Developing Operational Excellence (2nd edition)

On Saturday 13th June 2009, I facilitated the 2nd workshop in the series of "Developing Operational Excellence". About 22 managers attended. I am now using the Theory of Constraint (TOC) to identify core problems in organizations. TOC assumes that the organization is like a chain. As a consequence, all problems are interrelated. There exist a core problem and everything is a direct or indirect consequence of that core problem. The great thing about TOC is that it is based on understanding "cause and effect". The only real trick is that participants need to think backwards (we go from the symptoms to the core problem). That's all. We focused on two skills: developing CRTs and ECs. These two techniques really help operational people to distinguish the core problem from the many symptoms. One of the groups was particularly interesting. This was an entrepreneur who was trying to develop his business without having to spend extra capital. By mapping his problem, we were able to identify a leverage point. I attach some photos.