Theory of Constraints Handbook - James Cox Iii [595]
Some of his works were truly pioneering efforts, like the development of TOC application in the field of intelligence analysis—already in use—or, together with Dr. Issahary of the Dead Sea Works, in applying Six Sigma in concert with TOC.
In the course of the last few years, Dr. Klarman has joined Richard Klapholz in the effort to develop and present a range of TOC solutions in a wide range of business activities, like sales management or customer support and service—a truly pioneering effort.
He holds a PhD in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Tel-Aviv University.
Richard Klapholz is a 17-year veteran in sales, marketing, and customer support of high technology production equipment on the global scene. He currently serves as the President of his firm’s 500-employee subsidiary in Asia Pacific.
Mr. Klapholz has held various international sales, marketing, and customer support positions. All have focused on the direct distribution of strategic, high-value capital equipment, like the marketing of innovative products to the graphic arts industry through a direct sales force of 100 salespersons on a pan-European market, OEM sales to commercial and quick printers through the sales forces of Xerox (North America) and Rank-Xerox (Europe). Those sales forces included over 2000 salespersons. He was involved in sales of Dell Computers’ equipment to the IT market in Israel, implementing Dell’s direct sales, as well as worldwide marketing of automated inspection and imaging equipment to electronic components manufacturers through a global and direct sales channels. This involved managing a salesforce of 50 salespersons, customer support to North American manufacturers, and general management with focus on distribution to Taiwanese accounts in Taiwan and China.
He co-authored a book on sales management using TOC concepts, The Cash Machine. The book was published in 2004 and was later translated into Japanese, Lithuanian, and Chinese.
Mr. Klapholz is a 1992 INSEAD, Fontainebleau, MBA graduate. He became accustomed to TOC during his MBA studies and since then has become addicted to the TOC concepts and Thinking Processes. Mr. Klapholz has implemented TOC concepts in sales and customer support since 1997.
Mr. Klapholz holds a BSc degree in Electronics Engineering from Tel-Aviv University.
CHAPTER 31
Viable Vision for Health Care Systems
Gary Wadhwa
Introduction
The use of the Theory of Constraint1 (TOC) in healthcare is growing rapidly; however, little has been reported in the literature. The TOC methodology has been previously applied to health care on a large scale. Knight (2003) first reported the use of Buffer Management (BM) in the British National Health System. Wright and King (2006) later describe the use of TOC in the British health care system in a novel form. Umble and Umble (2006) describe the implementation of TOC BM (the identification and elimination of the major causes of long waits) in three separate implementations in British hospitals. Significant improvements were achieved almost immediately using this methodology in emergency departments and the acute hospital admissions process in each implementation. For example, in the Emergency Department in Oxfordshire Horton Hospital, the pre-implementation percentage of patients processed in under 4 hours typically varied between 50 and 60 percent. In addition, the pre-implementation acute hospital admitting process regularly exceeded 4 hours and frequently exceeded the 12-hour waiting period. Post-implementation, the percentage of Emergency Department patients processed in less than 4 hours increased to about 80 percent in the next few months, then to 91 percent, and then to 95 percent within six months of implementation. In contrast, for post-implementation results in the acute hospital admissions process,