Theory of Constraints Handbook - James Cox Iii [11]
Dr. Goldratt deserves a lot of praise and appreciation for breaking the ground on topics of this handbook in his drive to teach the world to think logically. For thirty years he has been slaying sacred cows in the various business functions. From the very beginning he had a focus on the goal of teaching people to think like scientists and on redefining the system perspective to mean identifying and managing a few control points in a system and where change makes a significant difference in system performance. From our perspective, his biggest contributions are his Thinking Processes. They offer the potential of teaching children and adults right from wrong, how to sort through their personal and business problems, and how to achieve their dreams by using simple logic. He emphasized the use of the Socratic approach as a powerful methodology for both teaching and gaining buy-in.
The TOC experts (and their supportive families and friends) who authored these chapters must be thanked and applauded. They worked diligently at writing so we, the editors, could understand their shared wisdom. Their depth-of-knowledge is unparalleled. Each worked long hours through many revisions of their chapter to achieve a lasting contribution to the body of knowledge. But let us all understand that tomorrow there will be more and better material in each area as we have embarked on a journey and have not arrived at a destination with this handbook. It is a stake in the ground: what we know now. Let’s move forward.
Some professional organizations and individuals should be singled out. The Theory of Constraints International Certification Organization (TOCICO) is the young but rapidly growing certifying body of TOC, holding regional and international conferences focusing on the development of TOC knowledge and certification of professionals in this knowledge. Their TOCICO Dictionary has been a valuable source for definitions of key terms. Second, APICS is one of the leading educational and certification organizations, and the first to explore, and present education in TOC. By providing access to their excellent dictionary for a modest fee, APICS has enabled us to enhance the quality of the handbook. The Ansoff Family Trust permitted the use of the Ansoff’s growth matrix. TOC for Education (TOCfE) deserves special recognition for its efforts worldwide to teach children to apply logic and common sense in their life. Kathy Suerken, its director, has been a torch bearer for its cause and these professionals. We also thank the Singapore Prison system for permission to publish their unique and positive experience with TOC. We also thank Eli Goldratt, North River Press, and John Thompson for use of their materials. Wendy Donnelly and Jennifer Tucker provided valuable assistance in documenting references and building the bibliography.
Our education in TOC goes back almost to the very beginning with Dr. Goldratt and Bob Fox of Creative Output speaking at early APICS Conferences and offering academics invitations to attend their workshops. The list of TOC professionals extends through the Avraham Y. Goldratt Institute with Bob Fox, Dale Houle, Eli Schragenheim, Shri Srikanth, Oded Cohen, Alex Klarman, Alex Mashar, Tracey Burton Houle, Dee Jacobs, Debra Smith, John Covington, and many others. Many of the authors in this handbook are past students of Eli Goldratt and AGI and have since become leaders in our field. These individuals have freely shared their knowledge with us over the years. We have asked these individuals to share their knowledge now with you. We honor them for doing such an extraordinary job.
Theory of Constraints Handbook