theory+of+constraints category archives
Visible buffers give management a way to manage the system. And they also give the project participants a way to guage
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"Super Size Productivity Now: 3% Automation, 97% Leadership" by Kathleen Brush talks about how organizations can create more real productivity - and it's nearly all down to leadership.
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My review of Simplifying Innovation by Michael A Dalton, a business novel that shows how Constraints Management principles can be applied to new product development and other areas that require a lot of innovation.
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You have to be careful with "culture" discussions because they can lead you down some strange paths. Ana Neves has an interesting discussion around knowledge management, and I see them applying to just about anything that wants a specific culture as part of the strategy.
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Velocity is a business novel from the Theory of Constraints community with co-author Jeff Cox coming at TOC again after his work with The Goal years ago. This one introduces combined improvement efforts that are designed to set direction AND give you speed: Velocity.
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I picked up Eli Goldratt's latest business novel, Isn't It Obvious, and absolutely flew through the book. The title of the book is one of Goldratt's favorite ideas: that the best theories are always seen (in hindsight) as obvious solutions.
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Glen Alleman has some interesting thoughts about uncertainty in projects and whether we need to estimate better. I wonder if theory of constraints and buffer management points to a different solution.
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My thoughts about David Allen's 2009 book, Making It All Work, an extension to Getting Things Done. I also make a connection to some of my other work, beyond the obvious organizing and prioritizing that come from the book.
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Henrik Mårtensson has a nice discussion of how an extreme focus on "cost effectiveness" can severely damage an organization with this mindset.
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Several conversations have me thinking about why projects - any kind of project - falls off the rails so many times, even though people have articulated the lists of why this happens over and over again.
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How Smart Leaders Talk About Time is a "Conversation Starter" from HarvardBusiness.org in October. It talks about the the struggle so many businesses have of having too many things to do and prioritizing amongst them. What is a leader to do?
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In case you think I am a dyed-in-the-wool Theory of Constraints promoter, I point to this article by Dan Trietsch from a 2005 issue of Project Management Journal.
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Dennis Stevens has a nice description of how Theory of Constraints and Big Agile relate to each other. I've known that the do, but I hadn't given much thought to the connections.
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The fundamentals of CCPM workshop was interesting in that I saw some new simulations (games) and he put the vicious cycle of standard operations in a drawing that made a lot of sense to me.
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Luis Suarez pointed to an entertaining YouTube video produced by one of his IBM colleagues, which has me pondering the tendency we (in business) have of jumping from bad effects to a "solution" without understanding the underlying cause.
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This week, I get to spend several days in San Francisco at Realization's Project Flow 2009 conference. Hopefully, I get to meet some additional friends.
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A week ago, the Sunday Boston Globe carried a piece on Eugene Litvak's work on helping hospitals improve. Flow is the key.
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Tesco is using weather forecasts to predict demand. Instead, it might be a better idea to design the supply chain to be flexible and fast to respond to actual changes in consumer demand.
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Information overload can be considered an individual problem to be solved by many of the rules I've written about in my own journey around personal effectiveness. Or it can be thought of as part of a larger system of people interacting that needs to be addressed with a systematic approach.
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A colleague forwarded a copy of "Manage a Living system, Not a Ledger" by H. Thomas Johnson. It is a great discussion of why traditional financial measures, while required for accounting reporting, are terrible for internal decision making.
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My weekly Google Alert for Theory of Constraints popped up this One-Minute Take-Away on The Goal. The brief article gives you this graphic and then a brief explanation.
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The Manufaturer has published a video interview with Eli Goldratt and Will Stirling, which appears to have been recorded after a seminar that Goldratt gave.
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The recent IAM Talking podcast, "The Problems of Process, In Practice," Dan Keldsen hosts a discussion with Bob Lewis of IT Catalysts, and there are a couple of elements that really connected with me.
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I am still looking for more thinking on how to apply Theory of Constraints ideas and thinking in heavily uncertain areas like discovery research, where typical drop-out rates are well above 80%.
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There's a potential conflict between Getting Things Done and Just Do It. Here are some thoughts on the topic.
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I had lunch the other day with Johanna Rothman and the topic of planning research work came up. It is difficult to plan research work because the very nature of research is one of iteration and uncertainty. You don't know if your experiment is going to work, so how can you build a formal plan of everything you plan to do?
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The TOC ICO has awarded Boeing with its award for achievement this year.
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Mark Foster has an interesting entry, "Acting in One's Own Best Interests." Essentially he suggests that the highest form of achievement comes when people act in their own best interests.
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I came across a new blog recently by Dr. Ron Lasky of Indium Corporation, named simply Dr. Lasky's Blog. While his expertise and background is in the electronics and electronic materials area, he also has an interest in Theory of Constraints.
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"Supply Chain Management at Warp Speed" is another book in the growing supply of Theory of Constraints books. For people the know the oeurve, this book is an extension and update to Schragenheim & Dettmer's Manufacturing at Warp Speed. TOC experts will find this informative, but I am not sure those outside this circle will.
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Art Murray has extended his suggested transformations in An opportunity for real change, part 2, where he continues the idea of stepping back from the day-to-day to think about how the organization should work in the future.
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I've been attempting to clean up the Theory of Constraints entry on Wikipedia. One element of that has been to hunt down references and clear up the "critcism" section to be readable. Part of the reference hunt took me to YouTube, and that of course led to more YouTube. Here are four videos I dove into and my thoughts about them.
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In general, operations management circles have grown to understand the hazards of push systems and the benefits of pull systems when managing work on the shop floor or the engineering department or the supply chain.
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Mark Woeppel will be doing a Critical Chain Project Management Webinar on 29 April.
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My comments on Essays on the Theory of Constraints. Short form: interesting material, but don't buy it if you are new to TOC.
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Discovered a "TOC in Action" article by Pascal Van Cauwenberghe.
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There are plenty of things I do individually and that I see in business that make things better. But there seem to be just as many, if not more, that are merely a change without any obvious benefit.
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Henrik Martensson gave himself an interesting challenge: apply Theory of Constraints to Primus Vicus, a medieval recreation village in Halmstad, Sweden.
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Eli Goldratt is pretty sure the manufacturing sector (barring cars / real estate) should spring back within a month or two.
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Anyone who has spent time studying Theory of Constraints knows that the idea of forecasting and extrapolation is an anathema to being smart about making decisions.
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I have finally gotten around to reading Built to Last, and I see a lot of connections to Theory of Constraints - and the consulting that I am doing once again.
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I've been getting a bunch of questions lately along these lines: What's all this about a new job, then? Yes, it is true. I am leaving AspenTech to work with two former Searle / Pharmacia / Pfizer colleagues as a member of P3 Consulting Group.
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Yesterday, in my outline of the Now and into the Future seminar, I mentioned Lisa Schienkopf's "five questions." I didn't have them then, but a question to the Constraints Management SIG gave me the answer (thanks guys).
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What is Theory of Constraints? Goldratt Group published a video of Eli Goldratt with this title. Does it meet its title?
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James Robertson has an initial model of collaboration, based on the idea that you have to form the capacity, then build the capability, and then create a strategy around how it fits into your organization.
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Kevin Meyer has a great story about visiting a Toyota manufacturing plant, getting to see what lean is really about. This reminds me that everyone has need of continuous improvement.
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My company brought in ZigZag Marketing to do some refresher training and provide some ongoing guidance around our product management / product marketing function. Here's an overview and some of my comments.
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The September issue of Chemical Engineering Progress has an "Ask the Experts" column on Managing a Responsive Supply Network (pdf) by Ray Adams of SAP.
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I came across an interesting article that provides Jay Deragon and socialutions' perspective on preparing for implementing social networks. I hear in these tips echos of almost any change effort.
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