Theory Of Constraints - V, A and T types of factories

The VAT factory types are the Theory Of Constraints’ powerful classification system of the different kinds of industrial manufacturing systems, they determine how plants should be analyzed and how they should be managed.

This video is an extract of the course “Theory Of Constraints in production” by Philip Marris, the founder of Marris Consulting.

The VAT system was developed in the 1980s. TOC solutions in manufacturing are different for V-plants, A-plants, and T-Plants.

The letters represent visually the Bill Of Materials but where the flow is from bottom to top (the opposite of most representations of flow). The raw materials and purchased components are at the bottom and the Finished Goods are at the top. Products flow upwards.

The V-Plant has very few different kinds of raw materials compared to the wide range of finished goods that it produces. These are often continuous or semi-continuous process industries. For example, in a steel plant, different types of steel are transformed into different thicknesses, different hardnesses and different widths of sheets of steel. Or in the food industry milk will be transformed into different kinds of milks and yogurts.

The second type is the A-Plant. It is the opposite of the V-plant. Many different raw materials and purchased components are assembled to produce a limited range of finished goods. These can be Original Equipment Manufacturers for instance (OEMs). A manufacturer of windscreen wiper engines for cars for instance.

The third kind of production model is the T-plant, or the “modern assembly plant”. It has emerged because an A-plant cannot personalize its products, so the market offering is limited in its range. So this has led to the T-plant. The vertical bar of the T-plant makes some of the components (via a combination of V and A plants) and the horizontal bar of the T represents the assembly. The assembly is based on a logic of options and variants. It assembles components built in-house and purchased components (or sometimes only purchased components). The best-known example is the production of a car.
The VAT representation is very powerful because the analysis and the TOC “solution” is often specific and different in the different types of plants.

Have a look at our website: https://www.marris-consulting.com/en/
Have a look at our online courses: https://e-learning.marris-consulting.com/
Check out our LinkedIn company page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marris-consulting
Subscribe to our newsletter: https://marrisconsulting.substack.com/

Marris Consulting is a management consulting firm.
Our motto: Factories, People & Results.