the new concept of Simplified-DBR, now a key concept in production planning according to TOC, was introduced. He collaborated with Carol A. Ptak on ERP, Tools, Techniques, and Applications for Integrating the Supply Chain, and with Dr. Goldratt and Carol Ptak on Necessary but Not Sufficient. In 2009 his book Supply Chain Management at Warp Speed, with William H. Dettmer and Wayne Patterson was published. In March 2015, Eli has opened a blog, now containing more than 140 articles on various topics in TOC that everybody can access.
Alfredo Mycue
Alfredo Mycue is the Co-Founder of ReEngine Consulting, LLC. His firm enables educational institutions and public sector organizations to attain operational excellence through continuous improvement.
Alfredo is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel and Airborne Ranger. The major positions he has held include:
• Stryker Infantry Battalion Commander in Baghdad, Iraq
• US Embassy’s Advisor to Korean Army
• Assistant Professor at United States Military Academy at West Point
• Manager of Community Affairs for Texas
• Director of Business Transformation at Texas Workforce Commission for 7 years, functioning as senior Texas government improvement expert
• Director of Strategy, ReEngine Consulting
Alfredo is a graduate of West Point, the Command and General Staff College, holds a Master in Diplomatic History from Tulane University, and has a Master in Public Affairs from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, where he now teaches a Government Quality and Improvement course at the Governor’s Center for Management Development. He is a Ph.D. student at the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration at George Washington University. He has the Project Management Professional (PMP) credential, is certified as a Theory of Constraint’s Jonah, and is a Master Six Sigma Black-Belt (MSSBB) in efficiency and quality.
Andrew Kay
ANDREW KAY, TOCPC™ , Founder/Owner TOC3 Pty Ltd & Director of TOC for Education Australia
Recognized in Australia as a leading TOC Practitioner, Andrew is the founder of an independent boutique TOC consulting firm TOC3 Pty Limited based in Sydney, serving the Asia Pacific.
With a TOC career spanning nearly 20 years, Andrew has delivered and helped deliver over 85 successful TOC implementations across a multitude of industry sectors in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan and the USA. Andrew brings a depth of TOC knowledge and implementation experience in guiding organizations to systematically and rapidly achieve their goals Andrew is proficient in all TOC application solution areas including the Logical Thinking Process Tools. He specializes in rapid and visual implementation methods.
Andrew partners with world-class practitioners and is actively engaged in the International TOC Community. He has commenced sharing his experiences and insights through several case studies at TOCICO and other international TOC Conferences.
Andrew is also the Director of TOC for Education Australia working to introduce the TOCFE thinking tools to schools and communities and wishes he could do more.
Andrew is passionate about TOC and what it can deliver to the world.
Before his TOC career, Andrew served as a scientific-systems based professional in strategic planning for Sydney City and the Blue Mountains Region. A pioneer in Integrated Local Government Geographic Information Systems, Andrew held senior management roles in Government Corporate Strategy and Business Planning and later for 5 years, in the private sector with Business Improvement Consulting with clients such as The Sydney Opera House, Phillips, Canberra Hospital, A V Jennings, and Perrigrin Semi-Conductor. In between he helped establish and run Australia's first micro-finance operation based on the Nobel Prize-winning Grameen Bank of Bangladesh.
Andrew holds a BSc Hons in Applied Science (dual major/Magna Cum Laude) from the University NSW, a post-graduate MBA from Macquarie University, and he is certified by TOCICO, and is a qualified Jonah+ and CCPM IC3PM instructor.
Guido Bacharach
Guido Bacharach, Former Head of Strategy and Digitization Unit at the Stiftung für Hochschulzulassung in Dortmund. After his university studies he has held predominantly management positions, especially in the sales area and in public services. The focus of his work is on strategic digitization, process improvement, and project management. He is co-founder of the TOCICO SIG “TOC in Government.