Theory of Constraints: Tales from India is an intricately woven narrative of experiences and encounters that explores the known truth - how a system’s performance is invariably limited by a few constraints. Come, join us, as we follow our acquaintances or their acquaintances across diverse domains, to see TOC in action in manufacturing, service operations, entrepreneurial and social settings.
We go grocery shopping to the PDS store, watch software developers build lines of code, refl ect on shipbuilding operations over a cup of coff ee, accompany KMN to collect his pension, trek to the plantations in the Western Ghats, meander through the Manimala river, travel to work on IST, listen to Bibi Biden’s exhortations, assess the strength of the weak force, speculate on fuel consumption, pick a few lessons on Total Football, get trapped in the Kerala floods, and even get treated for a hamstring injury in our travail. Along the way, we also stop by to catch a glimpse of Vimal’s strategic Queen’s Gambit, the casualties of the two US Generals, Seena’s tryst with the last mile, Shananya’s craftsmanship at her artisanal vegan outlet, and Jarvis in healthcare.
It is not easy to see the whole system when we are inside the system. As we follow these tales, we explore, how being there, we can best handle it so that we do not pass pain down the chain.
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Joshin John, Rajiv Kumar Srivastava, Neetha J. Eappen
Dr. Joshin John is Associate Professor and Dean (Research) at Xavier Institute of Management & Entrepreneurship, Kochi. He holds a Ph.D. from IIM Lucknow and a Mechanical Engineering degree from the College of Engineering, Trivandrum. Beginning his career at Larsen & Toubro Ltd., he has served as Engineering Manager and consultant to several Fortune 500 companies. A Fellow of the Institute of Marine Engineers (India) and Paul Lawrence Fellow of the Case Research Foundation (USA), his research has appeared in reputed journals including Technology Forecasting & Social Change and International Journal of Strategic Decision Sciences. He has co-authored multiple case studies distributed by Ivey, Harvard, IESE, and The Case Centre and consults for the Government of India on lean management initiatives.
Dr. Rajiv K. Srivastava, former Professor at IIM Lucknow, holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering & Operations Research from Virginia Tech, USA. An alumnus of IIT Kanpur and NITIE (now IIM Mumbai), he has over 45 years of academic and industry experience, including teaching at SUNY Buffalo and NITIE. His expertise spans manufacturing systems, production planning, and applications of quantitative methods in operations management.
Dr. Neetha J. Eappen is a Research Supervisor and Senior Faculty at Westford University College, UAE, affiliated with Abertay University and UCAM Catholic University of Murcia. She holds a Ph.D. in Management from Cochin University of Science and Technology, an MBA from the University of Kerala, and a B.Tech in Civil Engineering from TKM College of Engineering. With over 20 years of teaching experience, she has co-authored several case studies published by Ivey and Harvard, one of which was listed as an Ivey Bestseller 2024–25 in Operations Management.
