Operations Management L2

Details of Drum, Buffer, Rope

This highly interactive, 1 day workshop introduces the TOC Solution for managing Operations. The emphasis is on manufacturing, though the concepts to apply to any operation. TOC (the Theory Of Constraints) is an "overall business philosophy" proposed by Eli Goldratt. Participants start by identifying the goal of their company and the measurements they use to tell if they are progressing toward that goal. Then a brief overview of TOC is given.

A series of exercises explore the effects of dependent events, which are inherent to production, coupled with normal variation, which is inherent to all systems. From this fundamental starting point, the principles of Drum, Buffer, Rope, and two concepts known as "Buffer Management", and the "Road Runner work ethic" are introduced individually so as to show how each contributes to reducing the chaos that is often present in our production systems.   TOC concepts and tactics used in production are compared and contrasted to JIT and Lean.