Theory Of Constraints In Operations Management

Department of Quality and Operations Management

National Diploma in Operations Management

Course: Operation Management

MODULE: OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION

What is (TOC) Theory of Constraints?

Theory of Constraints is a typical example of a controllable system, viewed as being limited in achieving its goals by a small-scale or number of constraints. TOC uses a focusing process to recognize the constraints and there is always at least one constraint in the system. Theory of constraints therefore then restructures the rest of the organization around the system. TOC takes on a special phrasing defined as “a chain is no stronger than its weakest link”. This is summed up as processes, systems, management and organizations are always

It is used mostly by militaries governments or businesses organization. The term "war room" is also often used in politics to refer to teams of communications people who monitor and listen to the media and the public, respond to inquiries, and synthesize opinions to determine the best course of action.

War room is a place where leadership and counsel that ensure that service and other is maintained. There are different kind of war room the one we are focusing on is the TOC (Tactical Operation Centers) control room or command center through the Theory of Constraints concepts in the everyday running of businesses.

The aim of Ops Room is to oversee the optimization of a process flow through clear identification of bottlenecks in the system. This is done in an environment that completely supports job enrichment and enlargement. Where there is a certain level of openness in the people in the organization. The results of the Ops room process is to have great improvements in the organization as a whole while creating an environment that constant and stable of any output Heuristic FLOW 11 Goldratt Group (Southern Africa) © 2004Heuristic Flow ©

In this step we must clearly define what are our strengths and weaknesses. The weaknesses will be your constraints the bottlenecks. These are things that limit the organization from achieving their goals in the long run. We have look at the whole process to find the limitations.

Decide How to Exploit the Constraint - The second step is to strengthen the constraint -- make the weak link stronger and to get more out of the constraint. There are different kinds of limitations they can we physical or policy based. There are techniques that are very helpful that are used in this step such as Kaizen event to reduce throughput and statistical process control (SPC) to help keep gains while dealing with continuous improvement.

Subordinate Everything Else to the Above Decision - In this stage we need to make sure that the managers to the front line workers have a clear understanding of the above decision and they support it. Using the linkage system in throughput.

Elevate the Constraint - In this stage we do a thoroughly check to make sure that there are no constraints that exits in the