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TOC in Operations – Advanced

Twelve lessons for people who have implemented, or are about to implement, Drum-Buffer-Rope and buffer management, and have found the places where the standard solution breaks. One recap, then one field case per lesson: what went wrong, why, and how the solution was extended.

  1. 1 The standard solution in one sessionA fast recap of TOC in operations: the flow problems, the conflict behind them, choking the release, buffer management, due dates from the load on the constraint and improvement from the reds. Then the nine assumptions the standard solution quietly rests on, which the rest of the course breaks one at a time. 20 min
  2. 2 When the mix moves the constraintA weaving plant takes orders as they come, and its products flow at different speeds. A small change in mix moves the constraint, and every quoted date goes wrong. Split the constraint into sub-constraints by a healthy mix, then deal with the case where two resources together decide the output. 22 min
  3. 3 Elephant orders and freak ordersOne export order of ten thousand dozen in a plant that makes a thousand a day; one order of oddly shaped beams that slows the paint line to a crawl. Both break a system that was stable for months. Split and stagger the elephant, and give freak orders a rule of their own before they arrive. 22 min
  4. 4 When touch time is not smallForging, heat treatment and long processes break the rule that touch time is under 10% of lead time. Halve the lead time there and you remove the buffer, not the waiting. Cut it to touch time plus half the buffer, keep the buffer at least a third, and compute buffer status from the buffer, not from the elapsed time. 20 min
  5. 5 Many items, one orderWhen a sales order holds dozens of items that must ship together, choking the release and colour priority are not enough. Stealing and clubbing open many orders and finish few. Add a flow meeting at the integration points, decide clubbing by how long each order has been open, and keep a bank of full kits in front of assembly. 24 min
  6. 6 Decoupling the feeder shopsChoking the release flushed out the work in process, and then the feeder shops drowned in set-ups. Stock buffers decouple them, until a long disruption breaks the decoupling and the shop is left with two rules. Use the release dates you already know: a coverage report batches the backlog with the near-future releases, under one rule. 22 min
  7. 7 Make-to-stock under DBRSome products must be on the shelf before the customer asks. Make-to-stock done the usual way, by forecast and batch, puts constraint capacity into the wrong products. Hold low stock, replenish what was sold, size the replenishment level, use time to plan and units to prioritise, and deal with firm future orders on stocked items. 24 min
  8. 8 Stock and orders in one plantMost plants make some products to stock and others to order on the same resources. Reserve capacity for each, rank both kinds of job on one scale at the constraint, and find out why a plant with 95% stock availability and reliable vendors can still be stuck at 60% on-time-in-full. 24 min
  9. 9 A second ropeIn a plant where stock and customer orders share components, customer orders lose their material to stock whenever stock demand is high, and get help only when they are already red. Tagging from release is impossible for heavy common parts. Add a second rope at the diversion point: on a set date, the common material is reserved for the order. 20 min
  10. 10 When the customer is running a projectThe plant makes every order by its due date, and still finished goods pile up while sales reshuffles the queue. The customer’s due date isn’t real: he is building a plant, and his project is late. Release on confirmed need, size the buffer below the confirmation window, decouple the long-lead parts, and see how the same thinking delivers a fixed lead-time guarantee. 24 min
  11. 11 Expensive constraints and batching machinesA spinning mill’s constraint is so expensive that every idle spindle hurts, yet the only way to fill it seems to be cherry-picking, which breaks the colours. Blue orders use the idle moments without stealing from any order. Then a foundry whose batching machines aren’t the constraint, and the conflict that makes them batch anyway. 24 min
  12. 12 Capacity for the peaks, and keeping it goingA plant that wins on reliability can’t plan its capacity to the budget: demand swings around the plan, and most of it arrives in the second half of the year. Plan protective capacity a quarter ahead. Then the implementation rules that keep the solution alive, and a final exercise that matches each symptom in this course to its fix. 24 min
  13. ✓Your certificateUnlocks when all 12 quizzes are passed.

Start lesson 1

This course is built from the operations upgrade sessions I ran for TOC consultants, and from the shop-floor cases behind them. Eli Schragenheim’s teaching on make-to-stock under DBR and the TOC Insights operations material were used for ideas only. Company names are left out; each case is described by its industry. Take TOC in Operations – Basic first: this course assumes you know Drum-Buffer-Rope, choking the release and buffer management.