ELIYAHU GOLDRATT
BACKGROUND
Eliyahu Moshe Goldratt was born in 1948 to the family of Avraham-Yehuda Goldratt. He finished his Bachelor of Science degree from Tel Aviv University; however, his Masters of Science and Doctorate of Philosophy degrees were earned from Bar-Ilan University.
He established his own company and aptly called it Creative Output. The company “developed and sold a software package” called Optimized Technology (OPT), the “first hardware to provide finite capacity scheduling for scheduling environments”.
He was an “educator, author, scientist, philosopher, and business leader.” Foremost, though, he was an unconventional thinker, which often drew him to his audience, who he prodded to “examine and reassess their business practices with fresh, new vision.”
Dr. Goldratt died June 11th, 2011 at noon, at his home in Israel.
BOOK/S:
Goldratt wrote business novels which often highlight application of his principles. He wrote the following books:
1. The Goal, an underground best-seller which uses a non-traditional approach, in novel form. This novel underscores his Theory of Constraints (TOC).
2. Production the TOC Way is a self-learning kit for “manufacturers interested in applying TOC techniques and spreading them within their companies.”
3. It’s Not Luck. Sequel to The Goal. This shows how TOC “peels away the common nonsense and reveals what lies hidden beneath (our) inertia.”
4. The Critical Chain. Another novel which “reveals the reasons projects never finish on time or within budget or specs, and develops alternate TOC approach to managing projects.”
5. Necessary But Not Sufficient. This book “ makes Toc’s utility in problems outside manufacturing and other operations fields clear.”
6. Other books by Goldratt are: The Race, What Is This Thing Called TOC?, The Haystack Syndrome.
7. The Goldratt Satellite Program (VIDEO)
“Considered a masterpiece, this 8-session educational series is taught by Dr. Eli Goldratt. His charismatic, stimulating, yet sometimes unconventional style captures the attention of the audience. Eli is a true thinker and throughout this program provokes others to think. He shares his life’s work revealing what to change, what to change to and how to cause the change to get fast results in today’s global and competitive environment and establishing a foundation for future success. “
CONTRIBUTION/S:
The Theory of Constraints (TOC):
“TOC is a one of the most profound developments in the practical aspect of making organizational decisions in situations in which constraints exist. The Theory of Constraints provides a practical framework for managing enterprises with a holistic and focused approach and does away with conflicts between local operating level decisions and global company objectives and goals.
A constraint is anything in an organization that limits it from moving toward or achieving its goal. Of course, this assumes that an appropriate goal has been defined. TOC recognizes two types of constraints that can exist in any business – the size notwithstanding. These are – physical constraints and non-physical constraints. A physical constraint is something like the physical capacity of a machine. A non-physical constraint might be something like demand for a product, a corporate procedure, or an individual’s paradigm for looking at the world.
TOC brings in the powerful ‘five focusing step’ methodology to identify the constraint in the company and systematically attack the associated problems. The result is dramatic improvements of throughput (or contribution) and customer order due date performance, and inventory reduction.
The steps in applying TOC are as follows:
- Identify the system’s constraints..
- Decide how to exploit the system’s constraints. Once it is decided how to manage the constraints within the system, how about the majority of the resources that are not constraints? The answer is to manage them so that they just provide what is needed to match the output of the constrained resources.
- Subordinate everything else to the above decision in Step 2. Since the constraints are keeping us from moving toward our goal, all the resources are applied that can assist in breaking them.
- Elevate the system’s constraints. If we continue to work toward breaking a constraint (also called elevating a constraint) at some point the constraint will no longer be a constraint. The constraint will be broken.
- If the constraint is broken, return to Step 1. When that happens, there will be another constraint, somewhere else in the system that is limiting progress to the goal.
The process must be reapplied, perhaps many times. It is very important not to let inertia become a constraint. Most constraints in organization are of their own making. They are the entrenched rules, policies, and procedures that have developed over time. Many times, when we finally break a constraint, we do not go back and review and change the rules and policies that caused the constraint initially. Most constraints in organizations today are policy constraints rather than physical constraints.”
REFERENCES:
http://www.toc-goldratt.com/product/Goldratt-Satellite-Program
No comments:
Post a Comment