Explaining TOC - thanks to YouTube

I've been attempting to clean up the Theory of Constraints entry on Wikipedia.  One element of that has been to hunt down references and clear up the "criticism" section to be readable.  Part of the reference hunt took me to YouTube, and that of course led to more YouTube.  Here are four videos I dove into and my thoughts about them.  Let me know if there are others you enjoy.

Standing on the Shoulder of Giants by Eliyahu M. Goldratt

The first video was Standing on the Shoulders of Giants (7:00), a discussion by Eli Goldratt, where he provides a clearer description of how the work of Henry Ford and Taiichi Ohno are the basis behind much of his thinking in TOC.  He focuses particularly on the central idea behind Ford and Ohno as being increasing flow through the system.  And TOC stands on these shoulders.  This is based on an article of the same name, which was published in Diamond Weekly, a Japanese-language magazine, in late 2008.  I have not had any luck finding the article itself.

An overview of Theory Of Constraints's Chain Theory, and part of the Drum-Buffer-Rope scheduling system.

Next, I jumped to Henrik Mårtensson's video on The Chain Theory (5:32), where he talks about the basic topology of business as a network of interconnected processes / people and the concept of "the chain is only as strong as the weakest link."  In the case of a manufacturing or project network, the key is that the network can only produce at the rate of the slowest node in the network: the constraint.  (I've seen this one before, as well as another Mårtensson video on the TOC topic.)

This is a quick excerpt from Eli's recent web cast. This was the introductory session for the first web cast on the Theory Of Constraints (TOC) Process for project Management Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM). See www.toc-goldratt.com

Then it was back to another Goldratt video, this time an older one on What is TOC (4:39).  In this one he focuses on the central questions you learn in the TOC training materials: What to Change, What to Change to, and How to Cause the Change.  The is an example of classic Goldratt statements, such as "Ask people what to change, and you will find out to what extent people are real experts at bitching and moaning."  But which one do you pick?  Goldratt provides some general suggestions. 

The Hike - from "The Goal" by Goldratt. A video for an inventory industrial engineering class. Starring Felipe Gonzalez and Nadia Dajani. Guest appearances by Damian Daniels, Josh Keel and Andy Ngae. Filmed by Richard Joseph

Then to a very silly video demonstrating The Hike (5:55) from Goldratt's book, The Goal.  This is a classic demo of Herbie and the source of "where is Herbie" questions for people who really like The Goal.  It walks through the Five Focusing Steps, but in a very fun (and silly) way.  Not recommended if high production quality is important to you.