Bill Brantley has written a paper that combines knowledge management and theory of constraints, Strategic Knowledge Management: Using the Theory of Constraints for Better Knowledge Management. From his blog entry on the paper (with some editing):
I finished the first version of my project to combine knowledge management, the theory of constraints, and strategy. As I stated in my November 29, 2006 posting, I was going to us Dettmer's Constraint Management to provide the link between strategy and the knowledge management processes. I did this by breaking down the various TOC Tools into their constituent elements. As knowledge is gathered or generated in the organization, they are tagged with one or more of the TOC Tools' elements ("TOC Tagging") and entered into an organization-wide database. Then, as teams use Bohm-style dialogues around the TOC Tools to utilize the existing knowledge from the database and to generate new knowledge.
I like his view of how knowledge management could work. In this case, rather than designing a KM system to scratch an itch in the organization, Bill suggests that KM is best used in support of the strategic process for the organization. And if that strategic prices is constraints management (as TOC argues it should be), then you have a perfect match of strategy and supporting technology.
I am concerned that this sounds like information technology, rather than knowledge management. However, if one argues that knowledge management is all about people & process fitted out with the right supporting technologies, then maybe this isn't so far off the mark after all. Certainly, the way Bill envisions how TOC and KM weave together is an holistic view of the organization.