R.I.P ELIYAHU GOLDRAT (1947-2011)

The father of the Theory of Constraints (TOC) passed away on June 12 at 67 years of age.

Eliyahu was the popular author of The Goal amongst many other books. TOC grew to become one of the important hinges of Lean principles.

In The Goal he practically narrated how he had to surmount an almost hopeless operational position of his factory when he was posted to turn around a factory in his home town where he spent his childhood. He was an ace performer where he was and the company felt he would rise to the occasion and revive the ailing factory. His discoveries, leanings, success and thought patterns are clearly narrated in a rare style in THE GOAL.

May his soul rest in peace.

If you have not read THE GOAL, please try and do so before the end of the year. You will not regret doing so - you'd be shocked that you rarely have come across his style of explaining concepts. Let me know your opinion when you do.

BEYOND COST REDUCTION

I came across this short piece by Steve Martin and I feel sharing it at this time of the year may just get some of us started. These points align very much to my year plan. I hope they do for you too; somehow.

These difficult economic times have caused many companies to layoff millions of employees, cut back strategic expenditures and do many other things that are probably not in the long-term best interest of their companies.

I have identified Five Generations of Corporate Intellectual Growth:
1. Work (work harder and faster)
2. Sell (increase revenues to support expenses)
3. Cut (reduce and manage expenses)
4. Buy (apply technology, merge & acquire)
5. Think (use strategic innovation - exceed the norm)

Even good companies have regressed into the "Cut" mode with short-term strategies that they felt were the best move to get through the recession. Only time will tell whether or not these were good moves. History tends to say that those companies that "Cut" as their primary strategy will not do as well as those companies that applied thinking strategies to not only

THE 8TH WASTE: UNDER UTILIZATION OF PEOPLE

Recently I did a post of 7 waste of Lean (Check Thread) in an attempt to jump start some Quality Improvement Program in your organization.

The 8th waste which is not originally included in the traditional 7 WASTES OF TPS by Taichi Ohno is equally an interesting one.

The 8th Waste is UNDER UTILIZATION OF PEOPLE: When employees potentials are not leveraged on by the organization, the opportunity cost becomes a direct waste to the bottom line. Other sample of this waste are as follows:

(1) Persons put on the wrong job
(2) Giving position without the requisite authority
(3) Not dealing with perpetual under performance.

e.t.c.

I am sure you can relate with one of those.
Do identify this waste in your business and make necessary corrections.