Abstract
The Theory of Constraints (TOC) identifies constraints which are otherwise labelled as waste by lean. TOC isolates these constraints and provide resources in order to buffer and/or eliminate them completely. TOC‟s underlying premise is that organisations can be measured and controlled by variation on three measures which are throughput, operational expense and inventory. TOC challenges managers to rethink some of their fundamental assumptions about how to achieve the goals of their organisations, what they consider productive actions, and about the real purpose of cost management in order to maximise throughput through sales. It is about understanding bottlenecks to a process and better managing these bottlenecks to create an efficient process. Even though outcomes are the intended results, the inputs are considered vital. The study identifies inputs that are causing constrains and explains the methodology to isolate them and work on how and when to apply TOC to minimising these constraints‟ impact. In order to prove TOC, a research was carried out in the Lonmin mine situated in Rustenburg in South Africa, where TOC was used to resolve recurring problems. The end results have shown that when a problem area is isolated, conditions observed, resources allocated at the problem area and action taken to address problems immediately, positive results can be achieved.
M.Tech.