Some History on TOC Consultants

I stumbled upon this recently.    Don't know yet who the writers are, or the veracity of the information, but was an interesting read.

http://www.executivebriefing-toc.com/consult.htm

Another Multi Tasking Video

If you have seen the "I Love Lucy" multi tasking video, this is very illustrative as well.

Notice how the quality deteriorates as he is increasing his multi tasking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvOHieaPgt4

Boxes and Thinking Out of the Box

Check your organizational design before asking people to think out of the box.

Read the full article http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2011/09/boxes.html

TOC Implementation Journey Blog

Daniel Hampton of Australia, is starting a new blog where he will share his experience with a Theory of Constraints (TOC) implementation in a manufacturing company.   For all of you who follow blogs, this may be interesting to follow.

http://tocjourney.aussieblogs.com.au/

SPE Implementation In Small IT Company

Justin Roff Marsh published a video showing how to implement his Sales Process Engineering Methodology in a very small company. 

http://www.salesprocessengineering.net/2011/09/22/tech-company-eliminates-salespeople-boosts-sales/

I became aware of Justin's Methodology around 2004, and quickly became an "evangelist" for it, due to its innovation approach.  As a reminder, his methodology aims to double sales development appointments without increasing  expenditures, and is based on two basic principles:

-Division of Labor

-Schedule Centralization

Justin is also currently writing a new book called "The Machine", where he explains in detail his Sales Process Methodology.  You can view the chapters written so far here:

http://www.salesprocessengineering.net/the-machine/

Critical Chain Summary - Rob Newbold

TOC Expert Rob Newbold published a very nice Critical Chain Summary, using "task deadlines" in a very original and simple way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xf-waj23P8

PS - The presentation was done in Prezi, which is a very interesting to avoid the traditional "death by power point".

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Santiago Velásquez Martínez

The Generosity Experiment - Sasha Dichter of Acumen Fund

In this wonderful TED talk (as all TED talks usually are), Sasha Dichter of Acumen Fund talks about an incredible "generosity experiment".  

http://vimeo.com/29140232

Acumen Fund is an organization that tries to solve problems in poor countries, using entrepreneurial approaches.

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Santiago Velásquez Martínez

Looking at Non Value Added through the P&L

Bill Waddell suggests a way to show non value added activities by "reshuffling" the categories of expenses in the P&L statement.

http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2011/09/changing-the-discussion.html

It may help to focus management on improving their performance, even if initially the approach is looking only at ways to reduce costs and not on how to increase revenues. 

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Santiago Velásquez Martínez

About Organizational Structures

Manu from Bonkers world shows us in an illustrative way the different type of organizational structures that some top companies use today:

http://www.bonkersworld.net/organizational-charts/

Another nice example would've been Semco, but you can always read about that by reading Ricardo Semler's landmark book.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446670553/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=valborweb-20&link_code=as3&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=0446670553

So, the question at the end of the day is:  is the current organizational chart hindering your performance?

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Santiago Velásquez Martínez

Great Cartoon About Change

For all of us who are trying to change ourselves or trying to help others change.

http://www.newyorkerstore.com/were-ready-to-begin-the-next-phase-of-keeping-things-exactly-the-way-they-are/invt/137060/

Harada and the Power of Self Reliance

Norman Bodek, a well known Lean expert, talks about the power of self reliance outside the factory floor in Toyota.  Self Reliance relates to how  organizations can succeed when any employee, inside or outside the plant, has the authority to solve problems on his own and make them aware to management, even when there is no company policy to handle them.

He also talks about Harada, a new method to help people become self reliant and become successful.   This is being taught in Japan by Takashi Harada.

http://www.qualitydigest.com/inside/quality-insider-column/zenjidoka-simple-tool-complex-problem-solving-toyotas-quality.html

http://www.qualitydigest.com/inside/quality-insider-article/emzenjidokaem-ii-part-one.html

http://www.qualitydigest.com/inside/quality-insider-article/emzenjidokaem-ii-part-two.html#

http://www.qualitydigest.com/inside/quality-insider-article/zenjidoka-iii-building-excellent-people.html

Enjoy!

Errors of Commission and Ommission

Russel Ackoff was definitely one of the greatest systems thinkers.   He talks about  two types of errors management generally makes:  errors of comission (doing what should not be done) and errors of omission (not doing what should be done).

Goldratt uses these two types of mistakes to define TOC as well.

http://www.acasa.upenn.edu/A_MAJOR_MISTAKE.pdf

Enjoy.