Copyright Information 4
This book is dedicated to 5
Preface 6
I am thankful to… 8
Introduction 9
TOC’s process of on-going improvement 14
TOC and Strategy 14
TOC’S assumptions 15
TOC is about paradigm shift 16
TOC is about focusing 19
TOC is about improving the flow 21
TOC shows us: 22
TOC is about managing the weakest link 23
What is the GOAL? 27
The Goal Measurements 31
Throughput (T)36
Investment (I) 40
Operating Expenses (OE) 42
Summary of T, I and OE43
Five Focusing Steps - Background 44
Introduction 44
What is Constraint? 45
Types of Constraints 45
A note on Policy Constraints 46
Five Focusing Steps 48
Five Focusing Steps – A Simplified Explanation 50
Step 1: Identify the System’s Constraint 53
Step 2: Decide how to Exploit the Constraint 55
Step 3: Subordinate everything else (to the above decision) 57
What is subordination?57
What does subordination practically mean? 59
How to subordinate the decision of exploiting?60
How easy or difficult is to subordinate?61
Step 4: (Evaluate Various Alternatives to) Elevate the System’s Constraint 62
Step 5: Go back to Step 1 65
Basic rules for managing the Constraint67
How do you know that you are managing the Constraint? 68
An Example of Five Focusing Steps 70
Where should we focus our improvement efforts? 76
Summary 78
Self-assessment questions 79
More discussion on Throughput (T), Investments (I) and Operating Expenses (OE) 81
Scale of importance of T, I and OE 86
Using Measurements for Judging Various Decisions and Actions 89
Typical judgments provided by Finance90
Judgment of the performance of the System as a whole 93
Judgment on Investment in Equipment95
Make or Buy Judgment98
Judgment of Sub-systems 101
Judgment of Product / Service Viability 102
Throughput per Constraint Unit of Time (T/CU)106
Decision Making Based on Δ T, ΔI and ΔOE 107
Cost World Paradigm and Throughput World Paradigm 108
Control Measurements112
Throughput-Dollar-Days (TDD) 114
Inventory-Dollar-Days (IDD) 117
Local-Operating-Expense 120
Summary of TOC Measurements 121
Summary 122
Methodology 122
Measurements122
Culture & Mindset 123
Self-assessment questions 125
eBooks published by Rajeev Athavale 127
Learner’s Guides 127
Article Repository 128
TOC Applications: Implementation Guidance for Small and Medium Size Enterprises 129
Bibliography 130