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worked for the New Zealand Government’s scientific and industrial research organization, working as a consultant to business, government, and industry on a range of strategic and operational problems. Vicky graduated BSc (Hons) 1st Class from Canterbury University and PhD in Operational Research from the University of Lancaster, UK. She is a Jonah and holds the TOC ICO certifications in Thinking Process and Supply Chain Logistics, and serves on the examinations committee. She is a Fellow of the Operational Research Society (UK) and has held many positions with ORSNZ and NZPICS including President and Branch Chair, and as Editor and Editorial Board member for the International Transactions in Operations Research. She has published widely in books and international journals, co-authored The World of the Theory of Constraints, and given numerous academic and practitioner presentations and workshops.

John Davies is Professor of Management Studies and former Head of School, Victoria Management School, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He graduated from the University of Wales and the University of Lancaster with a background in operational research, and has developed his research interests primarily within the fields of the decision sciences, systems methodologies, and sports management. He is a Jonah and has published in leading academic journals spanning the decision sciences, technology management, systems, and sports management

He has been a council member of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management, Vice-President of the Operational Research Society of New Zealand, President of the Wellington Rugby Football Union, and is currently Vice President with Western Decision Science Institute.

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the valuable contribution of Hadley Smith with respect to data compilation and analysis in the latter stages of preparing this chapter. We would also like to acknowledge the sterling efforts of the editors: their insightful remarks, encouragement and support have played a key role in bringing this chapter into being.

CHAPTER 24

Daily Management with TOC

Oded Cohen

Introduction—Purpose of the Chapter

This book contains a blend of Theory of Constraints (TOC) methodology and standard solutions that have been developed, implemented, and perfected over almost three decades. This chapter is about giving managers the Thinking Processes (TP) tools and procedures to enhance their ability to make better decisions, implement them, and get the expected outcomes. To manage the TOC way we need a common basic agreement:

The role of managers is to ever improve the performance of the area under their responsibility.

Management responsibility is the smooth operation of their area today as well as in the future. Therefore, management must solve today’s problems as well as initiate improvements for better performance in the future. Many managers think that there is a trade off between spending time (or money) sorting out today’s burning issues or spending the time (or money) on improvement initiatives. That leads to managers just dealing with fires and not enough time devoted to system improvements. We would like to offer the use of the TOC TP for daily operations of helping to solve problems in such a way that is good for the short term as well as laying the foundation for the future.

Explicitly for this book, you—the manager—may be in one of three time phases (before, during, and after) with reference to a TOC solution:

1. In preparation for implementing TOC. Your area is run in a conventional way—in line with the company’s views and/or your views.

2. In the process (project) of implementing a TOC solution. Bringing a new approach to your area may raise many issues, problems, and conflicts between the “old” way and the new way. You want to provide leadership and hence you must address these issues in a way that will move the implementation forward while ensuring the support and collaboration of the relevant people.

3. The TOC solution is an integral part