Learn in the textbookManagement Techniques for Quality and Process Improvement (TQC, TQM, Six Sigma, TOC)
DefinitionTOC (Theory of Constraints) is the idea of concentrating improvement on the bottleneck (constraint) that caps the output of a chain of steps, so as to achieve overall optimization.
ExplanationA bottleneck is the point in a chain of steps with the lowest capacity, which sets how much can flow downstream. Total output cannot exceed that point's capacity, so speeding up only the other steps just piles up work in process in front of it or leaves later steps waiting, without raising results. Maximizing the result of the connected whole, rather than the efficiency of each part, is called overall optimization.
AnalogyWhen four people pass parcels down a line, the parcels stall at the slowest person, so the other three hurrying does not increase how much gets moved.
Memory hookThe idea was spread by Goldratt, a former physicist, in The Goal, a novel about turning a factory around.