This website or its third-party tools use cookies which are necessary to its functioning and required to improve your experience. By clicking the consent button, you agree to allow the site to use, collect and/or store cookies.
Please click the consent button to view this website.
I accept
Deny cookies Go Back

Intelligent Management

Deming and Theory of Constraints for CEOs and Executive Teams for the Age of Complexity. Ess3ntial Critical Chain Project Management

  • THE DECALOGUE METHOD
    • The Problem for Every Business
    • The Systemic Solution
    • synchronize competencies
    • How It Works
    • business insight and foresight through systemic cause and effect reasoning
    • Our Education Modules for Systemic Management
  • about us
    • Dr. Domenico Lepore
    • the founders
    • Intelligent Management Success Stories
    • Our Books
    • Clients
    • Expanding Spiral of Positive Systemic Results with Intelligent Management
  • blog & books
    • Blog Theory of Constraints and Deming
    • Our publications
  • ITALIA
  • Contact
You are here: Home / constraint / Seeing the Big Picture of Management with the Theory of Constraints

Dec 15 2017

Seeing the Big Picture of Management with the Theory of Constraints

Due to the global success of Dr. Goldratt’s first business novel ‘The Goal’ most people mistakenly think of TOC as just a technique for manufacturing. While TOC does produces fast and radical improvements in manufacturing processes, it is in fact a whole system philosophy and method. The thinking that underlies this theory stems from a worldview of unity where all the parts of an organization are connected and it provides solutions for all aspects of management, from the minutiae of day-to-day disagreements right through to entire supply chain management.

When we first set up our firm in Milan in 1996, we became the official Avraham Y. Goldratt Institute for Italy. We had the great fortune to train with one of Goldratt’s closest collaborators, Oded Cohen, and the luxury of being located in one of the richest business districts of the world. Even though we initially worked successfully with many manufacturing companies in the area, reducing inventory and speeding up delivery times, our work quickly expanded to include software houses, homes for the elderly, educational institutes, in fact every kind of organization. This is because the Theory of Constraints is a universal approach to management. Once you know the essential skills a manager needs and the power of identifying a constraint and managing an organization around it, there are no limits to its application.

The many solutions of  TOC

Once you understand TOC profoundly, it becomes clear how to apply it to any environment to create radical improvement, and Goldratt specifically outlined solutions for:

  • synchronous manufacturing (Drum, Buffer, Rope)
  • distribution
  • marketing and sales (external constraint)
  • strategy and planning
  • supply chain
  • retail

Moreover, Goldratt created an entire approach to accounting called Throughput Accounting that drastically simplifies accounting to the only measurements managers really need to know.

Project Management becomes the major protagonist of this whole system approach to management. The best known approaches to Project Management fall short when it comes to seeing the organization as a connected whole. Goldratt developed the solution of Critical Chain as a means to manage projects based on finite capacity, this avoiding the wrong-thinking of multi-tasking and procrastination that causes projects to be late.

Why don’t we see the big picture?

Our thinking is fragmented, and so are our organizations. This way of thinking is completely out of step with how we now understand the way the universe works (see complexity and network theory), but most managers are still stuck in a worldview of departments and functions. It worked in the 19th century, but it doesn’t any more. That’s the way organizations are still designed and measured, even though all those artificial barriers prevent the various parts of the whole from performing as well as they should. What we need is to think holistically, in other words systemically. In order to enhance and strengthen our ability to think in a robust and systemic way, Goldratt designed a series of Thinking Process Tools. These tools equip managers with all the thinking skills they need and that are so sorely lacking in many management environments.

The organization as a system

We have W. Edwards Deming to thank for our understanding of how organizations are in fact systems. This is where our work as a firm started, with Deming’s management philosophy. When our founder, Dr. Domenico Lepore, was introduced to the work of  Goldratt through Oded Cohen, he quickly had the intuition that combining Deming’s approach with the practical tools created by Goldratt would be a complete strategy and solution for any organization attempting to achieve a meaningful and sustainable goal. That led tGoldratt’s publisher to publish the now classic ‘Deming and goldratt: The Decalogue’. The consistent application and improvement of this approach over nearly two decades has led us to develop an innovative organizational design based on the work of Deming and Goldratt that we call ‘the Network of Projects‘. It’s time for organizations to shift beyond silos to a new, systemic whole. Only when managers consistently see the Big Picture and learn how to manage their organizations as one system will they achieve their true potential.

Sign up to our blog here and shift your thinking towards broader, systemic possibilities for yourself and your organization. Intelligent Management, founded by  Dr. Domenico Lepore, helps leaders in organizations speed up flow, overcome silos, and  shift towards a whole system way of working through a synchronized  Network of Projects. We support our international clients through education, training and the Ess3ntial multi-project software to schedule competencies and unlock the potential of human resources. Based on our proprietary Decalogue methodology .

See our new books  The Human Constraint – a business novel purchased in 35 countries  so far and  ‘Quality, Involvement, Flow: The Systemic Organization’  from CRC Press, New York, by Dr. Domenico Lepore,  Dr. Angela Montgomery and Dr. Giovanni Siepe.

 

Written by angela montgomery · Categorized: constraint, Network of Projects, Synchronized production · Tagged: big picture, Deming, Goldratt, whole system

Search Form

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Sign Up For Our Systems View Blog!

Search Form

Recent Posts

  • Companies that Challenge their Limiting Beliefs Can Thrive April 23, 2025
  • A Method for Breakthroughs: The Theory of Constraints March 31, 2025
  • The Biggest Bottleneck that Blindsides Business: Management March 14, 2025
  • Revealing the inner nature of any organization to create a leap in performance February 14, 2025
  • Dealing with Uncertainty in 2025 January 13, 2025
  • Exponential Thinking for Exponential Growth December 1, 2024
  • Why Physics Matters for Managing Organizations Systemically November 17, 2024
  • Addressing the Cognitive Human Constraint in Organizations October 27, 2024
  • Obstacles, Ambition and Getting to the Goal October 10, 2024
  • The Theory of Constraints: Why Words Matter so Much September 27, 2024
  • Can a Systems Approach Prevent Greed? September 12, 2024
  • The Human Constraint that Frees Us August 30, 2024
  • Optimize Your Company for the Digital Age August 22, 2024
  • Beyond Teams: Build a Systemic Organization August 15, 2024
  • A New Generation of Entrepreneurs and Leaders Facing Unprecedented Challenges July 11, 2024

Social Icons

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Vimeo

Archives

  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011

Recent Posts

  • Companies that Challenge their Limiting Beliefs Can Thrive April 23, 2025
  • A Method for Breakthroughs: The Theory of Constraints March 31, 2025
  • The Biggest Bottleneck that Blindsides Business: Management March 14, 2025
  • Revealing the inner nature of any organization to create a leap in performance February 14, 2025
  • Dealing with Uncertainty in 2025 January 13, 2025

Our Blog

  • Companies that Challenge their Limiting Beliefs Can Thrive
  • A Method for Breakthroughs: The Theory of Constraints
  • The Biggest Bottleneck that Blindsides Business: Management
  • Revealing the inner nature of any organization to create a leap in performance
  • Dealing with Uncertainty in 2025

Recent Posts

  • Companies that Challenge their Limiting Beliefs Can Thrive April 23, 2025
  • A Method for Breakthroughs: The Theory of Constraints March 31, 2025
  • The Biggest Bottleneck that Blindsides Business: Management March 14, 2025
  • Revealing the inner nature of any organization to create a leap in performance February 14, 2025
  • Dealing with Uncertainty in 2025 January 13, 2025

Connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Sign Up For Our Systems View Blog!

Search Form

  • Home
  • Blog Theory of Constraints and Deming
  • Library
  • How to adopt systemic organization management
  • Knowledge Base for ‘The Human Constraint’
  • Contact Us

© 2025 Intelligent Management Inc. Canada

Privacy Policy