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.
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'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.
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.
Goldratt's books sets out to teach TOC and other theories in a fictional environment and it does a really good job of doing everything you are so skeptic about.
That quote is taken from The Choice, and is Goldratt's attempt to summarize his philosophy: that his logical Thinking Tools can be used by anyone, and can provide win-win benefits for everyone in any situation. Worth a quick read, I'd say...
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.
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.
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.
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.
I was working in manufacturing at the time I read The Goal, and I didn't get what was so special about it either. Having done JIT, time studies / line balancing, PERT/CPM, and other tools in the industrial engineering trade, I didn't think there was anything revolutionary about it. Maybe for those operating at an abstract level of operations management it was novel, but for those of us in the boots-on-the-ground mode, it was largely a rehash of existing ideas.
I agree that The Goal isn't the greatest literary novel in history; but then it doesn't set out to be that.
For me, the genius of ToC is that it provides a focussed, step-by-step way to get to the big productivity improvements; whereas lean/kaizen, while also very effective, can take an age to get to the same place.
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.)
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 :)
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.
Quick, possible pointless information about me. I was a Comp Sci Graduate in '08. My first job was writing Advanced Planning and Scheduling Software. His book the goal helped me understand WTF I was writing. In a Complete nutshell it tells you how to identify bottlenecks in your supply/production chain and how to relieve them. It also explains why having a large inventory is bad and a few other simple ideas. Like someone else said now a days its easy to see what these Constraints are once you have some Supply Chain or operations experience. At the time he wrote the books however computers were barely being used in Supply Chain (at least in metals manufacturing) so they were a big deal. I can elaborate more if you want. I just don't want to bore you to death haha.
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.
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.
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
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 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.