Theory of Constraints

A management philosophy and a set of tools for organizational change developed by Israeli physicist Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt and popularized in the 1984 book The Goal by Goldratt and Jeff Cox. TOC concentrates on improving profits by managing constraints, factors that prevent a company from achieving its goals. Its primary focus is on removing or managing constraints to improve throughput, while lean focuses on the identification and removal of waste to improve the flow of value. Both lean and TOC emphasize improving the whole system rather than individual parts.

Synonyms:
TOC