TABLE OF CONTENTS It is a management strategy, a philosophy, and a thinking tool with a wide range of capability and capacity to improve bottom-line profitability, productivity, project management, and marketing. It is a simple, yet seemingly complex, management methodology developed by Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt, an Israeli physicist. Reflect back on the evolution of productivity and its measurement since 1950.
During the mid-1980s, the predominance of MBA-trained managers were locked into an old paradigm of how to measure and manage. Goldratt looked at all of the traditional approaches and conceived a new revolutionary view that was written as a fast-paced novel, The Goal, that managers actually read and are still reading. The Goal was translated into thirteen languages and over two million copies were sold. Management schools started including it in their curriculum. The Theory of Constraints (TOC) has evolved into being included as part of the APICS body of knowledge and its applications have spawned consulting practices. The designation of Jonah led to further teaching, implementing, and practicing the thinking concepts developed by Goldratt.
The first edition of The Goal was published in 1984. Since then, Eli Goldratt has published five additional books that build on and enhance TOC. He has also co-authored additional books and been published in numerous journals and magazines. The AGI-Goldratt Institute was founded by Eli Goldratt and provides an ongoing source of training and learning tools to understand and implement TOC concepts ranging from audio to e-learning to videos.
