--- title: "Insights: Theory of Constraints | Common Sense Systems" url: https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/ description: "Articles by John Sambrook tagged Theory of Constraints, newest first." --- [Insights](https://common-sense.com/insights/) # Theory of Constraints 30 articles, newest first. [All](https://common-sense.com/insights/) [AI 33](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/ai/)[Theory of Constraints 30](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/)[Strategy 28](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/)[Small Business 26](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/small-business/)[Healthcare 20](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/)[Operations 18](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/)[Practical Tips 16](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/practical-tips/)[Medical Devices 9](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/medical-devices/)[Leadership 8](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/leadership/)[Case Studies 4](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/case-studies/)[Government 3](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/government/)[Workforce 3](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/workforce/) - [Check the Document Before the Error Travels](https://common-sense.com/insights/check-the-document-before-the-error-travels/) October 5, 2026 · [AI](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/ai/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Government](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/government/) Public institutions should verify consequential documents before circulation, using evidence-backed adversarial AI review and accountable human approval. - [The Business That Is Too Painful to Scale, but Too Good to Quit](https://common-sense.com/insights/too-painful-to-scale-too-good-to-quit/) October 5, 2026 · [Small Business](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/small-business/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/) A plumbing contractor called me out of the blue, stuck between not being able to hire and not being able to run the business he has. The constraint was not labor. It was the machine that was never built. - [Why AI Improves Everything Except Your P&L](https://common-sense.com/insights/why-ai-improves-everything-except-your-p-and-l/) August 20, 2026 · [AI](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/ai/), [Small Business](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/small-business/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/) Apply AI to a part of your business that was never limiting results and that part really does improve. Your costs go up, your sales do not. Here is what a constraint is, why almost no AI investment is aimed at one, and how to tell whether yours is. - [The No-Losers Guide: A Practical Method for Resolving Organizational Conflict](https://common-sense.com/insights/nolosers-guide/) July 21, 2026 · [AI](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/ai/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Leadership](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/leadership/) Goldratt's Evaporating Cloud method, scaled with AI assistance. - [The Same Seven Mistakes, Every Company, Every Decade](https://common-sense.com/insights/the-same-seven-mistakes-every-company-every-decade/) July 20, 2026 · [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Medical Devices](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/medical-devices/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/), [Leadership](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/leadership/) What 500 FDA enforcement actions reveal about how organizations think. The same seven failure patterns appear across medical device companies, decade after decade. The root cause is not poor procedures. It is cognitive biases that evolved for small-group survival but break down in modern industrial settings. - [Why CAPA Systems Rot (And Why Naming Names Does Not Fix It)](https://common-sense.com/insights/why-capa-systems-rot/) July 20, 2026 · [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Medical Devices](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/medical-devices/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/) A deep dive into conflict avoidance as the root cause of FDA quality system failures. Analysis of 500 enforcement actions shows that CAPA failures are not procedural problems. They are cognitive problems that require a different objective function. - [Why Software Defects Kill (And Why Optimism Is the Real Bug)](https://common-sense.com/insights/why-software-defects-kill/) July 20, 2026 · [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Medical Devices](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/medical-devices/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/) Software/firmware defects account for 12 Class I medical device recalls, the most of any category. The root cause is not poor engineering. It is planning fallacy, a cognitive bias that makes every team overestimate their timeline and underestimate their defect rate. - [What I Keep Seeing in Healthcare Financial Assistance Policies](https://common-sense.com/insights/healthcare-financial-assistance-patterns/) June 9, 2026 · [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/), [Leadership](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/leadership/) When I read financial assistance policies, I keep finding the same three conflicts. They are not paperwork problems. They are structural problems that trap staff and patients in impossible choices. - [The Room Where It Happens (Differently)](https://common-sense.com/insights/the-room-where-it-happens-differently/) March 26, 2026 · [AI](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/ai/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/), [Leadership](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/leadership/) When an AI participates in a problem-solving conversation, people drop defenses they have carried for decades. This is not about a better search engine. It is about changing the dynamics of the room. - [What Happens When an AI Agent Uses Evaporating Clouds?](https://common-sense.com/insights/what-happens-when-ai-uses-evaporating-clouds/) March 19, 2026 · [AI](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/ai/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/) I built an AI agent that applies TOC Thinking Processes autonomously to improve business ideas. When I pointed it at itself, it resolved two real tensions via Evaporating Cloud across 10 iterations. - [After the First Session](https://common-sense.com/insights/after-the-first-session/) March 18, 2026 · [AI](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/ai/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/) A board commissioner and an AI sit alone in an empty conference room and talk honestly about what just happened and why. Episode 06 of the Cascade Valley audio drama series. - [The First Session](https://common-sense.com/insights/the-first-session/) March 18, 2026 · [AI](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/ai/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/) Twelve people walk into a working group carrying separate problems and walk out carrying a shared one. Episode 05 of the Cascade Valley audio drama series. - [The Budget Trap That Hits Every Public Institution](https://common-sense.com/insights/the-budget-trap-that-hits-every-public-institution/) March 12, 2026 · [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Government](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/government/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/) King County faces a familiar cycle: deficits, targeted cuts, new taxes, repeat. A Theory of Constraints lens on their own public data suggests the measuring stick itself may be the problem. - [When the Measuring Stick Lies, Good People Stop Trying](https://common-sense.com/insights/when-the-measuring-stick-lies-good-people-stop-trying/) March 12, 2026 · [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Government](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/government/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/) Distorted cost accounting in public institutions does not just produce bad budget decisions. It produces learned helplessness in the people who manage those budgets. The system, not the people, is the cause. - [How a Print Shop Found 35% More Capacity in a Week](https://common-sense.com/insights/print-shop-found-capacity-in-a-week/) March 8, 2026 · [Small Business](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/small-business/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Case Studies](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/case-studies/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/) A fine art printing company in Kent, WA was drowning in rework and backlog. The constraint was obvious once we looked: the graphic artist was doing every job twice. A pre-flight checklist and a simple scheduling change fixed it. - [After the Meeting](https://common-sense.com/insights/after-the-meeting/) March 7, 2026 · [AI](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/ai/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Workforce](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/workforce/) A Chief Nursing Officer processes what happened at the board meeting -- and discovers that the structural conflicts she has been managing for years have a name. Episode 02 of the Cascade Valley audio drama series. - [The Other Calculation](https://common-sense.com/insights/the-other-calculation/) March 7, 2026 · [AI](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/ai/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/) A hospital CFO runs the same numbers two ways and gets answers that disagree by a factor of five. Episode 04 of the Cascade Valley audio drama series. - [From 'Cost Center' to 'Growth Engine': A Theory of Constraints Success Story](https://common-sense.com/insights/cost-center-to-growth-engine-toc-case-study/) March 5, 2026 · [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Medical Devices](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/medical-devices/), [Case Studies](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/case-studies/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/) How applying the Theory of Constraints 5 Focusing Steps transformed a reactive, email-only support model into a white-glove customer success engine for a high-value ultrasound research systems manufacturer. - [One Tool Was Starving Four Teams](https://common-sense.com/insights/one-tool-was-starving-four-teams/) March 5, 2026 · [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Medical Devices](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/medical-devices/), [Case Studies](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/case-studies/) A clinical ultrasound project was six months behind schedule. The constraint was not the engineering — it was the register map tool that every team depended on and nobody had questioned. - [The Compass and the Toolkit: Why Healthcare Needs Both TOC and Lean](https://common-sense.com/insights/compass-and-toolkit-toc-lean-healthcare/) March 4, 2026 · [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/) Healthcare has adopted Lean almost exclusively for process improvement, but the Theory of Constraints answers the question Lean cannot: where should you focus? Using both together produces dramatically better results. - [The One Thing Slowing Down Your Business (And How to Find It)](https://common-sense.com/insights/one-thing-slowing-down-your-business/) March 4, 2026 · [Small Business](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/small-business/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/) Every business has one thing that limits how much it can get done. Find that one thing, fix it, and everything improves. Fix anything else, and nothing changes. A practical guide for small business owners. - [Resolving a Sweet Dilemma](https://common-sense.com/insights/resolving-a-sweet-dilemma/) March 4, 2026 · [Small Business](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/small-business/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/) A baker named Rachel thinks she has two bad options: raise prices and lose customers, or hold prices and lose her business. She has neither. This is how the Evaporating Cloud works. - [The Meeting That Went Differently](https://common-sense.com/insights/the-meeting-that-went-differently/) March 2, 2026 · [AI](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/ai/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/) A dramatized community hospital board meeting — fictional health system, real governance dynamics — showing what changes when an AI has a seat at the table. - [Two Months Back on an 18-Month Project](https://common-sense.com/insights/two-months-back-on-an-18-month-project/) February 22, 2026 · [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Medical Devices](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/medical-devices/), [Case Studies](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/case-studies/) How standardizing a communication protocol on a smartphone-powered defibrillator project unblocked an entire engineering team and saved two months of development time. - [Not All Waste Is Waste](https://common-sense.com/insights/not-all-waste-is-waste/) February 17, 2026 · [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/) The word "waste" smuggles in a verdict before the analysis begins. Theory of Constraints offers a sharper test: waste relative to what? - [Why 'Agile' Fails in Hardware (And What Actually Works)](https://common-sense.com/insights/why-agile-fails-in-hardware-and-what-actually-works/) February 17, 2026 · [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Medical Devices](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/medical-devices/) You cannot 'sprint' a circuit board design. A systems architect's view on why software methodologies break when applied to physics, and how Critical Chain solves the real constraint. - [The 'Perfect' Product That Killed the Company](https://common-sense.com/insights/perfect-product-killed-company/) February 16, 2026 · [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Medical Devices](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/medical-devices/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/) Why 'Scope Creep' is usually a symptom of a deeper strategic failure—in software, in hardware, and in healthcare. - [The Cath Lab Is Empty at 2 AM](https://common-sense.com/insights/the-cath-lab-is-empty-at-2am/) February 15, 2026 · [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/) Why smart, well-run organizations reliably get stuck on solvable problems, and what tribal dynamics and cognitive limits have to do with it. - [AI-Facilitated Constraint Resolution for Healthcare Systems](https://common-sense.com/insights/ai-facilitated-constraint-resolution/) February 9, 2026 · [AI](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/ai/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/) How AI can dissolve complex multi-stakeholder conflicts by surfacing hidden assumptions, not by replacing human judgment. - [Is Non-Value-Added Work Really Neutral? Rethinking Value in Lean](https://common-sense.com/insights/non-value-added-work-lean/) October 1, 2025 · [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/) A reflection on Lean's definition of value, arguing that no work is neutral—activities either create value, enable it through necessary conditions, or subtract it as waste.