In this article, the first in a two-part series, the theory of constraints (TOC) was applied to problems plaguing the maintenance system of the Albuquerque (N.M.) Water Utility Division. Using TOC premises and thinking-process logic tools, the management team worked to pinpoint the primary constraint(s) limiting system performance. By creating a logic diagram (a current-reality tree), team members were able to capture the cause-and-effect relationships responsible for the undesirable conditions and underlying core conflicts.TOC is a relatively new theory for identifying and understanding core problems within organizations. By demonstrating how the theory can be applied to a real-world water provider, this article offers utility managers a solid, logic-based approach to solving some of their more intractable and continually recurring problems.-MPM 6 63 3 Data regarding water main breaks are widely considered important for effective water distribution asset management. This article presents the results of a survey administered to small and medium-sized utilities to evaluate the state of data collection practices for water main breaks in the United States and Canada. The survey included questions about the amount and type of data collected by water utilities, the utilities' level of comfort with the amount of data collected, and the availability of data elsewhere within the utility.The survey results show that the amount of data collected can be classified by the degree of data richness and defined as either an expanded, intermediate, limited, or minimal data set. Analysis of the results suggests that utilities can implement practices to increase the amount of data they collect and increase the effectiveness of their data collection and processing. The results also suggest that utilities can improve their data sets by considering additional sources of data for water main breaks.-KD 7 76 6A study of the distribution system in Davenport, Iowa, suggests that monitoring for coliphages can help water providers detect viral intrusion resulting from main breaks. In this research, occurrence of coliphage in the distribution system was associated with wintertime main breaks. Low temperatures and use of chloramines-to which coliphages are resistant-aided in the survival and transport of the virus. Coliphage-testing is a simple assay that can provide information on virus intrusion and survival in drinking water systems, an issue of potential public health concern. Coliphages could prove an effective indicator of contamination from main breaks; the organisms' resistance to chloramines makes them particularly suited for use in chloraminated systems, an important consideration given the growing trend toward use of chloramines to control disinfection byproducts.-MPM 8 87 7
In the past, the TOC Thinking Process (TP) has been primarily applied to address managerial challenges in private sector manufacturing, logistics, and project-oriented organizations. The purpose of this paper is to present an application of the TOC TP in a public sector service organization, namely, the Water Utility Division Maintenance System (WUDMS) within the Albuquerque Public Works Department. The two necessary conditions for meeting the WUDMS's goal of effective management are (1) completing work in a waste-free manner and (2) responding promptly to customer requests for service. Although seven undesirable effects (UDEs) were identified by the improvement team, UDEs from three diverse areas were selected for creating the requisite conflict clouds, namely, (1) much repair work is not completed promptly, (2) WUDMS has some wasteful practices, and (3) managers are unable to schedule repair work effectively. Entities from these conflict clouds were synthesized into a core conflict cloud that revolved around the issue of dedicating more human resources to repair work or improvement efforts and that formed the base of the Current Reality Tree. By surfacing assumptions underlying entity pair relationships within the core conflict, a strategic direction for change was identified as: expansion of WUDMS capacity through the use of non-traditional resources. This injection was logically validated via a Future Reality Tree. Initial results from its implementation demonstrate that the direction of the solution is correct.
published a monograph covering the extensive work they had done on the effect of the drug "malononitrile" in increasing the protein metabolism and cellular function of the ganglion cells of the central nervous system. They were able to demonstrate by the microspectrographic technic of Caspersson 2 that the brain tissue taken at frontal lobotomy in 11 schizophrenic patients and in 1 patient with an endogenous depression differed from the tissue taken post mortem on 4 reputedly "normal"
The theory of constraints (TOC) features powerful logic tools to help managers create and implement changes to eliminate obstacles to improving system performance. Most often applied to managerial challenges in the private sector, TOC was recently used by managers at the Albuquerque (N.M.) Water Utility Division to facilitate continuous improvement within the maintenance system. This article, the second in a two‐part series, describes how TOC methods were used to zero‐in on operational problems, identify their root causes, and develop proactive solutions. Although only some of the strategies developed by the Albuquerque team have been put into operation, preliminary results are positive. The essence of management is the determination and implementation of organizational change. As this study demonstrates, managers need to be aware of the major role played by operational policies, their existing applicability, and current interpretation because the application of existing policies is often the key element limiting performance.
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