Curious Cat Management Improvement Library - Dictionary

Theory of Constraints - The concept that to improve performance what needs to be improved is that part of the process that causes the process to under perform.

A simplified example, if a phone system for a call center only allows 10 operators to answer calls at any given time then increasing from 10 to 15 operators won't help. Normally the system constraints are not as obvious as this, however. Therefore TOC tools are designed to help managers find constraints and adopt sensible solutions with those constraints in mind.

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