The Theory of Constraints Approach to Focused Improvement

In the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) department of the Fall 1991 issue of the Air Force Journal of Logistics , Lieutenant Colonel Richard I. Moore's article, "Constraint Management: The Key to Accelerated Improvement," described a new management approach which is becoming increasingly relevant to Air Force logisticians for at least two reasons. First, the ideas provide a critical link which may be missing in many of the improvement efforts being undertaken throughout the Air Force. Second, the senior leadership of the USAF logistics community has shown a growing interest in the theory and is pursuing a variety of initiatives which will integrate the fundamental concepts into tomorrow's logistics management measurements and methods. (For both these reasons, the theory has become an increasingly prominent aspect of AFIT's graduate program content.) The purpose of this paper is to expand the discussion of the ideas presented in the earlier article and to provide additional insight into their implementation.