Eliyahu M. Goldratt Quotes & Sayings

An expert is not someone who gives you the answer, it is someone who asks you the right question. — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

While they go get the others, I figure out the details. The system I've set up is intended to process' matches. It does this by moving a quantity of match sticks out of their box, and through each of the bowls in succession. The dice determine how many matches can be moved from one bowl to the next. The dice represent the capacity of each resource, each bowl; the set of bowls are my dependent events, my stages of production. Each has exactly the same capacity as the others, but its actual yield will fluctuate somewhat. — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

I write down the three measurements which Lou and I agreed are central to knowing if the company is making money: net profit, ROI and cash flow. — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

If you don't manufacture a quality product all you've got at the end is a bunch of expensive mistakes. — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Make the bottlenecks work only on what will contribute to throughput today ... not nine months from now. That's one way to increase capacity at the bottlenecks. The other way you increase bottleneck capacity is to take some of the load off the bottlenecks and give it to non-bottlenecks. — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Putting it precisely, activating a resource and utilizing a resource are not synonymous. — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

The goal is not to improve one measurement in isolation. The goal is to reduce operational expenses AND reduce inventories and increase throughput simultaneously. — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

I say an hour lost at a bottleneck is an hour out of the entire system. I say an hour saved at a non-bottleneck is worthless. Bottlenecks govern both throughput and inventory. — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

STEP 1. Identify the system's bottlenecks. (After all it wasn't too difficult to identify the oven and the NCX10 as the bottlenecks of the plant.)
STEP 2. Decide how to exploit the bottlenecks. (That was fun. Realizing that those machines should not take a lunch break, etc.)
STEP 3. Subordinate everything else to the above decision. (Making sure that everything marches to the tune of the constraints. The red and green tags.)
STEP 4. Elevate the system's bottlenecks. (Bringing back the old Zmegma, switching back to old, less "effective" routings. . . .)
STEP 5. If, in a previous step, a bottleneck has been broken go back to step 1. — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Can I assume that making people work and making money are the same thing? — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

If we reduce batch sizes by half, we also reduce by half the time it will take to process a batch. That means we reduce queue and wait by half as well. Reduce those by half, and we reduce by about half the total time parts spend in the plant. Reduce the time parts spend in the plant and our total lead time condenses. And with faster turn-around on orders, customers get their orders faster. — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

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? — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

What you have learned is that the capacity of the plant is equal to the capacity of its bottlenecks, says Jonah. — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Utilizing" a resource means making use of the resource in a way that moves the system toward the goal. "Activating" a resource is like pressing the ON switch of a machine; it runs whether or not there is any benefit to be derived from the work it's doing. — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Well, I don't. Not absolutely. But adopting making money' as the goal of a manufacturing organization looks like a pretty good assumption. Because, for one thing, there isn't one item on that list that's worth a damn if the company isn't making money. — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

They're measurements which express the goal of making money perfectly well, but which also permit you to develop operational rules for running your plant," he says. "There are three of them. Their names are throughput, inventory and operational expense. — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Tell me how you measure me, and I will tell you how I will behave — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

An hour saved at the non-bottleneck is a mirage. — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Four: Too many wasteful 'synchronization' meetings interrupted the actual work. — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

bringing a company closer to its goal. Every action that brings a company closer to its goal is productive. Every action that — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Never let something important become urgent — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

For the ability to answer three simple questions: 'what to change?', 'what to change to?', and 'how to cause the change?' Basically what we are asking for is the most fundamental abilities one would expect from a manager. — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

So this is the goal: To make money by increasing net profit, while simultaneously increasing return on investment, and simultaneously increasing cash flow. — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

The minute you supply a person with the answers, by that very action you block them, once and for all, from the opportunity of inventing those same answers for themselves. If you want to go on an ego trip, to show how smart you are, give the answers. But if what you want is action to be taken, then you must refrain from giving the answers. — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Since the strength of the chain is determined by the weakest link, then the first step to improve an organization must be to identify the weakest link. — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Bob comes into the office with a smear of grease on his white shirt over the bulge of his beer gut, and he's talking nonstop about what's going on with the breakdown of the automatic testing machines. "Bob," I tell him, "forget about that for now. — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Cost Accounting is enemy number one of productivity. — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

More importantly, our software worked. I don't just mean that it didn't bump, or that it performed according to the written specifications, or that it was efficient in producing reports. It really worked — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

The entire bottleneck concept is not geared to decrease operating expense, it's focused on increasing throughput. — Eliyahu M. Goldratt