Webinar: Escaping the Annual Budget Trap: Applying TOC Buffer Management to Government Finance by TOCICO Webinars

Escaping the Annual Budget Trap: Applying TOC Buffer Management to Government Finance

About

Government budgeting is typically built around a rigid annual allocation of funds. Once the budget is approved, agencies are expected to execute according to plan. However, reality rarely follows the plan. Some initiatives receive more funding than they ultimately need, while others require additional resources or emerge unexpectedly during the year.

This rigidity creates well-known undesirable effects: wasteful end-of-year spending, inability to respond quickly to new needs, and suboptimal exploitation of the limited financial resources available to government.

From a Theory of Constraints perspective, the government budget is effectively the ultimate constraint of the system. The key question therefore becomes: How can governments better exploit this constraint under conditions of high uncertainty?

Inspired by the buffer management principles of Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM), this session introduces the concept of a Budget Buffer. Instead of allocating the entire budget upfront, a significant portion is held centrally and released dynamically during the year based on demonstrated need and progress.

We will explore the underlying conflict, the proposed injection, and the potential benefits—and risks—of applying TOC thinking to government budgeting.

When

Wednesday, May 27, 2026 · 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time (US & Canada) (GMT -4:00)

Agenda

The Core Conflict in Government Budgeting
Introducing the Budget Buffer Concept
Benefits, Risks, and Implementation Considerations
Discussion+ live Q&A

Presenters

Alfredo Mycue

Alfredo is the Co-Founder of ReEngine Consulting and a PhD candidate at George Washington University in Washington, DC. He has been a military commander, diplomat, and assistant professor of history at West Point Military Academy. He has held positions at the federal, state, and city level as a public executive and an improvement expert. He has worked to improve procurement and contract management at all those levels of government and in universities.

Andrew Kay

Recognized in Australia as a leading TOC Practitioner, Andrew is the founder of an independent boutique TOC consulting firm TOC3 Pty Limited based in Sydney, serving the Asia Pacific.

With a TOC career spanning nearly 20 years, Andrew has delivered and helped deliver over 85 successful TOC implementations across a multitude of industry sectors in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan and the USA. Andrew brings a depth of TOC knowledge and implementation experience in guiding organizations to systematically and rapidly achieve their goals Andrew is proficient in all TOC application solution areas including the Logical Thinking Process Tools. He specializes in rapid and visual implementation methods.

Andrew partners with world-class practitioners and is actively engaged in the International TOC Community. He has commenced sharing his experiences and insights through several case studies at TOCICO and other international TOC Conferences.

Andrew is also the Director of TOC for Education Australia working to introduce the TOCFE thinking tools to schools and communities and wishes he could do more.

Andrew is passionate about TOC and what it can deliver to the world.

Before his TOC career, Andrew served as a scientific-systems based professional in strategic planning for Sydney City and the Blue Mountains Region. A pioneer in Integrated Local Government Geographic Information Systems, Andrew held senior management roles in Government Corporate Strategy and Business Planning and later for 5 years, in the private sector with Business Improvement Consulting with clients such as The Sydney Opera House, Phillips, Canberra Hospital, A V Jennings, and Perrigrin Semi-Conductor. In between he helped establish and run Australia's first micro-finance operation based on the Nobel Prize-winning Grameen Bank of Bangladesh.

Andrew holds a BSc Hons in Applied Science (dual major/Magna Cum Laude) from the University NSW, a post-graduate MBA from Macquarie University, and he is certified by TOCICO, and is a qualified Jonah+ and CCPM IC3PM instructor.

Eli Schragenheim

Eli Schragenheim is a well-known international management educator, author and consultant active in various fields of management. He worked with a huge variety of organizations all over the world, including public-sector organizations, industrial, high-tech and start-ups. Since he had joined Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt, the famous creator of the Theory of Constraints (TOC) in 1985, Eli Schragenheim had taught, spoke at conferences, and consulted all over the globe. Eli Schragenheim is the author of several books on various aspects of management. His last book, Throughput Economics – Making Good Management Decisions, together with Henry Camp and Rocco Surace, was published in July 2019. Eli Schragenheim first book Management Dilemmas (1998) showed a variety of problematic situations in management and the rigorous analysis leading to the right solution. Next he collaborated with William H. Dettmer in writing Manufacturing at Warp Speed. In this book the new concept of Simplified-DBR, now a key concept in production planning according to TOC, was introduced. He collaborated with Carol A. Ptak on ERP, Tools, Techniques, and Applications for Integrating the Supply Chain, and with Dr. Goldratt and Carol Ptak on Necessary but Not Sufficient. In 2009 his book Supply Chain Management at Warp Speed, with William H. Dettmer and Wayne Patterson was published. In March 2015, Eli has opened a blog, now containing more than 140 articles on various topics in TOC that everybody can access.

Guido Bacharach

Guido Bacharach, Former Head of Strategy and Digitization Unit at the Stiftung für Hochschulzulassung in Dortmund. After his university studies he has held predominantly management positions, especially in the sales area and in public services. The focus of his work is on strategic digitization, process improvement, and project management. He is co-founder of the TOCICO SIG “TOC in Government

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