Theory of Constraints

The theory of constraints (TOC) is an overall management philosophy introduced by Eliyahu M. Goldratt in his 1984 book titled The Goal, which is geared to help organizations continually achieve their goals. Goldratt adapted the concept to project management with his book Critical Chain, published in 1997.

Note

Wikipedia, Theory of constraints: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_constraints.

The basic idea of the TOC is very simple, yet very powerful when we focus on improvement because it is meant to help in identifying what we should work on in a System in order to achieve the quickest and the most effective benefit. Despite being first articulated in the context of manufacturing, the principles underlying it are very general and can be adapted to every systemic context.

The theory follows from the fact that every organization has room for improvements and the current performances are bounded by the most limiting constraint. Removing the constraint...