CII Communique July 2011

tributeNow and into the FutureEli Goldratt presented a spectrum of ideas and suggestionson ‘Growth with Stability’ in his special three-day workshopconducted in February 2009. We share some highlights...The financial crisis triggered in the USAin 2008 led to a meltdown across theglobe. India, though less impacted thanmany other countries, saw lower growthrates in the manufacturing sector in thelast two quarters of 2008, as comparedto the previous year.To assist member companies cope withthe situation, CII, in association withEli Goldratt and Goldratt Consulting,organised a three-day workshop ‘Nowand Into the Future – Growth withStability’ conducted by Dr. Eli Goldratt forparticipants from diverse manufacturingcompanies across India on 21-23February 2009 in New Delhi.Eli believed that the real constraint incompanies was management bandwidth.Striving to constantly activateall the resources all the time is not a recipe foreffective operations. A priority system for the shop floorMaking Improvements in Operations• Improvements must take only months to implement,not years.• Resolve the conflict of short-term vis-à-vis longtermimprovements, as there is none.• Focus should be on improving flow throughoperations. Abolish local efficiencies and recognizethat flow concepts are universal, but applicationhas to be customized for each environment.In doing so, one must balance flow, and notcapacity.• Solutions are simple. Avoid complexity.• TQM, TPM, TPS and Six Sigma are useful butnot adequate to address the issues holistically.• Investing in improvement generates cash ten timesfaster than cutting costs.Dr. Eli Goldratt, conducting a workshopin New DelhiOvercoming Obstacles• Obstacles of mind :– I don’t have enough brain-power– Reality is complex– Tendency to blame peopleis required. ‘Buffer-management’is the most appropriate prioritysystem. To start with, a good waycould be to choose a time bufferequal to half the current lead time.The relationship between sales andproduction must be tightened.Making Companies GrowDr Goldratt suggested thatcompanies should plan theirgrowth according to the growthin real wages and not the growthin GDP. Today’s needs have to betotally acknowledged by the client.Growth has to be accompanied byhigher stability.• Emotions and logic need not contradict each other.• I will not sacrifice anybody for my goal, but I willnot sacrifice my goal for anybody.• In an organization, responsibility and authorityhave to match perfectly.• 70% of the sentences with ‘because’ used todayare wrong.• Toyota hired 6000 retired people as mentors tomaintain the DNA of its Toyota Production System(TPS).• Humans have two gifts or abilities:– To generate patterns, rules etc.– To understand reality through cause and effect20 | July 2011 Communiqué