TOC Daily Operations Room Meeting

TOC Operations:
Daily Tactical Ops Room
(Examples are for a Mining environment)

The Theory of Constraints approach to
Operational Excellence

These Slides have been prepared and presented by Arrie
van Niekerk and form part of a series of presentations
that were developed over several years. They represent
a personal view of the subjects and are not to be
interpreted as official documents of any kind.

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Goldratt Group (Southern Africa) © 2004
Heuristic Flow © 2008

TOC in Context

Own Distribution
Suppliers Purchasing Market
Processes Channel

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Creating the desired
Management Culture

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Holistic Approach: Current Reality

• Measurements can help us • We want all the parts to
to align the parts, but it contribute to the whole
often do not • The parts must always do
• Over time, the parts what is good for the whole,
develop measures that they NOT what is good for the
believe are good for the parts
whole, but in reality they
are not fully aligned • Look for the harmony (music)
of the whole

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4 Goldratt Group (Southern Africa) © 2004

We Need to Find a Way to Make the
Performance of the Bottleneck, the
Status of the Buffers and the Alignment
of the System Visible to All

By creating visibility, we can ensure that
everybody is aligned with the bigger
picture and no actions will have a negative
impact on the bottleneck‟s performance

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Fluctuation in Complex Operations
Fluctuation exists not only in terms of volume but also in terms of Chemistry,
Physical properties like size distribution, morphological properties, etc

A B C
X
D E F P R
Z
G H I

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Stabilising and Enhancing a Complex
Environment
By having a key focal point and building protection into the system by managed buffers,
the system‟s reliability, predictability and holistic performance are enhanced significantly.

A B C
X
D E F P R
Z
G H I

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The TOC Process of Continuous
Improvement
1. IDENTIFY the system‟s Constraint(s)
2. Decide how to EXPLOIT (Maximise) the system‟s
constraints
3. SUBORDINATE (Align) everything else to the
above decisions
4. ELEVATE the system‟s constraint(s)
5. If the constraint was broken, go back to step 1.
Do not allow INERTIA to become the system‟s
constraint

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Tactical Ops Room

Creating Visibility and Focus: Managing the tactical
operation as a holistic system
Based on the concept of a Common Relevant
Operational Picture
The Daily Check-in meeting that is built on openness,
honesty, team work and good decision making

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Generic “Model” for Ops Room

SAFETY
Quality Quality
Flowing
OUT
Develop
Ore Equip Stope Tram Hoist Plant
Opening Up Product
Body /
Raw Pay Pay Boxes Ore Plant
Material Face Equipped Pass Stock
Length Panels Pile

Flowing
IN Total Subordination to the CORE PROCESS

PEOPLE Material Equipment Utilities Services

How are we doing this as a team? What is the music like?

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PURPOSE of Ops Room
THE WHAT:
• The Primary reason for the existence of the Ops Room is to
facilitate the optimization of the process flow through
identified bottlenecks in the system
THE HOW:
• This is achieved within a system that fully supports the flow
and it is done through the desired behaviour of people
• It has to take place in a culture of openness and good
visibility
THE OUTCOME:
• The outcome of the ops room process is to have significant
increase in the operational output of the system as a whole
and to create an environment for consistency and the
sustainability of that output

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Three Objectives in One
• Focus on the flow of the system as a whole
– Manage the flow, through the constraints
– Get the job done
• Status of the system to support the value chain
– Buffering the flow and supply of all requirements
– Protective Capacity (flexibility)
• Human alignment with purpose
– Doing the right things in the right way
– The spirit or vibe of the system

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Ops Room: Three Goals in One

FLOW
Constraint Rate

SUBORDINATION
Buffering and Protective capacity
System alignment of all functions

TEAM BEHAVIOUR
Dialogue, Spirit, Vibe, Care, Openness
Learning together as a team

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The Ops Room meeting is

• A high impact (energy) opportunity
• Focused on solution (share) and outcome
• A place where improvement is generated
• A „how do I help you‟ opportunity
• A place where you come to listen first
• A place of understanding the big picture
• A place where good decisions are made

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Ops Room: Three Goals in One

FLOW
Constraint Rate

SUBORDINATION

TEAM BEHAVIOUR

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Ops Room: Culture of Excellence
Working with the flow model
Create a “Learning
of the operation, establish
Laboratory” environment
common understanding of the
first with skilled facilitators
constraint‟s performance and
until the principles and
status of the relevant buffers
culture has been
established

Getting daily,
accurate, honest FLOW
Reflecting on progress,
updating of the Constraint Rate or why things are not
reality of the primary SUBORDINATION
coming right or what
Flow Chain
else is needed to
TEAM BEHAVIOUR
improve

Operate on the basis of open
Creating visibility of all dialogue, mutual respect, team
the important measures Talking about the problems,
learning and shared vision –
in a format of Green, getting contributions form all
develop pride in what we are
Yellow & Red for clarity attendants on what to do to
achieving together
resolve the issues

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Ops Room Model Example
Ore Handling
B# CS # CN D#
#
BA
50 #
Belt
Belt
Belt

51 26
Belt 51
Belt DA
27
#
28
Belt
29

6 66
6
6 68
8
69 6
9
71 71

7
2
74

75

77
Belt

77 Belt
Belt

78 Belt

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Daily Report on Constraint (Example)
Measurement RP Reference

Tons trammed
-Reef +2000 1700-
-Waste +500 350-

Time to clear tip
-Morning Shift -9h00 9h30+
-…… ……+
-Afternoon Shift
-…… ……+
-Night Shift
Tramming functional team
- Morning Shift 0 2+
- Afternoon Shift 0 2+
- Night Shift 0 2+
Tip (station) box status
Time it caused a blockage
-Reef 0 1hour+
-Waste 0 1hour+
Stoping box status
No of boxes that caused starvation
- No of empty boxes 0 2+
Loco Utilisation
- No of times not pulling full span 0 3+
Rail Condition
-Derailments 0 1+
-2 trains move towards one another 0 1+
Infrastructure (Elect / Venti / Water
etc) (caused stoppage of logistics)
- No of times 0 2+
Heuristic time delay
-Total 0 1hour
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It is not about what the
OPS Room is,
but about what it does!

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Operating Rules for a TOC Chain
• Run the constraint with military precision (on the
clock, exactly)
• The buffers are there to protect the constraint
from variations in the system – they must be
adequate at all times Whenever the flow stops, it
means the buffer ran out.
• Everybody must support and align with the needs
of the constraints
• Without brutal honesty and clear visibility we will
always be busy chasing our own tails
• Whenever the protective capacity of any
subordinated resources falter, make it known!

A B C D E F
Protective Capacity
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Evaluating a TOC Implementation
• Where is your bottleneck or core problem ?
• Availability and utilisation levels of the bottleneck? Close to 90%?
• The schedule of the constraint and how well it adheres to the
schedule (military precision) ?
• Impact of starvation and blockage on the constraint less than
10%?
• Fluctuation of the buffers that protect the constraint ?
• Rules of subordination and how well are they adhered to,
especially by service departments ?
• War room and explain how the win-win rules work in practice ?
• Supervisory levels understand their roles in meeting the demands
of the constraint(s)?
• Been able to eliminate the negative impact of the Core
Problem(s)?

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The 3 Elements of Meaningful work

Relevance Measurability

Recognition

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Performance Management

Performance
Excellence

Conditions Possess the Motivation
conducive to high required skills for and attitude
performance high performance

1 2 3
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TOC Daily Operations Room Meeting

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