
RIP Eliyahu M. Goldratt - kevinrutherford
http://kevinrutherford.posterous.com/rip-eli-goldratt
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ssharp
I had to read "The Goal" for Operations Management, which I think is pretty
standard for all Operations courses.

I found the portions of the book dealing with the relationship between the
husband and wife to be a little trite, but I can see how it might appeal to
some to break up the monotony of teaching theory of constraints (TOC), even if
the TOC parts are still presented using a fictional narrative.

The book is a quick, interesting, and informative enough read to make it a
must-read for anything interested in business books. For most people, I'm sure
they'd rather read this than dig into more research and academic-based papers
on TOC.

I haven't read any of his other books but will likely look into them in the
near future.

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kross
Goldratt may be the only person I have ever regarded as a personal hero. My
success is a direct result of his teachings.

He was a great man that has had a profound impact on many, and most certainly
on my life. I only regret now that I never reached out to him to express my
gratitude.

I too am unusually affected by the news.

~~~
hugh3
I've never heard of this guy, but from the way he's described he sounds more
like Oprah-on-happy-pills than anything particularly profound. Is this really
the best he has to offer?

 _"I smile and start to count on my fingers: One, people are good. Two, every
conflict can be removed. Three, every situation, no matter how complex it
initially looks, is exceedingly simple. Four, every situation can be
substantially improved; even the sky is not the limit. Five, every person can
reach a full life. Six, there is always a win-win solution. Shall I continue
to count?"_

because that sounds like an exaggerated comic caricature of a self-help guru,
selling the kind of aggravating platitudes that sell large-print books in the
business section of the Wal-Mart book department.

~~~
benjohnson
If you're hyper-smart, "The Goal" can be condensed to a few bullet points. The
genius of "The Goal" is to highlight some not-immediatly-obvious problems and
solutions in a readable and motivating fashion.

A lot of smart people (and even idiots like myself) have taken away quite a
few good ideas from his writings - given how quick the books are to read,
perhaps consider that you may be missing out.

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carlcoryell
If you listen to the audio tape of "The Goal", Mr. Goldratt tells the
heartbreaking story of why he wrote the book and what happened afterwards.

As a grad student, he developed software to manage the production of certain
key components needed for his research. He then ended up starting a successful
software company selling those tools into manufacturing companies.

He wrote "The Goal" as a sales tool to help his customers adopt the software
and practices.

The heartbreaking part is that he found the companies that purchased his book
were more successful than companies that purchased his software or companies
that purchased both.

Once realizing that, he immediately ceased to be an effective salesman for his
company and was pushed out as CEO.

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patrickgzill
He was a trailblazer in my view, in creating a system that can be used across
a wide variety of disciplines.

~~~
billswift
He was a simplifier and popularizer, but his books provide a readable and
useful preview of serious operations management and for people who don't
really need more. His basic ideas were not nearly as original as he claimed,
as I discovered last year when I started a more serious study of management,
especially project management. Many of his ideas were present in textbooks and
handbooks (tertiary sources) from the 1970s.

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misterbee
When I got my first managerial role in a software organization, my boss told
me to read _The Goal_. I was really turned off by the fake family narrative
aspect. I skimmed it, trying to pick out the practical business parts. I was
already aware of Agile and continuous improvement / Kaizen, and physical
manufacturing had nothing to do with my job, so "Theory of Constraints" didn't
speak to me much.

Also, the cover just reeks of business-book BS
(<http://www.amazon.com/*/dp/0884270610>)

When I finished the book, my boss asked me what I thought. I told him I didn't
like it, and he laughed and told me it was awful. I shut my mouth instead of
asking me why he recommended the book in the first place.

That was my first introduction to management BS.

For OR, and manufacturing in general, and when the book was written in the
early 1990s when these ideas were newer and we didn't have the Internet for
disseminating information, _The Goal_ and TOC were probably more valuable to
the contemporary audience.

~~~
ojbyrne
Minor nitpick - The Goal was first published in 1984.

~~~
misterbee
Ah. That's what I thought, and I originally wrote "early 1980s" (which made my
reference to the Internet more sensible), but then I changed it based on the
"1992" date shown on the Amazon page (for the 2/ed, or something like this.)

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mjw
Would someone be willing to do a quick "for engineers" précis of the core
ideas of his theory of constraints?

I ask as I've seen The Goal and some other books of his on a colleague's desk.
Have to admit that on the surface it does look like exactly the kind of
"management self-help" book that I'd naturally be a bit skeptical of, but it
sounds like this guy is somewhat respected amongst the technology crowd so I'd
be interested to find out a bit more. Without necessarily going as far as
reading a novel about operational management of a factory :)

~~~
billswift
I have read _The Goal_ , _Critical Chain_ , and _It's Not Luck_. I wrote a 3
star review of _The Goal_ for Amazon, basically they are interesting and
useful for a preview or a review of operations management, but have inadequate
technical information for actual implementation. Also, I read an old (1983)
project management textbook last year (and some other management books
since)and discovered the ideas are not as original as he claimed either.

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mindcrime
Wow, weird timing... I picked up a copy of _The Goal_ at a used bookstore last
week, and randomly picked it up and started reading it on Thursday, and
finished it sometime late Friday night... and now I hear that the author just
died.

I'm not involved in manufacturing, but I enjoyed _The Goal_ considerably and
thought that some of the ideas (at least in a very general sense) contained in
it could be applicable in many fields... perhaps even software development.
I'll be looking forward to reading some of his other titles.

Anyway, R.I.P. Mr. Goldratt.

~~~
kross
Read "It's Not Luck", followed by "The Critical Chain", then pick up any Agile
Methodology book.

You might be amazed at the new insights you may have.

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CoffeeDregs
Thank you for posting this. I, too, read The Goal for Ops Mgmt and appreciated
it, but not nearly as much as I do after 6 years back in the Real World. I've
headed back to Amazon and have purchased The Goal (and a bunch of his other
books, too), excited to read them with fresh eyes.

A moment I should notice: I'd underestimated the value of Goldratt (or
B-school's professor hadn't hammered it home) and now he's gone. Fortunately,
his books are still available.

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mikecane
For people who know his work, I see that only The Goal is available for
Kindle. Are the others under different titles for America?

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pella
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Constraints>

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yoshyosh
wow only 64 years old...I remember reading his book in 2 days. The concepts of
TOC apply to so many things and becomes really eye opening when applying it to
goals in life. I wish there was a TOC for startups

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kross
Most people view Goldratt's teachings in a very narrow scope, and that is
tragic. As others have mentioned, the Theory of Constraints is applicable to
just about everything (I cannot think of anything where the TOC does not
apply).

I believe Goldratt's goal with his first book “The Goal” was to introduce the
Theory of Constraints in an engaging way through a fictional novel (much
easier to read than a textbook). The intent of the novel is to prove that
management is a science, not an art. A systematic, logical approach to
identifying root causes (a.k.a bottlenecks) that impact the system's
throughput (a.k.a. the goal) is introduced and explained in multiple
scenarios. He shows that it is used in a variety of ways, including the
production line, accounting, and sales and marketing. Profound results are
proven step by step, but many make the mistake of thinking this is a book of
recipes, when it is more a book of proofs.

Goldratt received much criticism for “The Goal”, most of which argued that the
TOC was not generally applicable. Many people saw the first book as a set of
recipes or plans, and discarded his theory because they could not take the
situations from “The Goal” and overlay them or apply the solutions directly to
their problem domain. That was never Goldratt’s intent. I believe that is when
he wrote “It’s Not Luck” as a response.

In “It’s Not Luck”, he exercises the TOC in many more disciplines as well as
introduces more tools to apply TOC. “It’s Not Luck” is a great companion
because you get a bit more practice, though anyone anxious to apply the TOC
and using the related tools will likely want to buy some of the textbooks to
get quick guidance about using the tools i.e. building Current Reality Trees.

Some interesting memorable phrases/concepts/tools/what have you: \-
Correlation is not Causation \- Common Practice does not mean Common Sense \-
Cost accounting has profoundly negative consequences on any system (through
induced behaviors, measures, rules and policies) \- Introduction of Throughput
Accounting (perhaps the easiest way to explain/exercise TOC in an organization
without TOC experts) \- Disproving supply and demand as we know it (“It’s Not
Luck”) \- Current Reality Tree (tool to identify root cause) \- Lose-Lose
situation is impossible (evaporating clouds).

“every situation, no matter how complex it initially looks, is exceedingly
simple”

I have found this to be true every time I have examined a problem domain. I
have never found more than one root cause in any current reality tree. Those
who don’t take the time to understand the Theory of Constraints or the tools
surrounding would never believe such a statement. Goldratt never asks for you
to accept any concept or theory at face value, he proves it.

Goldratt has given us the process and tools to achieve profound results. For
that, we are grateful.

(I'm sorry for the formatting)

------
intellection
Unconstrained.

