Reaching The Goal: How Managers Improve a Services Business Using Goldratt's Theory of Constraints John Arthur Ricketts
Publisher: IBM Press

You've likely heard the adage, "A chain is only as strong as its weakest link," and this is what the Theory of Constraints reflects. The analytic approach with TOC comes from the contention that any manageable system is limited in achieving more of its goals by a very small number of constraints, and that there is always at least one constraint. Twenty years after Eliyahu Goldratt first introduced the Theory of Constraints in his book The Goal, the manufacturing world is again experiencing another paradigm shift in thinking. However, if a company is able to find a way to increase throughput with the same or less resources, it may mean the difference between continuing operations in North America or moving them to lower cost regions around the world. This theory helps you improve processes so that you can boost performance. The full Wikipedia entry goes on to explain steps to apply the Theory of Contraints, in particular to large scale manufacturing, which is where it can be especially useful (it's great for improving efficiency of systems made up of many people and processes). Eli Goldratt and was published in his 1984 book "The Goal." These are where bottlenecks occur that prevent an organization from maximizing its performance and reaching its goals. Training and Development Managers! Reach Your Workforce Anywhere They Go. Reaching The Goal: How Managers Improve a Services Business Using Goldratt's Theory of Constraints (paperback).