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Theory of ConstraintsTOC

A management philosophy that every system has one constraint limiting it, and improvement means managing that constraint.

The Theory of Constraints (TOC), from Eliyahu Goldratt, holds that any system's output is limited by a single constraint, so the fastest path to improvement is to focus there. Its five focusing steps are: identify, exploit, subordinate everything else to, elevate the constraint, then repeat.

TOC schedules production with Drum-Buffer-Rope and projects with critical chain. Its central lesson: improving a non-constraint adds cost without adding throughput.

Go Deeper
Theory of Constraints guide→Throughput Calculator→
Related Terms
Bottleneck
The process step with the lowest capacity, which sets the maximum throughput of the entire system.
Drum-Buffer-Rope
A Theory of Constraints scheduling method that paces the whole plant to the bottleneck and protects it with a time buffer.
Throughput
The rate at which a system produces finished, sellable output — ultimately limited by the bottleneck.
Critical Chain
A project scheduling method that accounts for resource constraints and protects the plan with aggregated buffers.
Capacity Utilization
Actual output as a percentage of maximum possible output — high utilization sounds good but drives up queue time.

Put Theory of Constraints into practice

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