H. William Dettmer

H. William Dettmer writes about the Theory of Constraints and systems-level problem solving. In a 1995 Quality Progress article, he argued that improving an individual component does not necessarily improve the system it belongs to. The article describes assessing local decisions through their effects on throughput, inventory, and operating expense, with attention focused on the constraint limiting overall improvement.

Dettmer is also the author of The Logical Thinking Process: A Systems Approach to Complex Problem Solving, published by ASQ Quality Press in 2007. The publisher describes its use of logic trees to examine complex problems and develop responses. For OutcomesLab readers, his work offers a way to ask whether a faster or more efficient team has improved the result that matters beyond its own boundary. That is a question to investigate, not a claim that every local improvement is counterproductive.