Theory of Constraints Handbook - James Cox Iii [773]
13The TOCICO Dictionary (Sullivan et al., 2007, 14) defines “core conflict—The systemic conflict that causes the vast majority of the undesirable effects in the current reality of the system being studied. The core conflict is often generic in nature and can be derived by generalizing the various conflicts that underlie the undesirable effects that persist in the system.” (© TOCICO 2007, used by permission, all rights reserved.)
14Please note that the core conflict within the subject matter can be identified through the same process of consolidating all of the identified UDEs as reflected in the U-Shape discussed later. Please note also that any analysis is sensitive to the list of UDEs that is picked. Therefore, it is important to check that the UDEs have severe impact on the performance of the area under study.
15Dr. Eli Goldratt has described the basic concepts/assumptions of TOC in numerous presentations. Very little has been written about these assumptions. In his presentation called “Necessary & Sufficient” on the second part (on CD-2), he presents the first two of the concepts under the heading: “The basic assumptions of TOC—A look into reality based on the common sense approach of the hard sciences.” The three basic assumptions also are described in detail in Goldratt’s (1990) book What Is This Thing Called Theory of Constraints and How Should It Be Implemented? The same basic assumptions are covered in The Choice (Goldratt, 2009). They are recorded on an extended list of his assumptions on pages 157–158 of the book.
16A nice example of such a case appears in Chapter 8 of It’s Not Luck (Goldratt, 1994).
17If you have many IOs, you should consider grouping them and establishing group topics and complete the exercise for each group. Then, sequence the groups.
1As I write, I am imagining more than one occasion in which I thought a TV, a computer, or other electronic gadget was not working, and “the fix” came in the form of my husband calling from another room with just a small tinge of sarcasm in his voice, “Honey, are you sure it’s plugged in?”
2The detailed process is called the Categories of Legitimate Reservation (CLR).
3The And Connector was originally named (and is still often called) a “banana” due to the shape that is formed when writing trees by hand to illustrate the “logical and” nature of the causes and effects.
4Entities 1, 3, 5, 6, and 9 are causes only. Entities 11 and 12 are effects only. Entities 2, 4, 7, 8, and 10 are both causes and effects. Entities 1 and 10 are a cause for Entity 2; Entities 2 and 3 are a cause for Entity 4; Entity 4 is a cause for Entity 7; Entities 6 and 7 are a cause for Entity 10; Entity 10 is a cause of Entity 2 (the loop); Entity 7 is a cause for Entity 11; Entities 4 and 5 are a cause for Entity 8; Entity 8 is a cause for Entity 12; and Entity 9 is another cause for Entity 12.
5More on the term undesirable effect (UDE) can be found in the section of this chapter that describes the Current Reality Tree.
6When a Strategy and Tactic Tree (S&T) is used, it often replaces the PRT as the mechanism to address the obstacles to implementation of a solution that contains many injections and requires the synchronization of multiple stakeholder groups.
7If you are interested in learning the history behind the quite different name of this TP, see Chapter 9 of the book Thinking for a Change: Putting the TOC Thinking Processes to Use (Scheinkopf, 1999).
8A source of delay is the answer to the question, “What is the order waiting for?”
9In Appendix C, I provide a copy of the POOGI step in the standard Strategy & Tactic Tree that MTO manufacturers implement. See http://www.mhprofessional.com/TOCHandbook
10The TOC Priority Management (using BM) approach classifies orders as green, yellow, red, or black according to the degree to which the order has consumed its buffer (safety time). Green orders have consumed the least amount of buffer (and are thus not at risk of being late), black orders have consumed their entire buffer (and are thus already