ToC REVIEW（英文版）

first comprehensive bibliography on the Theory of
Constraints (TOC)[23] which is to be published by North River Press, the publishers of
several works on TOC, most notably Eli Goldratt’s seminal works [11-17], such as The
Goal, It’s Not Luck, and Critical Chain. Based on our extensive search of the literature,
this talk will draw on examples of applications of TOC, and summarise important findings
on the theory and practice of TOC. Although initially a manufacturing method, TOC has
now developed into a theory about management: a powerful systemic problem structuring
and problem solving methodology which can be used to develop solutions with both
intuitive power and analytical rigour. TOC is increasingly being applied to situations
outside the manufacturing context, including distribution, marketing, project management,
accounting - in fact, any situation involving change to a system.
1 Introduction
The main motivation for the research reported in this paper was the realisation that TOC is
growing very rapidly, and we simply did not know what was “out there”; ie what had
already been tackled. Hence our mission two years ago was to conduct a literature search
to identify recent works (mostly post 1990). This search has culminated in an annotated
bibliography, which is to be published shortly by North River Press [23]. Alongside this
literature research grew a Masters thesis, pulling all this material together, both the theory
and the practice. [2]
This paper will first briefly outline the background to TOC, and then report on the
practice-related material from the survey
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