Please click here to download Ted Hutchin's presentation for CIMA, 23rd February 2010, on the topic of 'Measurements and Making Money: the application of Throughput Accounting for decision-making'.

Forthcoming Presentations

~ Ted Hutchin will once again address the topic of Change Management via Effective Leadership, this time on 30th March 2010 (N.B. - date changed from 23rd March) for the Coventry branch of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).
Please visit the CMI website for further information and booking details.

~ Ted has been engaged to present morning and afternoon workshops at IMechE’s Essential Management Skills (EMS) Conference on 23rd April 2010. Ted’s topic will be Lean Thinking - from a TOC perspective, naturally! Download the Conference brochure here.

Evening Presentations

We have a great deal of experience when it comes to giving insightful, professional and entertaining presentations on a variety of Theory of Constraints based topics. Over the last two years we have presented at the regional meetings of numerous professional bodies, including:

  • Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE)
  • Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE)
  • Institute of Operations Management (IOM)
  • Association for Project Management (APM)
  • Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA)
  • Chartered Management Institute (CMI)
  • Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB)
  • West and East Midlands Excellence Networks (WMEN/EMEN)

The following programme outlines give an overview of the kind of topics we are able address in short-lecture format (generally 1 to 1½ hours), but please bear in mind that presentations can be tailored to meet professional bodies' particular needs.

Lean-Flow in MRO - A New Way to Maintain and Repair
Lean-Flow in Operations - Making 'The Goal' Work for You
Addressing the Cash Constraint - how to make better financial decisions
Turning your USP into Cash
People in Projects: Avoiding the Pain! - CCPM from an HR perspective
From Inception to Market - FAST! CCPM for Project and Programme Management
Exploring The Goal - an Evening with Jonah!
Lean, Six Sigma & TOC - the whole is greater than the sum of the parts!
Supply Chains and How to Manage Them
Change Management and Effective Leadership
Developing People - Coaching the Individual

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Please e-mail Diane Jeary or telephone on 01664 502860 if you would like further information or wish to book a speaker for your organisation.

A downloadable version of our Speaker Programme is available here

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Lean-Flow in MRO - A New Way to Maintain and Repair

MRO environments are dominated by the need for fast turnaround time and the immediate availability of items such as components in order to achieve that time. MRO is about service. It requires the alignment of engineering, logistics/supply chains and the workshop itself.

Fast turnaround, being dependent upon this alignment, incorporates 3 key aspects of TOC-Lean: the first, within engineering, is the use of Critical Chain Project Management; the second, within the logistics/supply chain, is the use of replenishment; and the third, within the workshop itself, the Lean-Flow application. Buffer management is the key tool that offers true visibility to both end user and all those within the MRO environment, whilst at the same time highlighting the specific areas where Lean and /or DMAIC will be required.

Lean-Flow therefore describes one of the most effective methods for MRO. This presentation, will draw on experience from aerospace, military and public service environments and will allow those attending to see how their own MRO capability can be substantially enhanced.

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Lean-Flow in Operations - Making 'The Goal' Work for You

Shipping 100% on time, zero defects as a given, ought to be the aim of all those responsible for an Operations environment. Whether you are involved in a jobshop, a batch environment, aerospace, oil and gas, automotive or even a hospital, the key feature of this environment is fast, lean, flow.

Based on Goldratt’s best-selling business novel ‘The Goal’, this presentation will introduce our approach to fast flow in Operations: - Lean-Flow. Those attending will see how to set up the 3 key control aspects of Lean-Flow - the Drum, the Buffer and the Rope. The Drum is the schedule which ‘ties’ (Rope) the shipping of product to the release of material and to the constraint resource, if there is one, whilst Buffer management provides the visibility and clarity for those tasked with managing this environment.

By the end of the session, you will have seen how this approach could have a dramatic effect on your business: finding capacity you didn’t know you had, attacking long lead times, bringing Due Date performance up to the mid 90% range and providing you with a platform for sustainable growth without losing stability.

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Addressing the Cash Constraint - how to make better financial decisons

Times are difficult right now: there is huge pressure to cut costs, to try and control what cash there is, yet still make a profit and keep customers happy. At the same time many people have realised that simply carrying on as before will not work; there has to be a change in how things are done, and perhaps the direction as well.

This raises the question of how we are measuring progress towards the goal (making money) and the decisions we take that enable progress towards the goal. The last 20 years have shown the need for a different way of making decisions and measuring progress. Some 15 years ago, Throughput Accounting was developed to offer a sound financial basis for both measurement and decision-making.

This presentation will introduce Throughput Accounting in a clear and easy to understand way, using case studies and a simple exercise for everyone to try. Just how does Throughout Accounting work? How does it differ from other approaches? How might it make a difference to the decisions you need to make in order to secure the future of the organisation? These and other questions will be discussed and you will leave knowing more about how Throughput Accounting could change the way you make decisions.

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Turning your USP into Cash

Having a Unique Selling Point (USP) is vital for any organisation that has to sell in order to make money. People today are looking for new ways of selling their products and services, yet too often the results are poor to worse than poor! Coming from the perspective of both SPIN selling and the Theory of Constraints (TOC), it is possible to ask different questions as to the nature of the USP.

This starts with an analysis of the problems your client has and how your product or service removes those problems. This changes the perception of value from that of the supplier to that of the buyer. Case studies have shown that TOC intervention into the sales and marketing process almost always increases the buyer’s perception of value to a level far higher than that of the supplier. It is this ability to focus on the buyer’s real needs which differentiates the TOC sales and marketing approach from the more commonly used methods.

This approach also makes a clear distinction between sales and marketing: Marketing is about capturing ducks……Sales is about shooting them! This presentation will use case studies to illustrate how TOC sales and marketing can develop your USP, helping you to both capture and shoot those ducks - figuratively speaking, of course!

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People in Projects: Avoiding the Pain! - CCPM from an HR perspective

In all manner of project environments the need to finish on time is critical, as is meeting the original specification and not exceeding the budget. Being late is a business disaster, not just a project failure, and at the heart of the reprisals stand the resource managers and the people who did the tasks. This is typically a recipe for an HR nightmare.

This presentation will discuss the approach known as Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) and the impact it has, not just on the ability to deliver projects on time, to spec and to budget, but also how to address many of the problems faced by overworked resource managers.

The approach, which asks vital questions about resources and network planning and uses buffer management to provide clarity and focus, has enormous benefits to projects driven by HR itself, where speedy and successful project resolution tends to be a critical expectation of senior management. This is particularly so in the Public Sector.

Basing the presentation on his own practical experience of implementing CCPM throughout Europe and the USA, Dr Hutchin will bring the conceptual ideas to life and demonstrate how project goals can be achieved without the chaos and stress that so often accompany complex projects.

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From Inception to Market - FAST! CCPM for Project & Programme Management

Today, a product launched late is both a financial and business disaster. Many companies simply do not recognise the damage to the business that being late really causes. And those that do spend large sums of money usually in the wrong area and on the wrong things! However - as the example of companies such as Seagate shows - Fast Time to Market for new products is a winning strategy.

This presentation will demonstrate how Critical Chain Project management (CCPM) raises the bar for Fast Time to Market. CCPM is a logical advance from critical path and is very much in line with accepted procedures such as those enshrined within the PMBOK. However it also asks new, and vital, questions about resources and network planning. In execution it uses buffer management to give clarity and focus to any interventions that take place. Typically, we are able to show that implementing CCPM and, in particular, addressing resource overload due to multi-tasking can lead to 30-35% more productivity from existing resources.

Based on our own practical experience of implementing CCPM throughout Europe and the USA, we bring the conceptual ideas to life and allow you to consider the benefits for your own organisation.

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Exploring The Goal - an Evening with Jonah!

In 1983 the best-selling book The Goal, by Eli Goldratt and Jeff Cox, was published. The story of Alex Rogo and his struggle to keep his plant open whilst under fierce pressure from both corporate and market forces is well known, and has found a new audience in these financially strict times. In the book Alex discovers the power of the TOC approach and starts to use it to great effect. He has to learn a few new things, and un-learn a few bad habits. In doing so he meets his old university professor, Jonah, who helps him by asking questions and challenging assumptions. In the end…..well if you know, you don’t need me to tell, and if you haven’t read the book……

This presentation gives you an opportunity to meet “Jonah” in the form of Dr Ted Hutchin, one of the leading TOC educators in the UK and Europe, with experience going back over almost twenty years of teaching and implementing the process discussed in the book. Ted has worked in large multi-nationals and SMEs and has also worked in service industries and other organisations such as hospitals and the church. This is an interactive session where you are encouraged to ask questions and find out just how the process of The Goal might make a substantial difference to your bottom-line, however measured.

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Lean, Six Sigma & TOC - the whole is greater than the sum of the parts!

Ever wondered why your investment in Lean and /or Six Sigma hasn’t led to real bottom-line improvement? All these DMAIC projects involving substantial amounts of time and effort from already busy people at all levels, and for what?

In our experience, many companies report their application of Six Sigma, and perhaps Lean, as part of their overall manufacturing strategy, yet few really obtain the results they expect. By results, we mean bottom-line results rather than some local improvements that rarely, if ever, translate to any bottom-line improvement. This is not to say that both Six Sigma and Lean are not powerful tools, but to use them without any focus is simply a waste of investment.

However, those companies that have also implemented the Theory of Constraints (TOC) and used the focusing power of that approach have found a huge difference in their bottom-line, and to the better. The APICS journal of May 2006 highlighted this fact with outstanding results being reported: the plants using a combination of the three methodologies enjoyed a return yield of 89% - whereas those using only Lean or Six Sigma reported return yields of just 4% and 7% respectively.

This presentation will demonstrate how to obtain real results from any investment in Lean and/or Six Sigma by using the TOC approach and will explain just why TOC is so effective at maximising Lean and Six Sigma practices.

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Supply Chains and How to Manage Them

Supply Chains managed the TOC way set out to streamline the overall operations activity to enable fast transfer from raw material to market. At a recent conference, Professor Dan Jones, chairman of the Lean Enterprise Academy, suggested asking these five questions:

  • Why, when they take a few minutes to make and a few days to transport, do products take several months to reach the client?
  • How can you close the gap between use and ordering?
  • How can you increase the frequency of production and delivery?
  • How can you synchronise production with the pattern of demand?
  • What are the win-win gains that you can build around co-operation?

In a short presentation we will show that the TOC-Lean approach to supply chain logistics has answers to these questions. This presentation will allow you to see how a TOC-Lean approach based around replenishment and DBR creates a fast-to-market environment where speed is of the essence. This will also enable a brief discussion as to measurements and the use of Throughput Accounting to make sure that the speed is not dissipated in the blockages to flow that the usual measurements create.

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Change Management and Effective Leadership

Many organisations are struggling with their ability to remain at the forefront of their market. Often the reasons lie not so much with the product or the service, but with the ability of the organisation to recognise the need for change, and then carry out the changes necessary in a short period of time.

Successful change management requires clear thinking; it demands top level engagement and drive; it needs to have support from throughout the organisation and above all it asks for people who are committed to making the change work. The Theory of Constraints approach to change management establishes simple yet reliable and sustainable processes to facilitate all of these requirements, including the one that can most undermine any change programme’s effectiveness: people’s inherent resistance to change. Application of the TOC Thinking Process allows individuals to confront their objections and overcome them, so that their instinctive ‘no’ becomes a resounding ‘yes!’

The adoption of the TOC Thinking Process has proved to be of immense benefit for managers at all levels, and CEOs in particular, because it enables them to pinpoint those areas that are preventing the desired changes from happening and then to move forward with solutions for effectively unblocking those areas. The TOC tools can be applied at all levels throughout the organisation and thus can help to develop leaders, manage transitional change and improve both communication and motivation throughout any organisation.

This presentation demonstrates the power of TOC-focused organisational change with examples drawn from our own extensive research and implementation programmes.

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Developing People - Coaching the Individual

The most important resource in any organisation is its people. We also believe that everyone wants to do a good job, or did at some point in the past before their motivation was damaged, and that they have potential way beyond their current level of performance. How then to develop and release that potential?

The challenge for many is that they have not been allowed to think and have therefore forgotten how, or are too frightened, to make the choices, decisions and changes they need to make. TOC’s unique logical Thinking Process tools – such as the ‘Current Reality Tree’ and ‘Future Reality Tree’ - allow the individual to identify exactly what it is that is blocking creativity and enable the person to work out both what to change and how to effect the change necessary to get to where he or she wants to be.

This presentation will introduce the Thinking Process tools and demonstrate how they can be used to bring powerful focus to the issues of problem solving, decision making and change implementation at the level of the individual. It will outline how the personal focus approach, coupled with on-going coaching and mentoring, enables the individual to achieve.

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Please e-mail Diane Jeary or telephone on 01664 502860 if you would like further information or wish to book a speaker for your organisation.

A downloadable version of our Speaker Programme is available here




Past Presentation Archive:


Some of our presentations are available to download. Please click here to see the list.


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