Hello TOC

Fundamentals of TOC · Lesson 6 of 6

TOC in practice

Where TOC is applied, what results it tends to bring, and the beliefs that have to shift for it to work. Plus the three questions that guide any change.

14 min · Not completed yet

TOC in one word: focus

If the whole of TOC had to fit in one word, it would be focus. Not focusing on everything, which is the same as focusing on nothing, but choosing the few things that move the whole system and saying no to the rest. A good test of focus is what you have decided not to do.

A second word would be flow. Work that sits waiting in queues, gets interrupted, or is started before it can be finished is money tied up and promises at risk. Most TOC solutions improve flow: less work in the system, moving faster, in the order that matters.

Where TOC is applied

TOC started on the factory floor, but the same thinking now runs through the whole business:

  • Operations: Drum-Buffer-Rope paces the factory to its constraint, with buffers to protect it. Try Eureka and Production Flow at Cycle Factory.
  • Project management: Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) removes padding from task estimates, pools it into a buffer that protects the project, and stops bad multitasking. Try Roll for Six, Boat Making, Drug Development, Bridge and Assembly Day.
  • Distribution and supply chain: stock is held centrally and replenished to actual consumption, instead of being pushed out on forecasts.
  • Finance and measures: Throughput accounting for decisions, as in lesson 2.
  • Sales and marketing: offers built around what the customer actually struggles with, often made possible by the reliability that TOC operations create.
  • People and problem solving: the Thinking Processes, a set of logic tools for finding what to change and how. One of them, the conflict cloud, is at the heart of ThinkTOC.

What results look like

Published reviews of TOC implementations report large improvements, typically much shorter lead times, far better on-time delivery and much lower inventory, alongside higher throughput. Results vary with the starting point and with how faithfully the solution is applied. The point is not the exact numbers but the pattern: the gains come from flow and focus, not from working people harder.

What makes a good solution

Whenever you design a change, test it against these questions:

  • Does it bring large benefits, not marginal ones?
  • Is it win-win-win for everyone whose cooperation it needs?
  • Is the risk, multiplied by the possible damage, small next to the benefit?
  • Is it simple enough to explain and to sustain?
  • Does it avoid creating new problems elsewhere?

Paradigms

A paradigm is a set of beliefs we use to make sense of the world, often without noticing them. We don’t believe what we see; we see what we believe. Some paradigms limit us, some enable us. Most of TOC is a shift from a limiting paradigm to an enabling one. Tap each card to see the shift.

People find these shifts hard, even when the evidence is in front of them. That isn’t a flaw in people: it’s how beliefs work. Which is why TOC treats them with respect instead of trying to argue them away.

The three pillars of TOC

Goldratt summed up the beliefs behind TOC in three pillars:

  1. Inherent simplicity. Every system, however complex it looks, is governed by a few points.
  2. Every conflict can be removed. Behind every conflict sits an assumption that can be challenged; you don’t have to settle for a compromise.
  3. People are good. When people resist or behave badly, look for the conflict or the measure that makes it rational for them, before you blame them.

The three questions

Every TOC change, in a factory, a project or your own life, answers three questions:

  1. What to change? Find the core problem, not the symptoms.
  2. What to change to? Design a solution that removes it and passes the good-solution test.
  3. How to cause the change? Build the buy-in and the plan to make it happen, and stick.

That’s the end of the course content. If you have passed all six quizzes, your certificate is ready.

Check your understanding

Answer all five. Get four right to complete the lesson.

1. If TOC had to be summed up in one word, it would be…

  • Efficiency
  • Cost
  • Focus
  • Speed

Choosing the few things that move the system, and saying no to the rest.

2. Critical Chain Project Management is TOC applied to…

  • Projects
  • Distribution
  • Accounting
  • Hiring

It protects the project with a shared buffer instead of padding every task, and stops bad multitasking.

3. “Every conflict can be removed” means…

  • Conflicts never happen in good companies
  • The boss decides and the conflict is over
  • A fair compromise is always best
  • Behind each conflict is an assumption that can be challenged

Challenge the assumption and you can often satisfy both sides fully, without a compromise.

4. Which of these is a limiting paradigm?

  • Only the constraint must never be idle
  • Everyone and everything must always be busy
  • A few points govern the whole system
  • People are good

Keeping everyone busy floods the system with work in progress and hides the constraint.

5. What are TOC’s three questions for any change?

  • Who, what, when?
  • How much, how fast, how cheap?
  • What to change, what to change to, how to cause the change?
  • Plan, do, check?

They guide any improvement, from a factory to a family argument.