Forty Years and Still Evolving: The Theory of Constraints

Abstract

This manuscript presents a literature review of the Theory of Constraints. The literature is divided into three periods: the early (1980-1995), the expansion (1996-2014) and the past five years (2015-2019). The theory has been applied to production efficiency, supply chain management, cost accounting, product-mix decisions, and strategic decision-making. It has evolved into a more mature management philosophy and thinking process. The theory has become integrated with other related or competitive theories and has withstood the test of time as an effective and intuitive approach to thinking about a broad range of functional areas, problems, and methods of decision-making.