TABLE OF CONTENTS The basic TOC is a commonsense way to understand a system. TOC says that any system must have a constraint that limits its output. You can prove it with critical discussion. If there were no constraint, system output would either rise indefinitely or would fall to zero. Therefore, a constraint limits any system with a nonzero output. Figure 2.7 shows that limiting the flow through any of the arrows can limit the total output of the system. That arrow would be the system constraint. People identify the constraint in physical systems as a bottleneck, a constriction limiting flow through the system.
The purpose of using the TOC is to improve a business system. In What Is This thing Called Theory of Constraints [22], Goldratt states, before we can deal with the improvement of any section of a system, we must first define the system s global goal; and the measurements that will enable us to judge the impact of any subsystem and any local decision, on this global goal.
Deming noted in The New Economics [13], We learned that optimization is a process of orchestrating the efforts of all components toward achievement of the stated aim.
A physical chain provides the most commonly used prop to describe TOC (Figure 2.8). The goal of a chain is to provide strength in tension. Everyone accepts that the weakest link determines the strength...
