Eliyahu M. Goldratt
Eliyahu Moshe Goldratt (March 31, 1947 – June 11, 2011) was an Israeli physicist who became a business management guru. He was the originator of the Optimized Production Technique, the Theory of Constraints (TOC), the Thinking Processes, Drum-Buffer-Rope, Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) and other TOC derived tools.
He authored several business novels and non-fiction works, mainly on the application of the theory of constraints to various manufacturing, engineering, and other business processes.
The processes are typically modeled as resource flows, The constraints typically represent limits on flows. In his book The Goal, the protagonist is a manager in charge of a troubled manufacturing operation. At any point in time, one particular constraint (such as inadequate capacity at a machine tool) limits total system throughput, and when the constraint is resolved, another constraint becomes the critical one. The plot of the stories, such as in his book "The Goal", revolve around identifying the current limiting constraint and raising it, which is followed by finding out which is the next limiting constraint. Another common theme is that the system being analyzed has excess capacity at a number of non critical points, which, contrary to conventional wisdom, is absolutely essential to ensure constant operation of the constrained resource.