Theory of Contraints

Definition: the Theory of Contraints is a management and problem solving philosphy that views any system or organization as being limited in fully achieving its goals by a bottleneck, the weakest link in the critical chain, a 'constraint'.
TOC claims that a change to most of the variables in a system will have only a small impact on the performance or bottom line.
Instead, TOC aims to find and remove the bottleneck. Doing so produces an immediate increase in the strength of the whole chain — but only up to the level of the next weakest link.
There is always at least 1 constraint in any system. If one fixes one, another becomes the weakest link.
TOC tools: Current Reality Tree, Evaporating Cloud.

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More on problem solving: Catch-22, E5 Approach, Evaporating Cloud, Heuristics, Hypothesis Testing, more on problem solving...

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