I attended the TOCICO 2016 conference this week. It was enjoyable. It was more than that, it was hopeful. I am not sure every attendee and TOC practitioner will agree. I may be too optimistic in reading the tea leaves but maybe there were signs of changes in the market.
What is the challenge with getting wider adoption of TOC? That is the big question. It is obvious what the challenge is not – it is NOT the lack of results, it is NOT the difficulty of explaining TOC solutions, it is NOT even the lack of awareness, it is NOT the absence of need or want. Every practitioner can point to amazing success stories. With time ideas have been simplified and explanations made transparent with the aid of simulations, exercises and just sheer practice. There are great books out that illustrate the ideas of TOC – Eli’s own books and a host of others by very experienced hands (Yujisan, Yishai, Lisa, and many more). The Goal is a bestseller. It is required reading in most operations courses. Every organization is looking for the next big thing that will give them an edge and help them either compete or create more value.
So TOC is a way to create and capture huge amounts of value. It has a significant level of awareness. And it is common sense. And people want something that can provide value and a competitive edge. Then what gives? Why are more organizations not adopting it?
I think it is not safe yet.
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. ” – Robert Frost
I think most leaders understand the importance of taking the road less travelled, but they need to see a path first. They need to see at least the glimmering of a road that is less travelled but trodden all the same. Others who have stood in their shoes with their level of responsibility and who took the less traveled path. This is where I feel optimism after this conference.
Mazda presenting a company level transformation. The development of SkyActiv, the technology underlying the next generation of Mazda cars is an amazing story. The central role of TOC in making this possible…Wow! This is quite an achievement. Acting like a lighthouse to signal to others that want to undertake such a transformation. This can make it much safer for other CEOs to look at TOC. There are new ideas that can deliver an order of magnitude bigger results. In their words”Implementing Toyota Production System would be hard, but TOC is something that even we could do”
Yuji Kishira presented “A case study in the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application Kyoto University with testimony of Dr. Yamanaka, Nobel Prize winner 2012.” This is real progress. Intellectual leadership comes when true academic leaders point to the validity of the ideas.
Boeing presented a resolution to one of the most difficult problems in implementing TOC – reconciling local accountability with global improvements. Kevin Naya gave a lower bound on the value generated at $700 million.
Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL) is using TOC to grow its value. It is using TOC to buy and turn around retailers. This is providing them real acceleration in increased stock price. They have twice the P/E ratio as the market (I think Dr Sinha said his is 8 to market average of 3-4).
Kristen Cox at the Govt of Utah is transforming a whole state by using TOC. She is leading a change effort that not only aims to make government more efficient but more importantly ensures that the government interventions to help people achieve their ends. Kirk Lambert presented a case study on applying TOC to reduce recidivism in the Adult Probation and Parole process. To help people out of the Criminal Justice system into more productive lives. The value of these efforts cannot be estimated.
These are just a few presentations that I was able to attend. Each one of these is a person or organization in a leadership position in their own world. These names can make it much safer for others to tread down this path. Probably not everyone, but enough to start making a real difference.
(Let me connect you to an excellent source for getting a more detailed perspective on the talks and presentation. Jack Vinson has done an excellent job here. Please do visit and you will get a sense of what was presented. To get to a full program go here.)
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