What is the Theory of Constraints?

A good analogy of the thinking is the water supply, when you open the tap, water is readily available.  For this to happen, there is a bigger system in the background e.g. larger pipes, reservoir, pumps making the water readily available at the point it is needed.  The flow can be controlled by opening and closing the tap as needed, in the background, water is waiting for consumption.  Essentially the customer is the system constraint, controlling the water flow.

Where did TOC originate?

The Goal written by Dr Eli Goldratt in 1984 was the start and the theory has been around ever since, as an international concept.  The book is still a bestseller and is one of the most influential management books of all times.  TOC Southern Africa (TOCSA) was founded on request by Dr Goldratt and has been acting as agents for Goldratt Marketing since 2000.

What does TOCSA do?

Apart from assisting people to move from an old to a new set of rules, they also offer workshops and courses to impart TOC to students.

The Thinking Process courses are also offered to assist students to develop new ways of finding solutions in situations where solutions are not already available and also to recognise what should and should not be done in business.

Online courses are now also available through the Tuit Shop.  During these online courses, students can look forward to an element of tutoring by Philip Viljoen, the CEO of TOCSA.

Universities are also starting to recognise the importance of this thinking for all disciplines and hopefully this will soon be available as part of their ‘toolkit’ for business students.

Who will benefit?

Any business will benefit from this thinking, with dramatic results, the size of the enterprise is irrelevant.  One such recent result was a printing company, which went from near bankruptcy to profitable within a matter of 3 months.  This merely through discovering how to improve the flow within their organisation.

Have a look at some of our Learning-on-Demand Short Courses related to Business!