Other issues Mr. Reinherz spoke about were vendor performance that needed to be improved and customer participation. Eli briefly talks about his book, Critical Chain. He then proceeds to describe the behaviors typically found in a project environment such as the student syndrome and the padding of task times, and demonstrates the impact these have on project completion times. He also discusses how text book descriptions of the bell curve as it relates to projects does not actually exist in reality. Eli concludes the presentation with a valuable summary of TOC concepts as they apply to Project Management, explaining the basic concepts and how they deal with the undesirable effects that exist in this environment.
Subjects covered include buffers, critical chain and dependent events, staggering, etc.
The company faced heavy competition from car dealerships not to mention the market's perception about quality and maintenance of brake hoses. Using the TOC Thinking Processes the market constraint was dealt with by directing an unrefusable offer to a vendor - a reputable brake hose manufacturer from Italy. Now the company has been successful at setting the standards for automotive brake hoses in South Africa and creating consumer awareness for product requirements. The company dealt with its production constraint first with a 3 day Production Workshop, however, during a Management Skills Workshop the company realized it was heading into a market constraint. In addition, the organization has explored the use of the Project Management application for its multi-project building division.