All in theory of constraints
Glen Alleman has some interesting thoughts about uncertainty in projects and whether we need to estimate better. I wonder if theory of constraints and buffer management points to a different solution.
How Smart Leaders Talk About Time is a "Conversation Starter" from HarvardBusiness.org in October. It talks about the the struggle so many businesses have of having too many things to do and prioritizing amongst them. What is a leader to do?
In case you think I am a dyed-in-the-wool Theory of Constraints promoter, I point to this article by Dan Trietsch from a 2005 issue of Project Management Journal.
Dennis Stevens has a nice description of how Theory of Constraints and Big Agile relate to each other. I've known that the do, but I hadn't given much thought to the connections.
The fundamentals of CCPM workshop was interesting in that I saw some new simulations (games) and he put the vicious cycle of standard operations in a drawing that made a lot of sense to me.
Luis Suarez pointed to an entertaining YouTube video produced by one of his IBM colleagues, which has me pondering the tendency we (in business) have of jumping from bad effects to a "solution" without understanding the underlying cause.
This week, I get to spend several days in San Francisco at Realization's Project Flow 2009 conference. Hopefully, I get to meet some additional friends.
A week ago, the Sunday Boston Globe carried a piece on Eugene Litvak's work on helping hospitals improve. Flow is the key.
Tesco is using weather forecasts to predict demand. Instead, it might be a better idea to design the supply chain to be flexible and fast to respond to actual changes in consumer demand.
Information overload can be considered an individual problem to be solved by many of the rules I've written about in my own journey around personal effectiveness. Or it can be thought of as part of a larger system of people interacting that needs to be addressed with a systematic approach.
A colleague forwarded a copy of "Manage a Living system, Not a Ledger" by H. Thomas Johnson. It is a great discussion of why traditional financial measures, while required for accounting reporting, are terrible for internal decision making.
My weekly Google Alert for Theory of Constraints popped up this One-Minute Take-Away on The Goal. The brief article gives you this graphic and then a brief explanation.
The Manufaturer has published a video interview with Eli Goldratt and Will Stirling, which appears to have been recorded after a seminar that Goldratt gave.
The recent IAM Talking podcast, "The Problems of Process, In Practice," Dan Keldsen hosts a discussion with Bob Lewis of IT Catalysts, and there are a couple of elements that really connected with me.
I am still looking for more thinking on how to apply Theory of Constraints ideas and thinking in heavily uncertain areas like discovery research, where typical drop-out rates are well above 80%.
There's a potential conflict between Getting Things Done and Just Do It. Here are some thoughts on the topic.
I had lunch the other day with Johanna Rothman and the topic of planning research work came up. It is difficult to plan research work because the very nature of research is one of iteration and uncertainty. You don't know if your experiment is going to work, so how can you build a formal plan of everything you plan to do?
The TOC ICO has awarded Boeing with its award for achievement this year.
Mark Foster has an interesting entry, "Acting in One's Own Best Interests." Essentially he suggests that the highest form of achievement comes when people act in their own best interests.
I came across a new blog recently by Dr. Ron Lasky of Indium Corporation, named simply Dr. Lasky's Blog. While his expertise and background is in the electronics and electronic materials area, he also has an interest in Theory of Constraints.