Customer Reviews

Management Dilemmas: The Theory of Constraints Approach to Problem Identification and Solutions (The CRC Press Series on Constraints Management)

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This book is powerful in two ways. First, it shows how TOC is being applied in a variety of enterprises and situations. Second, it gives the reader the opportunity to learn about TOC by thinking through a variety of situations. The author has not created a detailed textbook that attempts to explain the intracacies of TOC. Rather he presents a fun to read book which consists of a variety of case studies. Each chapter begins by revealing the information a consultant might gather when analyzing the situation. The reader is then challenged to stop and think about how they would approach the problem. Each chapter ends with an analysis from a TOC perspective, allowing the reader to see how the TOC approach differs from their current way of thinking. This book will broaden the reader's understanding of TOC and how it applies accross the broad spectrum of enterprises and the systems they use to reach their goals. [PS: This book is also great for the TOC veteran: it provides a great opportunity to compare your thinking to one of the recognized guru's of TOC.]

Mr. Schragenheim has put together a killer collection of business dilemmas, explained them is sufficient detail so as to illustrate the problematic issues, and provided TOC analysis of each.

The book starts out with an intro to TOC, and proceeds to explore a variety of small and large business and projects experiencing problems. You feel like you are reading about, and can identify with real people, as you progress through the book. The issues faced are common, and the thoughts, intuition, and frustrations of the characters familiar. All cases have constraints in need of elevation, and subordination, which Eli illustrates through both written TOC analysis, and through the use of traditional TOC constraint busting diagrams.

"Management Dilemmas", falls smack in between "The Goal", and Dettmers' "Goldratt's Theory of Constraints." It's more in depth than "The Goal", but not as intense as Dettmer's book. If you are just getting your feet wet in TOC this book will not be over your head.

An excellent addition to this book, and all the TOC material out there would be case studies and applications in Dot-Com world. For much less than the cost of a Super Bowl ad (or the 120+ million it took Boo.com to go BOOHOO and belly up in 6 months), companies could come up with a systematic approach to identify, elevate, and exploit constraints, increase throughput, and have a chance of turning a profit.

Read this book if you want a powerful insight into how some people are able to look at a problem and quickly come up with an excellent solution. How some people seem to be able to ignore all the extraneous stuff and bore into the core issue. Most people can learn how to do this and this book is a great place to start. Schragenheim has constructed many real cases of business and organisational problems that you can solve. At the end of each story he provides his own interpretation based on his intimate knowledge of the Theory of Constraints' (TOC) thinking processes.

To get the most from this book I highly recommend you solve each of the problem cases on your own before reading the solution. This way you can compare your thinking to the power of the TOC thinking processes. Working through the problems on your own makes the book more enjoyable and enhances the learning experience a lot. I learned a lot and the cases will be a great help to me.

This book shows the diversity and applicability of TOC in a very accessable format. An excellent read.

This book is a good guide for experimented people who has experimented TOC in manufacturing and now needs to apply TOC in service. It sets an outstanding relationship between TOC main concepts, as regarded in factories, and how to yield results in service organization. The best chapter is "Let there be light". Anyway, a remark must be made. Ely ignores the special skills of Toyota Production System in reducing set-up's. He accepts to stop machines as long as stops saling, rather than apply TPS "one-touch exchange die" technique in the constraint, in order to reduce lead-time and reach a segmented market, which would raise sales and improve performance.