TOCICO abstract
Format: Presentation
Specific industry: General
Intended audience:
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General audience – Target audience is attendees with TOC knowledge and
experience on the level of TOCICO’s Fundamentals Exam.
Presenter: Roy Stratton, Nottingham Trent University, Burton Street, Nottingham,
NG14BU, UK
Title: TOC – a unifying theory?
Learning objectives (3)
Following this presentation the participant will be able to:
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2
3
Discuss how TOC fits the classification of a good theory.
Conceptually position TOC in the context of other business theories and laws.
Discuss the boundaries of TOC as a theory.
Questions (3)
Questions that might arise from the presentation:
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3
How does the concept of inherent simplicity relate to other theories?
Why is TOC so all embracing but not so widely acknowledged?
Why is TOC sometimes associated with a ‘religious’ following?
ABSTRACT
This presentation aims to clarify the position of TOC as a theory and promote discussion over
its boundaries of application in the context of other related laws and theories. The
presentation is structured around the learning outcomes and starts by discussing the criteria
for a good theory and how TOC measures up. The laws (principles) of operations
management (Hopp and Spearman, 2000; Schmenner and Swink, 1998) are used as a basis
for comparing and contrasting the contribution of established theory and practice, drawing on
the wider cross functional perspective offered by TOC. This includes the linkage with
finance, marketing and sales in providing coherent business strategies allied to the generic
TOC solutions. The presentation concludes by exploring the boundaries to the theory with
specific reference to the generic applications and the thinking processes. The central
importance of complexity, flow, aggregation and buffer management is used as a basis for
discussing the most fruitful application boundaries.
Presentation outline
This presentation aims to provide an academic perspective regarding TOC being viewed as a
theory and this will be structured around the above three learning objectives. This builds on
the earlier publications including Gupta and Boyd (2008).
How TOC fits the criteria of a good theory?
I propose to use the quality criteria of (Lewis, 1998; Melnyk and Handfield, 1998)
Creative
Providing novel insights
Concise
Minimal use of constructs / variables
Useful
There is nothing more practical as a good theory (Kurt Lewin)
Scientific
Well defined terms with testable predictions
The use of causal mapping and testing of assumptions
How does TOC relate to other OM theories and laws?
Building on the work of others (Hopp and Spearman, 2000; Schmenner and Swink,
1998) the presentation will illustrating how established laws (principles) in OM
provide a means of relating TOC with other theory and practice.
Laws in Operations Management:
Scientific management, trade-off, variability, variability buffering, focus,
cumulative capabilities, bottlenecks, aggregation.
Related Theories:
Swift and even flow; Performance Frontiers; System of Profound Knowledge;
Supply Chain Alignment; Resource Based View (RBV) of business strategy;
Dynamic capabilities; SPIN marketing / selling; Blue ocean strategies;
Balanced Scorecard (Strategy mapping).
What are the boundaries of TOC as a theory?
To address this question we look at TOC from different perspectives.
The five focusing steps
The generic applications / solutions
Complexity, flow, aggregation and buffer management
Generic S&Ts
RBV of business strategy
Business to business marketing / sales
The thinking processes
Necessity and sufficiency logic
Causal loop diagrams
Conclusion
Review learning objectives and opportunity for wider application.
References
Gupta, M.C. and Boyd, L., 2008. Theory of constraints: a theory of operations management,
International Journal of Operations and Production Management, 28 (10), pp. 991-1012.
Hopp W.J., and Spearman, M.L., 2000. Factory Physics. 2nd Ed., Singapore: McGraw Hill.
Lewis, M. W., 1998. Iterative triangulation: a theory development process using existing case
studies. Journal of Operations Management, 16, 455-469.
Melnyk, S.A., and Handfield, R.B., 1998. May you live in interesting times…the emergence
of theory-driven empirical research. Journal of Operations Management, 16, pp.311-319.
Schmenner, R.W., and Swink, M.L., 1998. On theory in operations management.
Journal of Operations Management, 17, pp.97-113.