23rd International Conference of the

TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

www.tocpractice.com

21-22 March, 2016, Tennessee, USA

Stealth Uses of TOC Thinking

and Tools in Companies and
Academia
Janice F Cerveny, Ph.D. (cervenyj@fau.edu)
Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL
USA
March, 2016

Janice F. Cerveny

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Janice F. Cerveny is currently on the faculty of Florida Atlantic

Universitys College of Business in Boca Raton, Florida. She teaches
undergraduate and MBA courses in quality and operations
management, project management and strategic planning. She
received her B.S. in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin
and her masters and Ph.D. (School of Management) degrees from the
State University of New York at Buffalo.
She initially worked primarily in the blood banking and health care
industries but now consults and trains many diverse organizations in the
identification and optimization of system constraints - and
implementations of Theory of Constraints-based applications of DrumBuffer-Rope (DBR) to improve operations, Continuous Replenishment
(CR) for distribution/logistics and Critical Chain Project Management
(CCPM) for project environments. She is a member of the Decision
Sciences Institute (DSI) and the Theory of Constraints International
Certification Organization (TOCICO). Past clients include Siemens, NCCI,
Tyco and the Veterans Administration in Washington, D.C. Her most
recent initiative is a multi-year/multi-phase set of Advanced Leadership
Development Workshops for Office Depot.

www.tocpractice.com

cervenyj@fau.edu
FAU College of Business
Dept. of Mgt. Programs
777 Glades Rd.
Boca Raton, FL 33431
561-297-0052

23rd International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

Plan of Attack

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Realities and Challenges in academia

and industry
Stealth Uses of TOC
1. College of Business
2. Medgar Evers College
3. Office Depot

Observations
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23rd International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

Realities and Challenges

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With (especially large) corporations

Root cause lip service

The THIS is what we need syndrome

Lets run it by
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23rd International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

Realities and Challenges

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With academic institutions

MASSIVE silos
Glacial-scale inertia

reinforced by its metrics

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23rd International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

A (typical?) College of Business

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Sometimes, you CANNOT do what SHOULD

be done ... The scope of what SHOULD be
addressed massively exceeds your area of
responsibility and control:
Janice, why do you care?...

Rapunzel revisited
Jonahs Jonah work

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23rd International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

A (typical?) College of Business

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Stealth uses of TOC

Operations Management class: HIDE
the fact that youre teaching TOC
Revolutionize Global Strategy
Go beyond SWOT

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23rd International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

A (typical?) College of Business

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Some observations and results

From students
From companies

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23rd International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

A University Support Services &

STEM Faculty

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Medgar Evers College

Sometimes, you have a LOT of things you CAN do
that would help... But the scope is beyond what
you SHOULD deliver.
STEM faculty: Improve teaching and course design
Counselors and Advisement: Increasing
collaboration and addressing conflicts between
units
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23rd International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

A University Support Services

& STEM Faculty

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Stealth uses of TOC

Give them only what they need and call it
something familiar
Work on key problems and issues that matter
to them and help them not have to reinvent
the wheel
The reference bank
Communication process role play
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23rd International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

A University Support Services

& STEM Faculty

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Some results
From advisers
From FYP and STEM faculty
For the units

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23rd International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

A large company

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Office Depot
Sometimes, the purpose for which you are
hired is not what the client needs...

TELLING them so is not smart and likely futile

(see Slide 4)
Silk purse out of a Sows Ear

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23rd International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

A large company

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Stealth uses of TOC

Systems thinking: links in the chain
integrated map of the UDEs

an

Use the tools to build the case

Let the results build the case too

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23rd International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

A large company

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Results

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23rd International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

Questions/Comments/Advice?

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23rd International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA