Can Theory of Constraints and Lean Six Sigma co-exist

Bob Sproull was my guest on the Business901 podcast. Bob is an experienced manufacturing executive with a distinguished track record of achieving improvement goals in Manufacturing, MRO, Quality, Product Development, and Engineering. His experience base ranges from low-volume custom products (truck bodies) to process industries (tires) to service industries (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul). He is Read More …

Deliver in the Immediate Moment

If you want to be successful in today’s market consider using this tag line. What reminded me of this is discussions I have had with Jeff Slater of Sonoco on the Supply Chain, Bob Sproull, author of The Ultimate Improvement Cycle and this recent video on the American Express Open Forum, Delivering What the Customer Read More …

Improve WIP, Cut Your Customers In Half!

A Theory of Constraints tactic is to cut your Work in process in half, and you will increase throughput. Many people resist this thought, but it is typically easily done in most TOC projects that have been tried. I listen to the TOC consultants and many are adamant about this fact. They will tell you Read More …

Elevating and Repairing Marketing Constraints

A continuation of my blog posts on Using the Theory of Constraints with your Marketing HourGlass. We are concentrating on optimizing the Throughput of the Marketing Hourglass utilizing the Five Steps of Continuous Improvement: Steps 4 and 5. Step 4. Elevate the system’s constraint. You may have found significant improvement in the preceding steps and Read More …

Exploiting and Subordinating your Marketing Constraint

A continuation of my blog posts on Using the Theory of Constraints with your Marketing HourGlass. We are concentrating on optimizing the Throughput of the Marketing Hourglass utilizing the Five Steps of Continuous Improvement, Steps 2 and 3. Step 2. Exploit the system’s constraint This simply means; Getting the most out of the weakest link Read More …

Identify your Marketing Constraint

As I mention in a previous post: Every System, typically has relatively few constraints. However, to operate at maximum efficiency, the limiting constraint must be identified. Five Steps of Continuous Improvement help identify and improve the constraint. How do I correlate the Marketing Hourglass with the Theory of Constraints? TOC uses the weakest link, a Read More …