Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
5-31-1988
Degree Name
Master of Science in Management Engineering - (M.S.)
Department
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
First Advisor
Carl Wolf
Abstract
The past two decades have been a difficult period for the U.S. as it lost its dominant position in one manufacturing industry after another to Japan. The American worker was initially blamed for this phenomenon - he was too expensive, was less productive, and produced lower quality products then the Japanese worker. The opening of factories in the U.S. managed by Japanese with American workers proved this claim to be wrong, as their products were competitive and often even better then the original Japanese products. It also indicated that the Japanese production planning and control methods are the primary reason for their success and lead to their adoption in the U.S.
A new American originated approch to production planning and control is the Theory Of Constraint (TOC). Its basic premise is derived from the section that every chain is as strong as its weakest link. In other words, the performance of every system is limited by its constraint. Therefore, the TOC states that in order to improve the performance of the entire system its constraint should be identified and its performance improved ( elevated ). The output of all non-constraint resources should be subordinated to that of the constraint resource and not to their own potential. All efforts that are directed towards improving the non-constraint resource's performance are contra-productive and will cause deterioration of the system's performance with respect to its goal.
A major obstacle facing TOC is its collision with the traditional concepts of "keeping everybody busy", or "find something to do" that are so embedded in any production system. The TOC states that the only resource that should be utilized 100% of the time is the constraint, all other resources ( and usually it is between 90 to 99% of all resources ) should produce only what is needed to keep the constraint fully utilized. Failure to do so results in increasing Work In Process inventory that will pile up in front of the constraint.
This thesis discusses in detail the TOC and compares it with traditional production planning and control approaches through examples. It presents a method for implementing the TOC in a production environment, as well as examples for its implementation for management decision making. Further a case study is also presented, in which the application of this concept in a small manufacturing enterprise is tracked and the enterprise' performance before and after the TOC's implementation are discussed.
Recommended Citation
Chaut, Yaron, "Utilization of the theory of constraints approach for improving a manufacturing enterprise profitability : a case study" (1988). Theses. 3032.
https://digitalcommons.njit.edu/theses/3032
Included in
Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons, Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons
