Eli Goldratt - Father of the Theory of Constraints

About Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Dr. Eliyahu (Eli) M. Goldratt was an educator, author, physicist, philosopher and business leader, but first and foremost, he was a thinker who provoked others to think. Characterized as unconventional, stimulating, and a "slayer of sacred cows," Eli urged his audience to examine and reassess their business practices and conventional paradigms.

Eli Goldratt is known as the father of the Theory of Constraints (TOC), a process of ongoing improvement that continuously identifies and leverages a system's constraints in order to achieve its goals. He introduced TOC's underlying concepts to a wide audience through his business novel, The Goal which has been recognized as one of the best-selling business books of all time. First published in 1984, The Goal has been updated three times and sold more than 7 million copies worldwide. It has been translated into 32 languages. Since then, TOC has continued to evolve and develop, and today it is a significant factor within the world of management best practices.

Heralded as a "guru to industry" by Fortune magazine and "a genius" by Business Week, Dr. Goldratt continued to advance the TOC body of knowledge throughout his life, building on the Five Focusing Steps (known as the process of ongoing improvement or POOGI) with TOC-derived tools such as Drum-Buffer-Rope, Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) and the Thinking Processes. He authored ten other TOC-related books, including four business novels.

Born in Israel on March 31, 1947, Dr. Goldratt earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Tel Aviv University, and a Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy from Bar-Ilan University. He is the founder of TOC for Education, a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing TOC Thinking and TOC tools to teachers and their students, and Goldratt Consulting. In addition to his pioneering work in business management and education, Dr. Goldratt holds patents in a number of areas ranging from medical devices to drip irrigation to temperature sensors. He died on June 11, 2011, at the age of 64.

Click here >  this Bibliography contains a wide variety of Dr. Eli Goldratt's work in the following areas:

• books/audio books
• journal/magazine/electronic journal articles
• conference/video proceedings/video presentations
• self-learning or education software programs
• additional works