Theory of Constraints Handbook - James Cox Iii [328]
Probably the most telling was received from one of the mayors with which he closed the strategy session for his city:
“Today, I am so proud to be an African. What this team has achieved in only a few days and the spirit in which it was achieved was truly inspiring and should serve as a benchmark to the rest of the Public Sector of what is possible if the right people are put in a room together, reminded that we have a common goal and that it is always possible to find win-win ways to break conflicts and overcome constraints, especially when lives depend on it.”
Figure 16-13 shows photos of the active participation obtained in these workshops.
FIGURE 16-13 Selected photographs from the pilot workshops.
After the success of the first application, the concept of the 5-Day Constraint Analysis Workshop was used between April and August of 2007 in three additional cities. Table 16-3 below shows the results that were achieved in each of the four cities.
Current Status of Pilot Projects (by the End of 2009)
The primary objective of the 5-Day Constraint Analysis Workshops was to test whether it was possible for each of the cities to achieve, in 5 days or less, the active contribution and consensus on each of the 5 change questions. The first application validated this hypothesis and, as a result, the same methodological approach was followed in the 3 additional cities.
Although the activities at one of the cities did not continue due to another project that absorbed the manpower of the local Waste Management Unit, the 5-Day Constraint Analysis Workshops have led to a new quality in consensus building among key stakeholders and strategic planning.
After having led a two-year process of building up local capacities for improving municipal solid waste management by applying TOC combined with specialized waste-related technical knowledge, Michael Funcke-Bartz from InWEnt reports the following achievements of the TOC-based working process (scale differing from city to city):
Waste management steering committees consisting of all stakeholder representatives have been established to manage the implementation process and to develop additional TOC solutions for obstacles identified during implementation.
Official support from the political decision-makers was achieved that is a prerequisite for sustaining such a TOC process and implementation.
Local junior TOC experts have been trained that are now able to facilitate meetings of Waste Management Steering Committees and with stakeholders applying key elements like obstacle based planning, conflict resolution, Throughput Accounting.
TABLE 16-3 Comparative Results of Outcomes from the TOC Workshops for the First Four Cities
The joint working process has improved the understanding and cooperation between local government, private contractors, and informal waste collectors and has led to a paradigm shift that recognizes that important improvements can be achieved by better exploiting the available physical, financial, and human resources.
In one case, the local government’s financial conditions were so difficult that it was not even able to cover the running expenses for salaries. In this case, the TOC analysis helped to develop measures to increase revenues to overcome this constraint.
Pilot projects were developed for servicing low-income areas through informal waste collectors.
The legislative environment was analyzed and, in addition to necessary changes to laws and bylaws, the realization grew that existing legislation very often could be used by arrangement with the courts to resolve issues, previously deemed impossible.
There has been evidence that waste collection has been increased due to better “Constraint Exploitation Rules.” For example, the number of trips done by Waste Collection Trucks increased by between 30 and 100 percent. Also, private contractors have reported significant increases in their revenues (due to more trips and higher levels of payment by the communities they service) and the community representatives