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)

Many of Dr Ted Hutchin's presentations are available to download - please click here to see the list.

And here's some audience feedback from some of Ted's recent presentations.....

The following programme outlines give an overview of the kind of topics Ted can 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:

Making the Case - ensuring that the presentation gets the buy-in
Making Strategic Choices in Turbulent World - an introduction to the Theory of Constraints
People in Projects: Avoiding the Pain! - CCPM from an HR perspective
New Product Development —the implications of missing out!
Why Inspirational Leadership Matters
Change Management and Effective Leadership
Measurements & Making Money —the application of Throughput Accounting for decision-making
Lean, TOC and DMAIC- the really powerful way to manage any business
Supply Chains and How to Manage Them

Please e-mail Diane Jeary or telephone on 01664 502860 if you would like further information or wish to engage Ted to speak at your event.

A downloadable version of our Speaker Programme is available here

Making the Case - ensuring that the presentation gets the buy-in

There are many occasions when it is necessary to present a case in order to gain approval. This can apply in all manner of aspects within almost all types of organisations, and yet how often have you sat through the most boring of presentations and lost the plot for what was actually a great idea and perhaps one critical to the well-being of the organisation?

This session looks at some obvious errors in making presentations, learned the hard way by the presenter!! It will cover a few issues such as why PowerPoint is not always the greatest way to communicate an argument, why the way you deliver is as much to do with non-verbal communication as verbal, and why sometimes the result is not what you might have expected, but, given the process of communication, was exactly what your presentation deserved!

Making Strategic Choices in Turbulent World - an introduction to the Theory of Constraints

The Theory of Constraints (TOC) has been around for some time now – almost thirty years - and yet for many it remains one of the best kept secrets of the business world. Drawing on twenty years’ experience of teaching and implementing TOC, we will show you how your organisation can benefit from its simple yet far-reaching principles, and in particular how the application of the Strategy and Tactic approach helps senior management make the right strategic choices in an ever-increasingly turbulent world.

The presentation will highlight the application of three fundamental TOC concepts:

1— the Five Focusing Steps that enable any flow system to be analysed in terms of its ability to deliver against the goal of the organisation: Step 1: identify the constraint, Step 2: exploit the constraint, Step 3: subordinate all other resources to the needs of the constraint, Step 4: elevate the constraint and Step 5: once you have broken the constraint, go back to Step 1.

2— the four key questions contained within the TOC thinking processes which are used to address systemic issues such as rules, procedures and policies: What to change? What to change to? How to effect the change? and How to maintain the change process?

3— how the Strategy and Tactic method is used to ensure alignment of activity and decision-making throughout the company.

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.

New Product Development - the implications of missing out!

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.

Why Inspirational Leadership Matters

If ever there was a time to invest in our people it is today, if ever we needed to tap into that unique body of knowledge that every company has, it is today; but to do so requires inspirational leadership. Developing people is all about allowing them to flourish, to make mistakes, to learn and then teach others what they have learned. It is about enabling people to be themselves, to make their unique contribution to the well-being of the organisation, to feel part of the organisation, engaged with and valued. This is the focus of this session, and it carries a message that many senior managers need to hear.

At a time when many organisations are facing huge challenges, where the only difference between themselves and their competition is the calibre and knowledge of their people it is folly - and a terrible waste - to regard the workforce simply as an expense item, something to be filed under “expendable”.

This presentation focuses on how leaders can inspire their workforce and unleash talent by following simple yet effective methods which are designed to clarify purpose, improve communication, align systems and gain workforce buy-in.

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.

Measurements & Making Money —the application of Throughput Accounting for decision-making

Times are difficult at the moment: 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.

Lean, TOC and DMAIC- the really powerful way to manage any business

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.

Supply Chains and How to Manage Them

Supply Chains managed the using Theory of Constraints (TOC) principles set out to streamline the overall operations activity to enable fast transfer from raw material to market. 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 'Drum-Buffer-Rope' 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 gained is not dissipated in the blockages to flow that conventional measurement systems create.

Please e-mail Diane Jeary or telephone on 01664 502860 if you would like further information or wish to engage Ted to speak at your event.

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