TOC Applications

The first encounter with TOC for most people is Eli Goldratt’s business novel, “The Goal.” This first of several such books was the story of a plant manager who was given 3 months to turn a profit in his manufacturing plant or be shut down by corporate headquarters. It is the story of how the plant is saved by implementing the TOC logistical solution for production control called:

Drum/Buffer/Rope

Many business readers were left with the mistaken impression that the theory of constraints only had application in the field of production control. In order to share how TOC has been applied to develop marketing solutions Goldratt wrote the sequel, “It’s Not Luck.” It introduced the logistical solution for suppliers and/or distribution and a concept for marketing solutions to your customer’s core problems. These are know, respectively, as:

Replenishment

Unrefusable Market Offer

Goldratt’s third novel, develops the basic elements of the TOC approach to project management. These methods are particularly powerful and have found great application in environments where staff are working on multiple projects. This method has the same name as the book:

Critical Chain