Back to Basics – Part 1 | top
by Martin Powell

In this series of articles we intend to start with a basic assumption and then using simple logic to derive the operational rules of operations or a manufacturing organization. By the way, when we are talking about a manufacturing organization, we do not talk about the section that actually manufactures – we are talking about the entire organization that its survival depends on manufacturing parts. Many of the principles also apply for any for profit business.
Let’s start with something we think we can all agree on – in many businesses from many managers we have heard the following statement:

“A company’s long term survival depends on its ability to ever increase productivity”

Under TOC we believe that Productivity is the act of bringing the company closer to its Goal. Every action that brings a company closer to its Goal is "Productive" - every action that does not bring the company closer to its Goal is not "Productive". At first glance it looks like this definition did not add very much. We just substituted one buzz word - "Productive" - for another - "Goal". But this is not valid, because if we examine it carefully, we see that now we understand that "Productivity" is a buzz word unless we first define:

"What is the Goal [ongoing purpose] of a for profit business (manufacturing or otherwise)?"

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What is The Goal of a business?
Learn from the inspiring story of Alex Rogo | top

The Goal Movie
Using the principles of the Theory of Constraints (TOC), Alex Rogo transforms his mediocre division into a money-making machine. If you would like to introduce TOC concepts, including bottleneck, throughput, flow balancing and learn TOC applications such as the Five Focusing Steps and the TOC application for Operations (Drum Buffer Rope), The Goal How To Version 46 minute movie is a quick & painless way to get the ball rolling.

More information Buy NOW Designed for: EVERY LEVEL OF AN ORGANIZATION from Executives, Managers, Front line Leaders & Shop Floor; Consultants, Academics and Students. Language: English, Spanish, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Hindi, Japanese Media: DVD or OnDemand Internet Video Streaming Length: 46 minutes

Key Training Points: How to identify and deal with system bottlenecks How to measure the impact and viability of new ideas How to rally your team behind the improvement process How to revisit the entire process to facilitate ongoing improvement Watch an excerpt 10 min, English, Español, हिंदी, 简体中文, 繁體中文, 日本語, русский