Determination of How the Effectiveness of Royal Australian Air Force Engineering Activities Can Be Improved By Application of the Theory of Constraints

Mark A. Bosma

Date of Award

9-1991

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

First Advisor

Richard I. Moore, PhD

Abstract

A research project was performed to determine whether the Theory of Constraints (TOC) management philosophy could be applied to improve engineering activities of the Royal Australian Air Force. TOC had been applied successfully in manufacturing in the United States, but little work had been published on application to service and not-for-profit organizations. Research of published sources was used to develop an understanding of the TOC philosophy, and published papers were used as sources of information on actual applications. Having built an understanding of TOC, a concept map model of the application of the philosophy was developed. The concept map identified the necessary criteria that must exist in an organization for TOC to be successful, as well as a set of desirable criteria. In developing a concept map model of the application procedure, new definitions for the TOC parameters of the organizational goal, throughput, inventory and operating expense were proposed for use in not-for-profit organizations. From the concept map model, an expert system was developed using the VP-Expert expert system shell. The thought structuring system could be used as a test to evaluate the necessary and desirable criteria in an organization, and also provided a guide to applying TOC. The expert system model developed during the research was found to be successful at predicting whether TOC could improve an organization. The software was also found to be a useful tool to guide managers through the TOC application process.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-GLM-LSM-91S-5

DTIC Accession Number

ADA246678

Comments

There is no digital version of this thesis available at this time.

Presented to the Faculty of the School of Systems and Logistics of the Air Force Institute of Technology, Air University, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science.

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