This book addresses two major questions: what are the thinking processes that enable people to invent simple solutions to seemingly complicated situations? And, how can we use the psychological aspects to assist rather than impair the implementation of those solutions as an ongoing process?
Alex Rogo is a harried plant manager working ever more desperately to try and improve performance. His factory is rapidly heading for disaster. So is his marriage. He has ninety days to save his plant - or it will be closed by corporate HQ, with hundreds of job losses. It takes a chance meeting with a colleague from student days - Jonah - to help him break out of conventional ways of thinking to see what needs to be done. Described by Fortune as a 'guru to industry' and by Businessweek as a 'genius', Eliyahu M. Goldratt was an internationally recognized leader in the development of new business management concepts and systems. This 20th anniversary edition includes a series of detailed case study interviews by David Whitford, Editor at Large, Fortune Small Business, which explore how organizations around the world have been transformed by Eli Goldratt's ideas. The story of Alex's fight to save his plant contains a serious message for all managers in industry and explains the ideas which underline the Theory of Constraints (TOC) developed by Eli Goldratt. Written in a fast-paced thriller style, The Goal is the gripping novel which is transforming management thinking throughout the Western world. It is a book to recommend to your friends in industry - even to your bosses - but not to your competitors!
The Race is an unusual book. Its messages can be grasped simply by looking through the graphics. It can be understood better by reading the accompanying text. It is even more deeply grasped and useful when manufacturing people at all levels discuss its implications and application to their own environment. The Race enables you to derive a superior system - Drum-Buffer-Rope - for generating continual logistical improvements. It also illustrates how to focus on the process improvements that will have the greatest impact on your competitive edge. The epilogue and appendix quizzes will give the thoughtful reader insight in how to initiate and then extend a process of ongoing improvement into other areas like marketing and financial control.
Introducing an important new expression of management science called the Theory of Constraints (TOC), this book helps busy executives and professionals quickly learn and implement TOC principles. Introduction to the Theory of Constraints (TOC) Management System organizes several proven TOC principles, processes, and solutions into a TOC management system that has been successfully applied to everything from manufacturing industries to health care. The Theory of Constraints is based on the scientific method that has been developed and refined for nearly three decades by Dr. Eli Goldratt. The TOC management system offers management techniques that are sound, practical, and can be applied to nearly every company, project, or personal endeavor imaginable. It has created fundamentally new ways of managing, and has dramatically improved the ability of hundreds of thousands of individuals to make smart decisions on a daily basis. If you've read Eli Goldratt's bestselling books and wondered how to put his ideas to work, Introduction to the Theory of Constraints (TOC) Management System tells what TOC is, where it came from, who uses it, and how to get started with it.
The definitive guide to the theory of constraints In this authoritative volume, the world's top Theory of Constraints (TOC) experts reveal how to implement the ground-breaking management and improvement methodology developed by Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt. Theory of Constraints Handbook offers an in-depth examination of this revolutionary concept of bringing about global organization performance improvement by focusing on a few leverage points of the system. Clear explanations supplemented by examples and case studies define how the theory works, why it works, what issues are resolved, and what benefits accrue, and demonstrate how TOC can be applied to different industries and situations. Theory of Constraints Handbook covers: Critical Chain Project Management for realizing major improvements in delivering projects on time, to specification, and within budget Drum-Buffer-Rope (DBR), Buffer Management, and distribution for maximizing throughput and minimizing flow time Performance measures for applying Throughput Accounting to improve organizational performance Strategy, marketing, and sales techniques designed to increase sales closing rates and Throughput Thinking Processes for simple and complex environments TOC methods to ensure that services actions support escalating demand for services while retaining financial viability Integrating the TOC Thinking Processes, the Strategy and Tactic Tree, TOC measurements, the Five Focusing Steps of TOC, and Six Sigma as a system of tools for sustainable improvement
Many leaders and managers have led improvement initiatives in a variety of different industry sectors. Most believe that when they begin these efforts, they already have the tools they need in their improvement "backpack." Using these tools, they make substantial improvements to processes in a wide array of industry segments. As time passes, however, most realize that there is a missing link in their arsenal of tools for improvement. The author of this book faced this same predicament and he discovered what the missing link was in his improvement tool kit: Theory of Constraints (TOC). Once he learned the details of TOC, his ability to make major improvements jettisoned upward to levels he had not seen before. TOC is the common denominator in all the case studies presented in this book. This book opens with a chapter on what Theory of Constraints is and why it works so well in improvement efforts. The second and third chapters cover the important points related to Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma as well as key points related to variability. Chapter 4 demonstrates how to effectively combine these three components to achieve maximum improvement and the corresponding enhancement to your company’s profitability. The remainder of this book is composed of true case studies from different industry segments, using this integrated improvement methodology. Essentially, this book lays the foundation for what most practitioners are just beginning to understand—this integrated improvement methodology is superior to the three components used in isolation from each other. This book presents a step-by-step method of how to combine the Theory of Constraints, Lean, and Six Sigma, and then demonstrates its effectiveness in a very diverse array of industries.
Millions of readers remember The Goal, the landmark business novel that sets forth by way of story the essential principles of Eliyahu Goldratt's innovative methods of production. Now, from the AGI-Goldratt Institute and Jeff Cox, the same creative writer who co-authored The Goal, comes VELOCITY, the book that reveals how to achieve outstanding bottom-line results by integrating the world's three most powerful continuous improvement disciplines: Lean, Six Sigma, and Goldratt's Theory of Constraints. Used by the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps to dramatically improve some of the most complex, logistically vast supply chains in the world, the VELOCITY APPROACH draws on the strengths of all three disciplines to deliver breakthrough performance gains. In physics, speed with direction is velocity; in business, the application of VELOCITY means your organization can achieve operational speed with strategic direction to outmaneuver competitors, gain loyalty with customers, and rapidly build sustainable earnings growth -- in as little as one or two business quarters. Dee Jacob and Suzan Bergland, two princi-pals of AGI, have been teaching the concepts, techniques, and tools of VELOCITY to major corporations, including Procter & Gamble, ITT, and Northrop Grumman, for years. Now they unlock the door for you to see how to apply their insights and methods to your organization -- be it business, not-for-profit, manufacturing, or service based -- in order to shorten lead times, slash inventories, reduce production variability, and increase sales. Writer Jeff Cox returns with the vivid, realistic style that made The Goal so readable yet so edifying. Thrust into the presidency of the subsidiary company where she has managed sales and marketing, Amy Cieolara is mandated by her corporate superiors to implement Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in order to appease a key customer. Assigned to help her is LSS Master Black Belt Wayne Reese, installed as her operations manager. But as time goes on and corporate pressure mounts, Amy finds she has to start thinking for herself -- and learning from everyone around her -- and she arrives at the series of steps that form the core of the VELOCITY APPROACH. VELOCITY offers keen insight into the human and organizational factors that so often derail growth while teaching you proven, practical techniques for restarting and revving up the internal engines of your company to reach new levels of success. Colorful characters, believable situations, and everything from dice games to AGI's "reality tree" techniques make this business novel a vital resource for everyone seeking to deliver business improvement in these challenging economic times -- and far into the future.
There has been a shift of policy at board level. Cash is needed and Alex Rogo’s companies are to be put on the block. Alex faces a cruel dilemma. If he successfully completes the turnaround of his companies they can be sold for the maximum return: if he fails they will be closed down. Either way Alex and his team will be out of work. It looks like lose-lose, both for Alex and for his team. And as if he doesn’t have enough to deal with, his two children have become teenagers. As Alex grapples with problems at work and at home, we begin to understand the full scope of Eli Goldratt’s powerful techniques. It’s Not Luck reveals more of the Thinking Process-techniques that consistently produce win-win solutions to seemingly impossible problems.
“There is no doubt that this is a truly original and groundbreaking work in applying the Theory of Constraints. I run a services company and learned some things about the services business. Anyone involved in large services companies needs to look at what John is proposing. I will definitely quote this material frequently.” Chad Smith, Managing Partner, Constraints Management Group “The information presented in this book is badly needed by service providers who struggle to balance supply and demand with their resources.” Carol A. Ptak, CFPIM, CIRM “The techniques that John brings to light in this book are the bridge from the vision of Dr. Goldratt’s work to the successful implementation in a range of services firms.” From the Foreword by Erik Bush, Vice President, IBM Global Services Discover the powerful Theory of Constraints (TOC), and use it to drive continuous performance improvement in any services organization Identify the hidden constraints that are limiting your organization, and manage or eliminate them Use TOC to improve the way you manage resources, projects, processes, finance, marketing, and sales Determine whether your organization faces an internal or external constraint, manage that constraint accordingly, and anticipate where the next constraint will arise Release latent capacity shrouded by common business practices Simplify processes that have grown unmanageably complex Optimize your enterprise as a whole rather than suboptimizing individual business units Get buy-in to fundamental changes in strategy, tactics, and operations Managing services is extremely challenging, and traditional “industrial” management techniques are no longer adequate. In Reaching the Goal, Dr. John Arthur Ricketts presents a breakthrough management approach that embraces what makes services different: their diversity, complexity, and unique distribution methods. Ricketts draws on Eli Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints (TOC), one of this generation’s most successful management methodologies...thoroughly adapting it to the needs of today’s professional, scientific, and technical services businesses. He reveals how to identify the surprising constraints that limit your organization’s performance, execute more effectively within those constraints, and then loosen or even eliminate them. This book’s relentlessly practical techniques reflect several years of advanced IBM research and consulting with enterprise clients. Step-by-step, Ricketts shows how to apply them throughout your most crucial business functions...from project management to finance, process improvement to sales and marketing. Whatever your role in improving service delivery, processes, or profitability, this book gives you the tools to reach your goals...and go beyond them Identify, manage, and overcome your key constraints Five steps to uncovering and addressing the real obstacles to improved performance Optimize core business functions, one step at a time Improve the way you manage resources, projects, processes, finance, and marketing Implement TOC rapidly and effectively Get buy-in, deploy infrastructure, and provide the right IT support?
