THE CAPTAIN'S METHOD™Eliyahu M. Goldratt
Where this shows up in the Captain’s Method
Goldratt is the source of Part I's Constraints chapter, whose sections follow his Five Focusing Steps from 4.1 Identify to 4.5 Repeat, with the Hiking Story placed against Identify and Subordinate. The chapter closes by saying that Constraints is what Measurement is for, so his logic runs back into the throughput and productivity numbers members track at every Return Map gate. On the Return Map itself, constraints show up most often at Stage 1, Stage 4 and Stage 7, and Gap Analysis is where members name the gap that limits the plan.
- Systems
The Five Focusing Steps give a method for finding and managing the one constraint that limits a system.
- Focus
Goldratt teaches leaders to put attention on the constraint instead of spreading effort across everything.
- Capacity
His Thinking Processes give practical tools for diagnosing problems and building solutions.
Goldratt earned a BSc at Tel Aviv University and an MSc and PhD at Bar-Ilan University, then came to management through OPT, production scheduling software sold by the company Creative Output. In 1984 he and Jeff Cox published The Goal, a business novel about a failing plant, which large publishers met coolly at first and which went on to carry his ideas far beyond factories. Around 1985 he left Creative Output to found the Avraham Y. Goldratt Institute. He spent the rest of his life extending the Theory of Constraints into strategy and project management, in books such as It's Not Luck (1994) and Critical Chain (1997).