The "Big 3" whole-company improvement technologies -- Lean Thinking, Six
Sigma, Theory of Constraints -- are individually so powerful that advocates can
easily become defensive; "my technology is better than yours."
A sign of maturity in the movements is the recognition that each brings things
to the table that the others don't; and that the combination is more powerful
than the independence. Few managers know that the Theory of Constraints is the
ultimate "mixer" -- it can pull the other technologies (and more) in to
an implementation, and enable each to achieve better results than they could
have achieved individually. Everyone wins.