Why should our company use a consultant?

The four most important reasons are knowledge, risk, speed and impartiality:

Knowledge: TOC requires a fundamentally different way of thinking. A different perspective can provide profound insights and present a new approach to an old problem. While it is essential that an organisation learn about the TOC approach (indeed, training and competence are an integral part of any TOCCA engagement), the importance of a hands-on partnership with an experienced consultant cannot be underestimated.
Risk: Transforming a company within the framework of a completely new paradigm is fraught with risk. The bigger the business and the greater the risk to its future if the change process fails, the more important it becomes to have qualified assistance. The collective experience brought by TOCCA and its consultants will dramatically reduce that risk – clients benefit from the experiences of others.
Speed: An external expert can keep a change initiative on track and maintain the speed of the transformation process, allowing the benefits to flow far more quickly than if the organisation were to attempt it alone.
Impartiality: Bringing about change in any organisation often challenges the established status quo. A skilled external consultant can help cut across politics and ‘fiefdoms’ to deliver a holistic benefit to the organisation.

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How long will it take?

This depends on the scope of the engagement, and usually ranges from 3 to 12 months. The first thing to do is understand the client’s business needs. Then a plan is mapped out and the work to be accomplished and the timeframe involved are agreed upon. In this way, our clients have a clear understanding of the investment they will be making and the time period involved, before anything begins, so there are no surprises.

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What kind of industry or business sector is TOC best suited to?

TOC was initially developed in the manufacturing industry. Since then, the techniques have grown and developed, and the methods are now successfully applied in almost all business and industry sectors, including:

	Project Management, in both single and matrix project environments. Note: Project management encompasses many things, from New Product Development, through to more classic project management, such as construction, building trains, servicing aeroplanes etc.
	Manufacturing and operations
	Supply chain
	Service industries, such as insurance companies, print and electronic advertising, banking, and many others
	The not-for-profit sector, e.g. state hospitals, state schools, charities, defence

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Isn’t my organisation too big / too small for the TOC approach?

TOC-based methods are successfully used in organisations of all sizes, from individuals trying to achieve their personal goals, through “mom and pop” style shops, to some of the worlds largest companies, for example: Lucent, General Motors, Ford.

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What makes TOC different from other management approaches, such as Management by Objectives (MBO) or Total Quality Management (TQM)?

TOC takes a system-wide approach; this recognises that all systems are made up of groups of interdependent parts or events, which affect one another. Think of the organisation as a sports team. All team members must work together for the team to win and the team’s weakest link is its weakest player. To make the team more successful, the weakest player, or the weakest link, must be strengthened; there is no point in focusing on improving the stronger players, if the weak player is going to continue letting the team down.

From an organisational perspective, if an organisation is viewed as a chain of dependent events (or dependent departments), and a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, it is wasteful to expend resources strengthening any link other than that weakest link. The organisation will be more successful, and in a shorter space of time, if it is managed from a system-wide perspective rather than a departmental one.

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There is a lot of talk about "Six Sigma" and “Lean”. Can TOCCA work with these techniques?

Absolutely! Lean Thinking and Six Sigma techniques are highly beneficial and should be applied as common sense dictates. TOCCA’s holistic solutions bring TOC, Lean Thinking and Six Sigma seamlessly together.

TOC and Six Sigma The TOC approach is to look at the whole system and identify where the weakest link lies. Six Sigma assumes that the weakest link is quality; TOC will answer whether or not this is so. If quality is not the organisation’s constraint – perhaps, for example, the market or a supply source is the constraint – then perhaps Six Sigma is not the answer. If however, quality is the organisation’s constraint, applying Six Sigma throughout can be prohibitively expensive. TOCCA can help identify the points in the organisation where Six Sigma should be applied, and leverage the Six Sigma dollars spent to maximise the benefits.

TOC and Lean Stand-alone Lean implementations often fall short of expectations due to two important reasons: 1) Lack of focus 2) Uncertain or too-lengthy returns on investment TOC offers the perfect solution to both of these problems: First, the TOC applications have the ability to put a laser-like focus on the resources or processes that are hindering the organisation’s throughput - those things keeping the organization from attaining more of its goal. With TOC we always know the best place to start applying lean tools. Once we have improved that process or area, TOC will tell us where our next best opportunity lies. The solution to the second problem is that since TOC focuses improvement primarily on areas that impact our throughput, the results of the improvement translate immediately to the organization's bottom line. Sizable, measurable, and fast results are common, and these results are a direct result of the improvements fostered by the combination of TOC, Lean and Six Sigma.

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