EM 530 Applications in Constraints Management

Back to Dr. James R. Holt's Home Page
Email: jholt@wsu.edu
Home Office Phone: 503-669-6676
WSU Engineering & Technology Management Program.

Link to WebCT (Password access required).

Next Class Starts in August 2010

The EM 530 Curriculum now includes an overview and preparatory material for the TOCIOC Fundamentals Exam (See TOCICO Fundamentals Exam).

EM 530 has always included sufficient material to prepare students for the TOCICO Supply Chain Logistics Exam and the TOCICO Project Management Exam.

(Need instructions and help with Admissions to WSU and Registration of Courses)

Next On-Line Internet Class Starts Fall Semester (August 2010):

EM 530 Applications in Constraints Management is now an On-Line course available to qualified graduate students world wide. Course work is available on the Internet in a self-paced manner. Some lectures are asynchronous archive video streams. Others are live synchronous office hours. Much of the course is self taught through PowerPoint slide lecture, student exercises and study.

The class focus is on the management of physical constraints. The class includes: Drum-Buffer-Rope (flow shop, A, V, T and job shop), Critical Chain Project Management (single and multiple project), Supply Chain (replenishment and enterprise wide implementations). Students work hand and computer simulations to develop their intuition. Student verions of Critical Chain scheduling software is also available.

Class communication is by email, chatroom, telephone and office hour discussions. Fax and mail are also acceptable. There are suggested discussion groups (on-line conferences) to discuss group issues and clarify issues.

The Fall 2010 Semester will be the nineth offering in this on-line format. We believe in continuous improvement and are getting better and better at dealing with the technology of on line courses.

Course Documents:

Stream Introduction to The Theory of Constraints: Constraints Management Overviews

These video stream are in RealPlayer available free at: http://www.real.com/

Class Syllabus

TOC Games (as a group)

Video: Playing the Dice Game
Instructions: Dice Game Instructions

Video: Playing the Job Shop Game
Instructions:Job Shop Game Instructor Description
Visual Aids: Job Shop Game Visual Aid , Game Cards Basic , Game Cards Advanced , Game Cards Balanced Line
Value of being Reliable and Fast: Value in the Job Shop Game in $$

Video: Playing the Nickel Game
Instructions: The Nickel Game

Video: Playing the Dollar Game
Instructions: The Dollar Game

The Assembly Game is a powerful and helpful insight to having a different type of Resource Buffer.

The Sixes Game (very powerful for understanding fundamentals and managing resources in CCPM)

Supply Chain Game (Manual-PowerPoint)

TOC Replenishment (Bean-VMI-Game) courtesy of Goldratt Schools

Book Review Necessary But Not Sufficient

PQ Problem
PQ Problem with some challenging options

A few slide archives from previous Class Summer 2000

Session	In-Class Slides	Self Study Slides
1- Intro to TOC	Session 1	Session 1a

Free Clips from the TOC Insights in Operation, Finance & Measures, Projects and Distribution are available at:
TOC Insights

Interesting Video Discussion about Making Change in Projects (52 mins)
Overview of CCPM S&T Approach

Interesting Previous Student Work:
Joe Eggert's Study of the best way to implement CCPM Multi-Project
Jamie Millers Dice Game-Simple Assembly
Robert Lorbeski's Dice Game-More Complicated Assembly
Hilbert Robinson's Rabbit Chase Paper
Ron Hawthorne's clever Budget Distribution paper
Zelda Turner's Dice Version of the Bead Experiment (see Session 8) with the MS Project File
Short Story, TigerWoods on Project Management, Chapter 1, by Joseph Pangilinan

Other Interesting Reading:

It's Just Not Fair: Precision Power
It's Just Not Fair:  Farmer Safe
Great graphic of Critical Chain Success at Confluence Software
Link to an interesting discussion on CCPM and Earned Value
APICS Constraints Management Paper on Supply Chain
PowerPoint Presentation on Supply Chain
Link to an interesting discussion on CCPM and Earned Value

Presentation paper comparing seven different methods of managing a production line based on simulation of a common product schedule and common equipment - insightful! Comparing Management Management Methods (Powerpoint)

The following is an zipped, public domain program to display the above PowerPoint presentations: Nice Viewer/Printer (2,790 K) for those without PowerPoint Software

Connection to the EM530-LIST:

We use a class email server to communicate assignments, instructions and questions to the members of the class. To become part of this list, visit list.wsu.edu and and select the menu option <Join a List> from the left part of the screen to join the Em530-List