Best Selling Books by Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Alex Rogo is a harried plant manager working ever more desperately to try and improve performance. His factory is rapidly heading for disaster. So is his marriage. He has ninety days to save his plant - or it will be closed by corporate HQ, with hundreds of job losses. It takes a chance meeting with a colleague from student days - Jonah - to help him break out of conventional ways of thinking to see what needs to be done. Described by Fortune as a ''guru to industry'' and by Businessweek as a ''genius'', Eliyahu M. Goldratt was an internationally recognized leader in the development of new business management concepts and systems. This 20th anniversary edition includes a series of detailed case study interviews by David Whitford, Editor at Large, Fortune Small Business, which explore how organizations around the world have been transformed by Eli Goldratt''s ideas. The story of Alex''s fight to save his plant contains a serious message for all managers in industry and explains the ideas which underline the Theory of Constraints (TOC) developed by Eli Goldratt. Written in a fast-paced thriller style, The Goal is the gripping novel which is transforming management thinking throughout the Western world. It is a book to recommend to your friends in industry - even to your bosses - but not to your competitors!

There has been a shift of policy at board level. Cash is needed and Alex Rogo’s companies are to be put on the block. Alex faces a cruel dilemma. If he successfully completes the turnaround of his companies they can be sold for the maximum return: if he fails they will be closed down. Either way Alex and his team will be out of work. It looks like lose-lose, both for Alex and for his team. And as if he doesn’t have enough to deal with, his two children have become teenagers. As Alex grapples with problems at work and at home, we begin to understand the full scope of Eli Goldratt’s powerful techniques. It’s Not Luck reveals more of the Thinking Process-techniques that consistently produce win-win solutions to seemingly impossible problems.

This fast-paced business novel does for project management what The Goal and It''s Not Luck have done for production and marketing. Goldratts novels have traditionally slain sacred cows and delivered new ways of looking at processes which seem like common sense once you read them. Critical Chain is no exception. In perhaps Elis most readable book yet, two of the established principles of project management, the engineering estimate and project milestones, are found wanting and dismissed, and other established principles are up for scrutiny - as Goldratt once more applies his Theory of Constraints. The approach is radical, yet clear, understandable and logical. New techniques are introduced, and Project Buffers, Feeding Buffers, Limit Multitasking, Improved Communications and Correct Measurements make them work. Goldratt even handles the complicated statistics of dispersed variability versus accumulated variability so deftly you wont even be aware of learning about them - theyll just seem like more common sense! Critical Chain is critical reading for anyone who deals with projects. If you use block diagrams, drawings or charts to keep track of your activities, you are managing a project - and this book is for you.

This book is written in the attempt to deal with two major questions: what are the thinking processes that enable people to invent simple solutions to seemingly complicated situations? and, the question of how to use the psychological aspects to assist rather impair, the implementation of those solutions in a mode of an ongoing process.

This book does for retail what Goldratt''s International best-seller did for manufacturing. A breakthrough solution is exposed when some unexpected events force Caroline and Paul, a married couple working for their family''s retail business, to make a few small changes in the way things are done. A solution that propels the family''s regional chain of stores into a very profitable, rapidly growing, international enterprise. If there is a hint of Jonah, from THE GOAL, reappearing in this novel, it is Henry, the soon-to-retire president and majority owner of the company who logically states that, if you do not deal directly with the core problem, don''t expect significant improvement. Eli Goldratt''s Theory of Constraints is woven throughout this book but answers are not handed to you. The reader, along with the characters in the book, work through the process together to discover solutions.

In the 1990s we witnessed the growth of computer software providers from small businesses into multi-billion dollar giants. In 1998 it was easy for such companies to raise money. But investment funds have dried up. Why? And more importantly, is there a way to reverse the trend?

The Race is an unusual book. Its messages can be grasped simply by looking through the graphics. It can be understood better by reading the accompanying text. It is even more deeply grasped and useful when manufacturing people at all levels discuss its implications and application to their own environment. The Race enables you to derive a superior system - Drum-Buffer-Rope - for generating continual logistical improvements. It also illustrates how to focus on the process improvements that will have the greatest impact on your competitive edge. The epilogue and appendix quizzes will give the thoughtful reader insight in how to initiate and then extend a process of ongoing improvement into other areas like marketing and financial control.