Quality and the theory of constraints

There are many reasons why companies struggle to achieve quality, but a major contributor is their inability to think and act in terms of systems rather than components. What is essential to the ultimate success is a thinking process that enables a company to appreciate the effect of local actions a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Quality progress 1995-04, Vol.28 (4), p.77
Main Author: Dettmer, H William
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
Changes
Corporate planning
Guidelines
Optimization
Organizational behavior
Process controls
Theory of constraints
Total quality
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:There are many reasons why companies struggle to achieve quality, but a major contributor is their inability to think and act in terms of systems rather than components. What is essential to the ultimate success is a thinking process that enables a company to appreciate the effect of local actions and decisions on overall system performance. Ideally, a systemic thinking process would provide a context in which to place all of the diverse elements of quality, management, and organizational behavior. In 1986, a revolutionary book appeared in bookstores, The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt, which presents a thinking process, called the theory of constraints (TOC), in a way that readers can grasp. TOC facilitates the examination of assumptions underlying traditional rules, policies, and measures. It provides the methodology to define what to change, what it should be changed to, and how to effect change to continuously improve the performance of an entire system. A discussion is presented of the theory of constraints which includes Goldratt's 5 steps to guide the improvement process.
ISSN:0033-524X