Reaching the Goal: How Managers Improve a Services Business Using Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints

3. Theory of Constraints

• Drum-Buffer-Rope

• Replenishment

• Critical Chain

• Throughput Accounting

• Implications for Services

• Summary

• Endnotes

Theory of Constraints (TOC) is one of the best-known management approaches you may never have used, even if you're a professional manager or executive. The most widely acclaimed book about TOC has sold millions of copies, and its lessons have been widely influential in industry.¹ Several dozen other books and hundreds of articles about TOC have since been published. Nevertheless, far more TOC references apply to industry than services. So if you're in a services sector, TOC may not be on anybody's agenda yet. That's understandable, because TOC was invented to address chronic problems in industry. ...