Product Marketing System » Theory-of-Constraints

Kanban discussion with David Anderson, eBook

admin — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:00:00 +0000

David Anderson, author of the recent book, Kanban appeared on the Business901 podcast and added 50 minutes of Kanban discussion. This is a transcription of the podcast. David is a thought leader in managing highly effective software teams. He is President of David J. Anderson & Associates, based in Seattle, Washington, a management consulting firm dedicated to improving leadership in the IT and software development sectors.

Kanban –

His first book, Agile Management for Software Engineering: Applying the Theory of Constraints for Business Results, published in 2003 by Prentice Hall, introduced many ideas from Lean and Theory of Constraints in to software engineering. David can be found at AgileManagement.net

Utilizing the Theory of Constraints in Product Innovation Ebook

admin — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:47:00 +0000

In the three part podcast I had with Mike Dalton the founder of Guided Innovation Group, we discussed utilizing the Theory of Constraints in Innovation, the Customer Value Lens and Alliances in great detail. This is a transcription of the entire 3-part series.

Theory of Constraints in Innovation

In Mikes recent book, Simplifying Innovation: Doubling speed to market and new product profits – with your existing resources, he discussed the Guided Innovation’s unique TOC-based approach to rapid innovation improvement is helping companies slash time to market in half and nearly double new product profits. Whether you are struggling to get more sales impact from your new product and innovation investment or are growing strongly but still interested in taking your innovation performance to the next level. Customer Value Lens and much more. The book was just released in January and has received some good reviews.

Theory of Constraints in Innovation

admin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:04:00 +0000

Mike Dalton was my guest on the Business901 podcast . Mike is the founder of Guided Innovation Group, whose simple mission is helping companies turn their new product innovation into bottom-line impact. The Guided Innovation System™ , their unique TOC-based approach to rapid innovation improvement is helping companies slash time to market in half and nearly double new product profits.

His new book, , Simplifying Innovation: Doubling speed to market and new product profits – with your existing resources, is the first to apply the Theory of Constraints for high leverage innovation improvement. You can learn how to get more impact from your innovation by visiting the Guided Innovation website or visiting Mike’s blog for a wide array of reports and other free innovation resources. There is a sample chapter download available at http://www.SimplifyingInnovation.com/chapters.

The podcast was filled with so much information that I broke into three parts. The first part included below overviews the principles of applying Theory of Constraints. Part 2 will post tomorrow afternoon and will cover the Customer Value Lens, Part 3 will cover Alliances and Tools used in innovation. As you can tell, I enjoyed the podcast, innovation, through-put does it get any better!

Listening to your Customer’s Heartbeat with a Stethoscope?

Fail Early and Fail Often

Can you have Agile Marketing?

Deliver in the NOW Moment

admin — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:00:00 +0000

If you want to be successful in today’s market consider using this tag line. What reminded me of this is discussions I have had with Jeff Slater of Sonoco on the Supply Chain, Bob Sproull, author of The Ultimate Improvement Cycle and this recent video on the American Express Open Forum, Delivering What the Customer Wants.

Customers are demanding shorter Supply Chains and more customization. Their trade-off is that they are willing to wait for a very short-on-time delivery and the faith not that the product or service will be perfect, but that it will be supported and corrected if there is a problem. The Internet has made people accustomed to buying things sight unseen if they have trust in the people and organizations behind the product. Does anyone mind when the product says Beta on it?

However, how can a company make money with customization and supply chains being the 2 biggest drawbacks to efficiencies? The first thing I would let go of is the word efficiencies. That seems to me an out-dated word still being used by cost accountants. The Theory of Constraints utilizes measurements using the term of Throughput which I believe has a lot more bearing on the health of a company. Most companies also fail to realize that the “asset” of inventory actually penalizes you in your supply chain and typically reduces your time to market.

Delivering in the Immediate Moment is typically not about production time, it is about policy constraints and having a supporting system in place to support that goal. Building a Value Stream Map can clarify many of these issues. However, first things first, remove the word efficiency and add the word throughput to your vocabulary.

Theory of Constraints + Lean + Six Sigma = Ultimate Improvement Cycle

Lean Six Sigma applied to Supply Chain

Application of Lean Six Sigma to the Supply Chain

Technorati : Efficiencies, TOC, Theory of constraints, Throughput, Value Stream Mapping

The Eagles always understood!

admin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:00:00 +0000

I think John Jantsch’s description in his post yesterday on the Duct Tape Marketing Hourglass was very thought provoking and is one of things that he had written about in his book that not only has proven the test of time but have proven very correct in practically any kind of media, online and offline. It is a post that I recommend printing out and pinning on your wall.

John says, “The top half indeed resembles the funnel concept, but the expanding bottom half, to my way of thinking, adds the necessary focus on the total customer experience that ultimately leads to referrals and marketing momentum.”

As I was reading The Duct Tape Marketing Blog, I remembered another blog post John had recently written, Is selling Becoming More Like Marketing? Maybe, it should be turned around in that is Marketing becoming more like Selling? Marketing has always been judged on how many leads we dump into the top of the funnel. The salespeople take over and develop the relationships, build the credibility and make the presentations. After the sale, they maintained the relationships. The Eagles understood the bottom of the hourglass better than any other rperson in the organization. I am saying practically the same thing John did in his blog, but that really is the secret sauce that can make your organization successful today.

The important part of sale sand marketing is the work that takes place in both halves of the Hourglass. That is where the ball usually gets dropped and a prime example is the refusal of many industries to participate in the new wave of marketing. It is just too expensive to nurture, develop repeat and referral business all in person. Don’t get me wrong, you still need that human touch, but you have limited resources and limited Eagles(good salespeople) to go around. Developing effective and efficient communication in these parts of the hourglass is one of the most important things you can do to increase sales.

What does hold you back? Looking for that one thing or constraint that is holding you back is seldom found in the middle of your hourglass, the close. It occurs elsewhere and not having a structure in place to walk people through the 7 stages is imperative. That is why I encourage people to use the Lean tool of Value Stream Mapping and map these seven stages and put some measurements to them. Why? The obvious is that “people perform based on how they are measured” -Eliyahu Goldratt, Theory of Constraints. However, a word of caution as Marketing becomes more like selling, it still is people thing.

Applying the Marketing Hourglass: The Pillars of the Lean Marketing House

Related E-books:

Ideal Client

Mirror Marketing

Technorati : , Duct-Tape-Marketing, Marketing-Hourglass, TOC, Theory of Constraints

Ebook on Integrating Theory of Constraints with Lean Six Sigma

admin — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:55:00 +0000

Bob Sproull, author of The Ultimate Improvement Cycle discusses the recent push from TOC disciples to bring TOC on an equal playing field as Lean and Six Sigma. I find it interesting because bottlenecks and constraints are an integral part of Lean and Six Sigma training but TOC has never seemed to be on an equal platform. Bob, talks about this and how he always starts with a Value Stream Mapping process to find his constraint.

Integration of the Theory of Constraints and LSS -