Summary by M. Wayne Finley
Master of Business Administration Program
University of South Florida, Fall 2001
Theory of Constraints Main Page | The
Goal | What is this thing called TOC?
Prelude: It begins on Jan 24, 1998, and within a period of 16 months, Eli Goldratt spins a tale of the implementation of a production delivery system in a large scale environment, based on the principles of the Theory of Constraints (TOC). Within this span of time, the implementation leads to significant problems for other units of the organization such as distribution and sales. The story unfolds around Pierco, a large manufacturing company that delivers a wide variety of products to market, and the investment it made in a new computer system developed by BGSoft, and implemented by KPI, a subsidiary of BGSoft
The players are Scott and Lenny, the masterminds behind BGSoft, Maggie, the head implementer for KPI, Gail, VP of Sales for BGSoft, and Craig, the CEO of Pierco, Brian, a Pierco division manager, and a cast of supporting characters. Through an interesting and easy to understand story, Eli Goldratt is able to explain and justify, no exemplify, that implementation of TOC concepts into real business application can lead to 20, 30 even 40% quarterly increases in the production, distribution and sales for a production company. He also ardently defends implementing a change in “the rules”, in the cultural makeup of a company at the same time when it implements a data driven system that will give it those statistical increases.
Chapter 1: We begin the story by meeting Scott Duncan, head of BGSoft, one of the most successful software companies in the world Scott is lecturing one of his account managers, discussing “the global picture” for which his vision becomes, apparently, visionary. Scott believes strongly that a company’s success is based on more than just a good product. Early on his strategy focused on what made a good product for the customers system at hand, not just in how well it worked.
And it has worked well for him. His company has been the leader in setting the standards for the computer industry, and it has led to change in the way things are looked at. The factor to determine the value of his company, based on the profit it generates, is higher than the normal standard by 75%. This is the key to its rapid growth. BGSoft is driven not by the parameter of profit, but maintaining its growth rate. This is also the dilemma, because the company cannot continue this growth rate…trouble is lurking ahead.
Chapter 2: One month later. Here we meet Lenny Abrams, brash, often icy, number two at BGSoft, who met Scott while they were both in graduate school. Scott had come up with the idea that computers would revolutionize business, and Lenny challenged him to act on it. Well, here it was 20 years later, and Lenny is facing an ever increasingly hectic schedule, and has grave concern about the future growth rate of his business. Too many of the implementations they have installed are getting their clients the results they said they would get, but nobody really knows why. The software works, the modules are getting through the bugs, but the bottom line of the clients hasn’t changed. And there are problems, problems that aren’t getting solved by his people in the field. It’s time for a meeting of the minds to discuss the problems.
Chapter 3: Here we meet Maggie, head of KPI, prime implementation consultant for BGSoft, and are immediately introduced to her problem – the current system is deteriorating. The response time from BGSoft’s tech-support centers has decreased by over 80%. The general consensus is that BGSoft’s key product Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has become too complex, which has serious ramifications for BGSoft. But it’s not just this delay, it’s a broader problem – the computer system is “just one component in the game. There is also the company that implements it, and its clients. To find a solution, they must look at the global picture.” (p. 31) Here again we are led to “the global picture” which will become a mainstay of thought through out the novel.
Chapter 4: Three months from start. We meet Gail Collins, VP of Marketing and Sales for BGSoft. At a company sales force bar-b-que, Lenny has introduced a new architecture for ERP, which has gotten all the sales people excited. For the first time in years Gail was worried about BGSoft not meeting its forecast. She predicts that they will be short, and that this will trickle into the next quarter. It appears that they are not losing their market position, but instead they have saturated their market of large companies who have or are willing to implement their software. They need to figure out how to expand into the mid-size market. But, to compound the problem, it isn’t any easier to sell to a mid-size company than a large one. To top it all off, they are having serious quality assurance issues. Lenny must go to the company’s plant in India, where most of their code is written and packaged.
Chapter 5: Five months from start. Scott and Maggie have been called to visit Pierco, one of their largest clients. Craig has been grilled by his Board of Directors, particularly a new, young, aggressive fellow, who has questioned the huge investment Pierco has put into BGSoft, and wants to know what do they have to show for all the money they spent. Craig didn’t have an answer. He assumes that no real savings has occurred regardless of how many cents or fractions of cents have been saved, because no lay off had occurred. “No head-count reduction means no real cost reduction, no impact on the bottom line.” (p.48) So, Maggie, Scott and Craig discuss what would be bottom line examples: 1) sales information from Pierco’s warehouses is now streamlined to its production plants. Such information is available to plants on the same day of the sale. (p. 50) This leads to improved production forecasting and planning according to market consumption. Faster response from the plants mean losing fewer sales to competition, because fewer shortages in distribution mean more sales. “And more sales is more money,” Craig concludes – real bottom line impact. (p. 51) 2) Better distribution leads to less unneeded inventory, which also has an impact on the bottom line.
BGSoft gets excited about concentrating on the bottom line instead of cost reduction. But they realize that they have been talking the wrong language – the computer system’s language – and not the language of the clients’. Lenny’s insight runs the deepest. He realizes there are three languages to contend with: 1) the computer system’s, 2) the client’s language, and 3) the top managers language – bottom line. That is the most important. With this in mind they also continue to see the ever increasing, unnecessary complexity that is creeping into ERP.
Chapter 6: Five months from start. In a nod to Deming, Goldratt suggests that to the sales people of BGSoft, salaries are not the most important things. They thrive on intrinsic values like challenge and the thrill of overcoming each obstacle. (p. 60) Maggie is lamenting the fact that it has become increasingly difficult to find the right talent. The rate of implementation has stretched her work force thin, and she is bearing the brunt of current clients dissatisfaction. She reminds herself that “the customers are not always right, but they are always customers.” (p. 61) Through this, she can barely stop thinking about what Craig has said to them, and wonders if all her clients will start to demand real bottom line justifications. “Does this mean the rules are changing again,” she wonders (p. 61) It seems as though the industry is experiencing perpetual change.
Chapter 7: Six months from start. “We’re just a herd of animals stampeding towards the cliff,” is this chapter’s opening thought from Scott (p. 65) and he believes everyone else in the industry is acting like the cliff doesn’t exist. His main market is saturated, and its limits are beyond his control. On top of that, the increasing difficulties of his product put it in real danger of becoming too complex to handle. And they don’t know what to do about it. Goldratt provides a bigger picture of the high tech industry here. Not only is this happening to BGSoft, but also its competitors. Some will even report negative growth this quarter. The assumption is that this will lead to greater scrutiny from Wall Street analysts, whom will demand proof that BGSoft is not heading towards the same fate, and if he can’t his stock will nose dive. (p.68) He can’t get past the problem of selling to mid-size companies, still faced with the same complexities involved in implementing the system to a large-scale company, and not reaping the same incentive/reward.
Scott goes back to the basics. Neglecting the bottom line has led to a large number of meaningless features being added to the software because the client demanded it, which drastically increased the systems complexity. But he can’t link this to the long sales cycle they experience in the mid-size market. If he can answer that, he believes he will establish the link between the two dilemmas – satisfying customers while simplifying the product, and finding new markets. (p. 70)
Chapter 8: Six months from start. Maggie is holding a meeting with Gail and another team member George to finish up their bottom line justification presentation to Pierco. The team encountered trouble from the start, trying to agree on what should be considered a measurable benefit. After a slow start, Maggie impatiently gets to the point – what is it about their software leads to either a decrease in cost, or an increase in revenue? (p. 73) She believes that what needs to be shown is economic benefit, not catchy phrases like system optimization, or greater operations visibility. George begins discussing that since ERP was implemented, invoices are correct the first time, an improvement over the old system (legacy system) which means the customer gets its money faster which means improved cash flows – a bottom line answer. Another key savings is identified in material-cost reduction – an ongoing annual benefit. And there has been impact on inventory reduction, which will free up cash reported on the balance sheet. Fewer stock outs are mentioned, which correlates to higher sales. The savings identified by these features mean that Pierco is basically getting its new ERP system for free, and have a slew of ongoing benefits. What is significant to the group isn’t so much the savings they have identified, but by focusing on the bottom line, they have discovered that of the key justifications BGSoft lists as its benefits, only 3 out of 20 made it onto the list of being a benefit to the bottom line.
Chapter 9: Still six months later. The important theme that Goldratt is suggesting is that in order for these companies to succeed, they must keep maintaining their growth rate, which more and more seems like an impossible predicament. (p. 81) Once again Lenny is lamenting that of all the new features that he has authorized of late, not one of them contribute to the client’s bottom line. But the client’s demand it, so therefore they must provide it. But Scott disagrees. He has just seen the true value of his system to a large company, stripped of all the “admiration of technology,” and it boiled down to four items: 1) reduction in the days of outstanding receivables, 2) reduction in material costs, 3) reduction in inventory, and 4) increase in sales. (p. 83) Here we begin to see where Goldratt will eventually lead us. Scott believes that a shift must occur in the company’s business paradigm. If they continue to focus on their current features, the backbone of their sales tactics, then they will continue to offer very little real value to their clients. Therefore, they must sell value. (p. 85) This elicits a barrage of debate. “It’s one thing to state that (one) must provide a product that brings value, but a totally different story to do it,” exclaims Gail (p.86) She doesn’t believe that they have a clue how to do it. Scott decides the answer is to investigate adding a new Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) module to the software. Apparently, all the marketing of the leading APS companies is based on the claim that they will significantly decrease inventory and lead to an increase in sales – the key to impacting the bottom line. This is going to mean a paradigm shift in BGSoft’s own sales tactics, and Gail is uncomfortable. The group decides to visit one its smallest clients who is their best bottom line reference, Stein Industries.
Chapter 10: Stein Industries is a company that has grown from $50 million to over $250 million in three years. Maggie, Scott and Lenny are paying a visit to Gerald Stein, CEO, to find out the details of his success using ERP. After some jovialities and sparring, Gerald admits that although the system worked as advertised, he didn’t get the benefits that he presumed would occur – a reduction in lead-time. What was happening was that a project would come out of one unit 2 weeks ahead of schedule, but would get stuck at the first bottleneck. There the work would pile up, forcing the managers of that unit to make more and more decisions, incorporating more opportunity for error. Eventually all the allotted time was fully used. So Stein introduced the Drum-Buffer-Rope method, a method that “chokes the material release according to the due date of the order” (p. 96) delaying the release of work orders until the actual lead time necessary to meet the final due date. This seemed to be counter intuitive. This led to connecting the entire project progress to the bottleneck, and for Stein they did this inside BGSoft’s ERP system. By focusing on the bottleneck, they could improve its performance. This led them to another concept, Buffer-Management, a follow-on step to Drum-Buffer-Rope. Whenever anyone has product waiting in line, they look at the developed buffers to make their decision about what to do next.
Scott and Lenny leave the meeting thinking that they have found their first connection to how they can tap into the mid-size market. By introducing Drum-Buffer-Rope into their software package, they are still focusing on value, and believe have an answer for the mid-size company. But what they don’t see is that to implement such changes entails more than just implementing new code; it means changing what actually gets measured. By synchronizing the release of materials to the bottleneck schedule, the efficiencies of the workers who man the non-bottlenecks suffer, but local efficiencies are a standard benefit to be measured. This led them to the first conclusion that what was needed was a change in culture, and the answer lay in bringing value. (p. 103)
Chapter 11: Lenny is paying a visit to Intelogic, one of the best APS companies. The visit is not going well. Lenny is being fed the standard sales pitch, but he came to look at possibly buying the company. He finally gets hooked up with the VP of Engineering and Intelogic’s top programmer, and begins discussing the concept behind its algorithm – providing the best practical schedule. This idea is the key to Intelogic’s product. The planning of the Master Schedule will tell you in advance what problems the various units are going to face, so that enough time can be buffered into the schedule to take corrective action. But what Lenny discovers is that the meaning of an optimized schedule has to be redefined. A reality to schedule optimization is that “the same amount of safety time when inserted in one stage of the process can help much more than if it is inserted in another stage.” (p. 115) But, the bottlenecks may move, and it is very difficult to forecast the potential bottlenecks. Therefore, Lenny concludes that a better way to protect the schedule would be to use safety capacity, not time. The user decides on capacity only after the disruption occurs, so the amount used is exactly the amount needed. (p. 116) This could be of value to any plant. Lenny leaves thinking he is drawing near to an answer on how to tap the mid-size market.
Chapter 12: Lenny believes he has figured out how to add something to their ERP system that will cause the system to generate more bottom line value, even for mid-size companies. After his visit to Intelogic, he spent the next week meeting with Intelogic’s successful clients. What he discovered at each plant is very surprising. He learned that at each plant, they had to re-think the entire way they run their operations. (p. 123) As he is relaying this Scott, Scott acts as if he has already figured it out. Scott leads off their meeting. “When does a new technology bring value?” he asks. It will bring benefits when it surpasses an existing limitation. The paradox is that when we deal with a new technology, it defines that we have been living with an existing limitation for a while. So, we install a new technology to surpass the existing limitation, but we continue to operate with the old rules – the rules that assume the existence of the limitation. In that case, the rules themselves impose a limitation. (p. 125) Here again we see where Goldratt is drawing us. Technology is a necessary condition, but it is not sufficient. To get the benefits of the new technology, we must also change the rules that recognize the limitations of what it replaced. One way of doing this is to confine optimization to only the constraint. By doing more, you destabilize the schedule. Here Goldratt introduces us to a lesson from Deming – “trying to optimize the noise within a system doesn’t help, it hurts. As long as the system is vibrating within the limits of its noise, any tampering just increases the fluctuations.” (p. 129) Lenny and Scott conclude the chapter by figuring that their biggest obstacle is not the market or their product – it’s them, it’s how they have been thinking about the problem. They too must consider a cultural change within their own company structure.
Chapter 13: Seven months from start. Craig and Maggie are enjoying a round of golf during Pierco’s top executive retreat. There is no better opportunity for a golf game than an executive retreat. (p. 133) They are soon joined by Brian and Stan, two of Pierco’s division vice presidents. One of the strongest arguments in BGSoft’s ERP justification was an expected increase in sales, which would have been reflected as a substantial increase in net profit. But it hasn't materialized. Their sales have remained flat. Inventory has gone down, shortages went down, but sales went down too. What we’re seeing here is the intricate connection the implementer of new technology faces when even after successfully installing the new technology (and getting the product to work according to spec), it still doesn’t deliver the essential bottom line value. When this becomes apparent, who is to blame? Brian has come to the same conclusions that Scott and Lenny have been arriving at, that in order for his division to meet its forecasts and deliver more value, Brian understands that he must abolish the traditional way of running a plant and change his fundamental measurements of success. (p. 142) He understands in order to do this he must get everyone on board, from the plant manager to machinist – everyone must be educated in regards to the new paradigm, and your company culture must be on board. Based on the ensuing discussion it is agreed that BGSoft will develop a Drum-Buffer-Rope module for the ERP system, and KPI will begin working on the re-education of Brian’s division.
Chapter 14: Eleven months from start. It’s the end of the year, and BGSoft has completed the best year in its history. But Scott’s earlier predictions are beginning to come true: their main competitor has announced negative growth for the quarter, another has announced a 600-person layoff, and share prices are plummeting. Wall Street is getting antsy, and is looking for some hard answers about the future of the industry. “Is this just the separation of the chaff from the wheat, or has the industry reached its growth limits?” (p. 144) The answer is important, because if the first point is true, then BGSoft is emerging as a true leader, but if the second point is true then shares could be dropped like a hot potato. Lenny and Scott are debating about what the clear message to radiate about BGSoft’s success should be. They are at the crossroads, because they know they cannot continue to maintain their current growth, but they still can’t quite see what will get them over the hurdle. Scott is convinced that it is in their hands. He believes the answer lies in the decision to change the way they do business. By doing this, he believes that growth is unlimited. (p. 145) It is here that Scott consummately declares that BGSoft has to switch from selling information technology to selling value. But what does selling value entail? Determining and focusing on results is the real target. That’s what the Drum-Buffer-Rope method does, it focuses your efforts. It tells you what’s really important. ERP has used this to focus on increasing capacity and increasing the flow in production, without increasing costs. New capacity is unearthed each week in Brian’s division. Now it has been spread to five other plants. Here Goldratt sings the praises of TOC, because its logic is so addicting. He labels it “comprehensive, practical, and still common sense.” (p. 153) Based on Goldratt’s scenario, all indications show that the theory does work.
However, what still seems to be looming in the background is the fact that a major change has occurred in only one function of the organization. Up to this point, we have not been shown what this change may be doing to the other interconnected units of the organization. Here we are given an inkling into this connection by the foreboding of Lenny, who at the end of the chapter is far from relaxed.
Chapter 15: Thirteen months from start. The chapter starts out with Maggie and her people at KPI totally swamped and frazzled. They are working 90 hours a week, and still can barely keep up with the demand. Things are getting out of hand. (p. 161) Staffing for new projects is increasing by 60 people per day. BGSoft has instituted a new module which implements a TOC paradigm, and they have retrained their staff to identify that what is important to the client is making sure that relevant information will be available for the right people at the right time so that bottom line results will be guaranteed. This represents a paradigm shift for the system integrators. It’s a madhouse, but they prefer it to the fear they had just a month ago when their market appeared to be drying up.
Chapter 16: We are introduced to the first sign that all is not right in paradise. The chapter opens with a picture of the time it takes to unload a truck at the warehouse. Inventory has been piling up at the warehouse – yet several products are experiencing shortages, while others have almost six months capacity. At this rate, the warehouse manager Fred concludes that his space will be filled to capacity within one month. He whips off a strong email to the division VP (Brian) and all the plant managers. The warehouse managers are claiming that the plants are making and shipping things that the warehouses don’t need, and they want more of a say on what gets shipped to them. The plant managers defend themselves, as their records show that production is only triggered by an urgent need from at least one of the warehouses. But, the problem we see is that when a plant produces a product, it produces it for more than one warehouse. In order to fix the problem of increased set-up time due to small batch production, they produce the quantity needed for the entire network. The plant managers, however, feel that the ERP system is providing them with to-date data about actual inventories. They don’t guess about what to ship. They do not understand why there are so many products with excess inventory.
We meet Harrison, plant manager in Brian’s division. He has been studying the problem since receiving Fred’s strong email. As he studies the problem, Harrison uncovers a huge discrepancy in the ERP system: the sales forecasting is being increased and decreased based on other factors, but this information is not tied into production or distribution. And inventories continue to rise. (p. 175)
Brian has also noticed the increase in inventories. Since the implementation of the Drum-Buffer-Rope method, there has been a huge release of much hidden capacity in the plants. But what is also discovered is that it is virtually impossible to accurately forecast sales for a product in a single region. Brian believes the answer lies in a better forecast. But BGSoft doesn’t agree with him. Once again we are led into the notion that something else has to change, not just the technology. We cannot continue to think that technology will solve the problems. This example is amply detailed in this chapter.
Chapter 17: The problem identified in chapter 16 has led to a company wide presentation by BGSoft at Pierco. Craig has gathered together all of his division VP’s, plant managers, distribution managers, and support staff. Scott starts off by identifying that the production application of the TOC in all plants has been successful beyond expectations. Without adding any machines or manpower, each plant is able to produce at least 40% more than before. But this improvement in production has had nasty side effects on other units. Inventory is increasing in the distribution warehouses, whom have no control over the problem. So Scott and Brian introduce a solution: adopt the TOC application for distribution. This leads us to the idea of rather than producing products based on impossible forecasts and shipping the inventory to the distribution centers, the inventory should be held in the place where the relevant forecast is the forecast for the entire network – a far more accurate forecast. That place is identified as the plant. The idea is that if a product is ordered from one distribution center, the plant will produce five times as much, ship what the warehouse needs and store the rest, because it shouldn’t take long before another warehouse demanded the same product. (p. 191) And then they take this concept one step further – in order to eliminate the need for plants to produce small quantities, which eat into their set up time, produce a 3-week inventory that is held at the plant. This tied into a 3-week inventory held in the warehouses means that the plants can produce larger batches, and will always have sufficient inventory to keep the warehouses stocked. Since the plants will know which products need to be replenished, this can lead to Pierco offering service levels that the industry is unaccustomed to, thereby increasing sales significantly. (p. 194) This should lead to a huge release of cash, while putting an end to cross shipments and shortages – a win-win proposition for the plants and distribution. Of course, once again this brings up the reality that for an organization to succeed it cannot only rely on implementation of new technology, it has to reorganize its fundamental philosophy on how it operates its business. In this case, Pierco implemented technology that did improve production, but led to problems in distribution. But once it implemented the same application in distribution, which involved a significant change in the way they did business by holding inventory at the plants instead of relying strictly on the warehouse to define its inventory, the problems virtually disappeared because now the right source was deciding how much product needed to be produced.
Chapter 18: Fifteen months from the start. The new system has been implemented for 2 months. Not only has it changed the way Pierco did business, it has led to a shift in the way that BGSoft does business. BGSoft has deduced that changing the rules is key to success in its implementation of its ERP. But there are new problems – not enough TOC experts to lead the charge. (p. 205)
Chapter 19: Lenny, Scott, Gail and Maggie are meeting to discuss the new direction that Scott and Lenny have been cooking up for BGSoft. Once again they are bringing up the concept of selling value rather than technology. “It’s not just the software, it’s the frame of mind,” says Scott. (p. 208) The ERP system brought the ability to do things that were not possible before. Now data can be quickly transferred between different units of an organization, and the relevant information can be quickly retrieved from the oceans of data collected and inputted. But what BGSoft has learned is that while its ERP system has led to significant improvements and diminished major limitations of its client’s, it ignored the rules that resulted from the existence of those limitations. Those were left unchallenged. (p. 211) So when ERP was installed, the old rules were still used. Again Scott confirms what he had earlier deduced: “ To realize value, bottom line value, technology is necessary but not sufficient.” (p. 211) Now, BGSoft has hit upon the same idea it is selling to its client’s – it can no longer play by the same rules. It cannot remain as just a purveyor of technology, but as a company that will provide everything that is needed to get potential value, “even if it means doing things that a software company is not supposed to do.” (p. 211) And that means forcing its prospects to change their old management rules. What BGSoft has also discovered in this is that by focusing on these concepts, it also has led to a simplification of the code necessary for its system to be optimized.
But switching from selling technology to selling value means a synchronized change in all units of an organization. And it means that a new function must be introduced, the TOC agent. (p. 214) But what BGSoft learned was that their success also became their bottleneck. And the only way to overcome it was to reinvent its organizational rules.
Chapter 20: Sixteen months from start. Craig from Pierco has invited Maggie and Scott to dinner to discuss Pierco’s success story, but he also has a bombshell to drop. What Craig has realized is that his organization’s success is just the beginning. What they have done so far is good, but he has an idea to see it move to a new level. Even though Pierco has become more agile, this agility isn’t making its way to the end customer. And as long as the end customer doesn’t see it, Pierco isn’t reaping the biggest reward they expected, which is an increase in sales. (p. 220) The reason behind this is based in the vendor chain. If Pierco wants to win, it must look beyond the limits of itself, and look at its entire supply chain. (p. 221) Craig asks BGSoft to consider selling the TOC concept to its supply chain, which includes hundreds of businesses, most small to mid-size companies. BGSoft instantly recognizes the opportunity laid before it – finally, the way to capitalize on the mid-size market that has so far alluded them. Scott is ecstatic. Here lies the opportunity to institute fundamental changes in the operations of hundreds of business. Connecting all the businesses in the supply chain will force each individual link to act like a chain.
Scott sees this as the answer he has been thinking did not exist. This solution solves the problem completely. It will provide a constant stream of clients and income. It can provide incredible stability (p. 230) And it will increase everyone’s rate of growth. But this means a drastic change in the way BGSoft does business - the paradigm shift that BGSoft has been requiring of its clients. Goldratt ends by suggesting “The end…or just the beginning.”
Conclusion: In Necessary but not Sufficient, Eli Goldratt leads us to a startling conclusion: In order for today’s high tech industry to succeed, they cannot afford to look at themselves as simply purveyors of technology, but they must show how their new technology will bring real value to their clients, bottom line value, because that is the cornerstone of business - what bottom line value is delivered to the shareholder. And they must also consider that once the operational limitations have been overcome by implementation of new technology, the limitations of the mind must be overcome. Business must redefine the rules that were put into place because of the old limitations that technology is now erasing. Goldratt clearly suggests that technology is necessary, but alone it is not sufficient. It must be incorporated with a shift in the business paradigm. And Goldratt suggests that the application of the Theory of Constraints as the foundation for this new paradigm fits well for re-educating business to work differently by focusing on different measurable benefits. I think Goldratt’s analysis presents a good argument, but in the context of this book it was somewhat oversimplified. What I saw throughout the story were the difficulties that new technology companies face in selling their new technology, and the difficulties companies face when implementing new technology and figuring out the changes that it creates in the way they do business. Alone they each have limitations, but together Goldratt suggests the possibilities are endless, and the opportunity for growth virtually limitless. A tall order for any industry.
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