What do you understand by Theory of Constraints (ToC)?
The Theory of Constraints (TOC) is a management approach to managing the weakest link in a process. A process can have one or more weak links, called constraints, that can be anything that prevents the process from performing to its maximum potential. TOC contends that a few constraints control the performance of a process, and therefore provide a mixture of related processes and interrelated concepts to increase the throughput.
What do you mean by throughput and Drum-Buffer-Rope in TOC?
Throughput – Throughput is the rate at which a process generates money through sales, not through production.
Drum-Buffer-Rope – Drum-buffer-rope is a TOC production planning technique that maximizes the flow of materials in a plant for which there is an immediate customer demand.
What the 5 steps followed in theory of constraints approach?
Theory of constraints has five steps. They are;
- Identify the constraint : The constraint must be identified before an attempt is made to improve the throughput.
- Exploit the constraint : If a constraint is responsible for reducing the output, then it should be pushed to yield the maximum output.
- Subordinate to the constraint : The rest of the process should provide maximum support to the constraint to maximize its throughput.
- Elevate the constraint : Improve performance by adding more capacity by way of additional resources.
- Do not let inertia set in : If the weak link has been strengthened, go back to step one and implement TOC on the new weakest link.
