I'm not a bottleneck, I'm a free man!

Presenters: Pascal Van Cauwenberghe & Rob Westgeest
Type: Simulation/Workshop
Duration: 120 minutes
Audience: People who are interested in improving organisational performance, team organisation, productivity and measurements or who want to know how stuff works

Objectives

Participants should be able to apply the Theory of Constraints to better understand and even optimize the way their organisation/team/group works.

Abstract

The "Theory of Constraints" states that the throughput (amount of useful output) of any system is determined by one constraint (or bottleneck). If we wish to improve the system's throughput, we need to work on the constraint.

In this session, participants learn (and experience in a simulation) how they can recognize constraints in a system and how to deal with them systematically using the "5 Focusing Steps".

They then, in small groups, apply the Focusing Steps to real-world situations:

one member of the group is the "customer" who describes the system and wants it optimized
the other members of the group are "TOC consultants" who go through the 5 focusing steps to help their customer.

Finally, consultants and customers present their results, so that other participants can discuss and learn from their proposals.

Benefits of attending

Learn about a simple, yet effective way to look at systems and how to optimize the way their team/department/organisation works.

What will the organisers learn

Ways of applying the Theory of Constraints to real-world situations. Situations where ToC does not offer any solution.

Session Outline

05 min introduction
Introduction and simulation
- 30 min "The Boat & Hat Company" simulation to experience the bottleneck
- 20 min The "5 focusing steps" to optimize a system, applied to the simulation
Applying the Theory of Constraints in the "Real World"
- 20 min "ToC Consultants 'R Us" Part 1: participants consult with a customer to describe their system and find their bottleneck(s)
- 20 min "ToC Consultants 'R Us" Part 2: participants help the customer to optimize their system by applying the 5 focusing steps.
20 min participants present and discuss their recommendations
05 min closing

Outputs

Systems descriptions + recommendations on posters. Results of discussion are captured on a site. See http://www.nayima.be/about/TheoryOfConstraints.html