Int. J. Services and Operations Management, Vol. 15, No. 4, 2013 389 Copyright © 2013 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Applying TOC thinking process tools in managing challenges of supply chain finance: a case study Arqum Mateen and Dileep More* Operations Management Group, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, Joka, Diamond Harbor Road, Kolkata – 700104, India E-mail: arqumm10@email.iimcal.ac.in E-mail: dileep_more@iimcal.ac.in *Corresponding author Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to examine the different challenges that confront supply chain finance (SCF) in Indian business environment, identify the core challenge and develop a concrete action plan to overcome it in an Indian organisation. An exclusive survey was carried out amongst Indian firms to ascertain the perceptions and experiences related to different SCF challenges. To identify the key challenge and prepare a road map to overcome it in an organisation, the five thinking process (TP) tools of the theory of constraints (TOC) were employed. The TP tools helped the organisation in the early stage of implementing SCF initiatives that guided the SCF manager before executing them. This paper is one of the first studies to address and analyse a survey on various challenges confronting SCF and present an integrated application of TP tools in solving a problem of SCF. Keywords: supply chain management; SCM; supply chain finance; SCF; theory of constraints; TOC; thinking process; tools; case study; India. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Mateen, A. and More, D. (2013) ‘Applying TOC thinking process tools in managing challenges of supply chain finance: a case study’, Int. J. Services and Operations Management, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp.389–410. Biographical notes: Arqum Mateen is a doctoral student in the Operations Management Group at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. He has done his post-graduation in management from the Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad, India and has a Bachelor of Technology degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. He has worked in diverse industries including energy, pharmaceuticals and information technology. His areas of interest include organisational transformation, behavioural operations management and optimisation. Dileep More is an Assistant Professor in the Operations Management Group at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. He has a doctorate degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and Master of Technology degree in the Industrial Engineering and Management from the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, India. His fields of interest are purchasing, manufacturing, logistics, human resource, technology management and enterprise flexibility.