{"id":10466,"date":"2022-11-29T08:56:40","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T06:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/za.syspro.com\/blog\/?p=10466"},"modified":"2023-01-27T11:37:17","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T09:37:17","slug":"how-theory-of-constraints-toc-and-thinking-about-erp-tae-can-be-used-with-an-erp-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/za.syspro.com\/blog\/erp-implementation\/how-theory-of-constraints-toc-and-thinking-about-erp-tae-can-be-used-with-an-erp-system\/","title":{"rendered":"How Theory of Constraints (TOC) and Thinking About ERP (TAE) can be used with an ERP system"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

A movement has been around for a few years called Business Transformation. Twenty years ago, a different action \u2014 Business Process Improvement \u2014 helped to encourage a concept called the Theory of Constraints (TOC). Finally, fourteen years ago, a book called ‘Thinking about ERP’ was published, which explained how businesses should think about selecting, deploying and operating an ERP<\/a> to achieve business requirements. While these three incidents are separated historically, they can be used to help manufacturers improve their processes and transform their businesses.<\/p>\n

Theory of Constraints<\/h2>\n

In 1984, Eli Goldratt published the book ‘The Goal’ in which he expounded the management concept of the Theory of Constraints (TOC). TOC postulates that every system has a limiting factor (constraint) that stops the system from performing better. It then provides a methodology for finding and improving that constraint until it is no longer the limiting factor. In manufacturing, the constraint is often referred to as a bottleneck. To improve performance or profitability, a business must find the bottleneck in the manufacturing process and fix it. Usually, there are only a small number of bottlenecks.<\/p>\n

The constraint limits production efficiency due to the processes that work in a business, a concept that has become well known in manufacturing \u2014 Drum, Buffer, Rope. The Drum sets the pace of the system and is limited by the constraint. The Buffer is the space that supports variation so that the Drum can operate at its usual pace. The Rope is the mechanism that controls how things flow through the entire process.<\/p>\n

There is a process to fix the constraint \u2014 The Five Focusing Steps. This involves identifying the constraint and then using other resources to support it, without concern at this stage for efficiency, and gradually finding out what needs to be done to eliminate it.<\/p>\n

To support the steps are the Thinking Processes, which seek answers to the following:<\/p>\n