Four-Step TOC Process

The subordination step requires all other processes and resources in the system to be realigned to support the constraint. The elevation step addresses the constraint more fundamentally through investment, redesign, or capacity expansion until it is no longer the system's limiting factor. The exploit step means maximizing the efficiency of the existing constraint without major capital investment or structural changes. The first step of TOC is to analyze all processes and locate the weakest link holding everything else back.