Customer Reviews

Theory of Constraints

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I was actually angry after dropping twenty dollars on this incoherent brochure for the Goldratt institute's seminars. The book is written in such a way that it actually manages to avoid any substantive discussion of the implementation of the Theory of Constraints - instead describing how a Goldratt trained specialist has the skills to make it work. Imagine buying a book on how to change the oil on your car - then discovering the book reads, "First take your car to our Jiffy Lube center, Next watch our Jiffy Lube expert as he expertly lubes your car in a jiffy, lastly return home in your car." If you want to actually understand the Theory of Constraints beyond Goldratts excellent novels - pick up H. William Dettmer's book "Goldratt's Theory of Constraints." It is everything that this book should have been and more. I cannot stress enough how clearly and lucidly Dettmer explains all of the diagrams and "Thinking Tools" that Goldratt litters through his novels. Armed with Dettmer's book and Goldratt's novels you will be in good shape to apply the concepts to any situation

In this short offering (128 pages), we are treated to no less than 31 reprinted pages from previous books or Journal articles. The "new" material is pretty much limited to gushing worship of the Socratic teaching methods, a couple of lists of improvement process rules of thumb, and an analytical technique called "Evaporating Clouds" that can only be described as vaporous.

If you hunger for more, there are plenty of pitches for various seminars on Socratic teaching and cloud evaporation, conducted by the local branch of the Goldratt Institute (with a handy listing of these branches located in the book).

The Goal was helpful and well done. The successor is not worthy.

Goldratt writes about his Theory of Constraints - and how it is far more than just a shop floor "bottleneck" optimization program. TOC is really about making decisions in this fast-paced, ever-changing world. A "Jonah" knows that quick fixes lead to "chasing one's tail". Insight comes from recognizing that "Current Reality Trees" can be made that get at the root of your problems ("Undesirable Effects"). What are the assumptions that keep you in the rat race? How can you affect breakthrough gains in "Throughput", without much "Inventory" and keeping a lid on "Operating Expenses". Goldratt offers a surprising clear "thinking process" that is applicable to all areas of our lives. Objectivity and a clear head prove that "cost accounting" and "local optima" are short sighted. TOC is a breath of fresh air that all managers should read - especially those at the top. Join the counter-revolution in management theories. Check out "It's Not Luck" next, and then "Critical Chain" in the series...

This (text)book is difficult to understand -not just because of many typos and grammatical errors. The content summarises the concepts introduced in Goldratt's novels. Half the book looks like a reprint of The Goal -and yet Goldratt recommends on more than one occasions to re-read the novel.... I enjoyed the novels, but this book looks more like a marketing gag for Goldratt's seminars or the journal he writes, publishes and sells.

This book has recieved mixed review, likely because it isn't so much an explaination of TOC or how to do TOC, as it is how to get your company to use TOC. The book explains how TOC fits into the bigger pictures of science, organizations, and business. Then explains how to introduce TOC into a company so it will be supported by top management with enough force to obtain "critical mass" and become part of the organization. If you use this book to properly introduce TOC to your company, it will be very helpful. If you use this book for any other purpose, you will most likely be very disappointed.

While much of this book is simply a review of concepts he has introduced in his novels, he does introduce a few new concepts that make reading the book well worth the effort. In particular, the last chapter brings together the concepts of JIT, TQM, TOC, and several others into a cohesive whole that I have not seen anywhere else. It was worth reading the entire book just for the last chapter.

I felt the non-fiction format allowed him to be more explicit about his ideas than in his novels. He uses a lot of examples from his seminars to illustrate key learning points, which I thought was helpful to illustrate the learning process he recommends his readers go through. I didn't get the impression he was simply trying to sell more seminar tickets.

Since I read this shortly after reading The Goal, I felt I learned a great deal about the Theory of Constraints and its background. He elaborates on many of these concepts in later books, so you probably won't learn much more here if you have read many of his other books. I would still recommend reading this book just to get a more complete picture of the strengths and especially the pitfalls of the Theory of Constraints.

Of particular interest to me was the focusing process-- the (1) What to change, (2) To what to change to and (3) How to cause the change.

The detailed analysis and ranking of Throughput (T), Operating Expense (OE) and Inventory (I) was a good, practical summary of the fundamentals of TOC.

The last chapter effectively integrates JIT, TQM and TOC, with TOC emerging as the "verbalizer" of the other two improvement methods.

Another excellent piece of work by Dr. Goldratt!

I have now read seven of Dr. Goldratt's books in the last few weeks. This was the first. I think it clearly presents this management philosophy, although you will need to look to other resources for help with things like higher level planning, such as Goldratt's article on Stratgy and Tactics 2002.
Even if you never use it, everyone in business needs to at least understand how the "Theory of Constraints", "Critical Chain Project Management", "Socratic teaching", and Goldratt's "Thinking Process" works.

If you read books to find a nugget of very useful information, this is a very good book to help understand the importance of finding and focusing on the constraining factor of any organization. I have read several of Goldratt's books, and found this one to be quite helpful.

A very good book, explains the principles of TOC in a different way. However, I enjoyed "The Goal" more.