Theory of Constraints ( TOC ) is a philosophy of management and improvement originally developed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and introduced in his book, The Goal. It is based on the fact that, like a chain with its weakest link, in any complex system at any point in time, there is most often only one aspect of that system that is limiting its ability to achieve more of its goal. For that system to attain any significant improvement that constraint must be identified and the whole system must be managed with it in mind.
According to Theory of Constraints, every profit-making organization must have at least one constraint, which prevents the system from achieving a higher performance relative to its goal. Theory-Of-Constraints is based on the premise that the rate of revenue generation is limited by at least one constraining process (i.e. a bottleneck). Only by increasing throughput (production rate) at the bottleneck process can overall throughput be increased.
The key steps in implementing an effective Theory of Constraints approach are:
Thomas Group develops a process based on the psychology of change that acknowledges and systematically addresses the questions asked when evaluating change, essentially “What do we change?”, “What do we change it to?”, and “What behaviors will cause change?”. The questions must be answered frankly and effectively with both the people who must implement the change and those who will be affected by it for change to succeed. Applying Theory of Constraints to countless organizations Thomas Group best practices have emerged that have applicability across all organizations.