Eliyahu M. Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints (TOC) is an approach to management that emphasises removing the roadblocks that prevent an organisation from reaching its full potential. According to the Theory of Constraints (TOC), every business has a select few major bottlenecks that prevent it from producing more. Finding and fixing these bottlenecks is a priority, according to TOC, because doing so will boost productivity and performance.
Key principles of TOC include the notion that an organization’s performance is constrained by its constraints and that the goal of an organisation should be to maximise the throughput of its constraints. The Theory of Constraints (TOC) places equal emphasis on the management of work flow through an organisation as it does on the management of individual tasks or activities.
Maintenance strategy known as Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) encourages workers at all levels to take part in restoring and enhancing their organization’s machinery’s efficiency. Involving all workers in the maintenance process and emphasising preventative, rather than emergency, maintenance are central tenets of TPM, which seeks to maximise the effectiveness and efficiency of equipment. Tools used in Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) include autonomous maintenance, in which operators are responsible for performing basic maintenance tasks on their equipment, and planned maintenance, in which maintenance is scheduled in advance to prevent equipment failures.
Business process efficiency and effectiveness are common goals for both TOC and TPM, but the two methodologies approach these improvements in very different ways. TPM emphasises proactive maintenance and involving all employees in the maintenance process in order to improve equipment performance, while TOC emphasises identifying and improving constraints in order to increase throughput.
