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Keywords Systems, Methodology, Surveys, Performance appraisal
Abstract The theory of constraints (TOC is a multi-faceted systems methodology that has been developed to assist people and organisations to think about their problems, develop breakthrough solutions and implement those solutions successfully. This paper describes a literature-based research project examining the results of TOC applications reported in the literature. In particular, it presents here the results of a meta-analysis of over 80 successful TOC applications, based on available quantitative data, which showed that significant improvements in both operational and financial performance were achieved as a result of applying TOC Despite extensive searches, the research found no reports of failures. While reports are mainly from manufacturing organisations, the findings may be generalisable to other types of organisations, particularly to their operational aspects. The paper concludes with an agenda for future research on the use of TOC in operations and production management.
Introduction
This paper ensues from a literature-based research project examining the theory of constraints (TOC) methodology and reports of its performance. In late 1996, we started compiling a database of published works on TOC. We were surprised to find no published attempts to summarise or integrate the literature: that is, no major literature reviews had been published (this remained true until late 1998). This observation led us to undertake several further projects, including the collection of the diverse elements of the TOC methodology, developed over its 20-year history and scattered throughout the literature, into one integrated review of TOC (Balderstone, 1999) and the publication of an annotated bibliography (Mabin and Balderstone, 2000). In 1998, a review of TOC was published by Rahman (1998) with over 60 references. This provides a good overview of the literature and the methodology at that time, but concludes that "although several papers have referred to the application of TOC in actual business settings, very few cases so far have been reported" (Noreen et al., 1995, p. 353). Thus while Rahman's paper provided a much-needed review of the methodology, a review of applications was still absent. Our own search over a four-year period produced over 400 items, a significant proportion of which comprised reports of applications of TOC, although we still found no overview or summary of the general effects of applying...