Não É Óbvio? A Teoria das Restrições (toc) em Uma História do Mundo dos Negócios

by Eliyahu M. Goldratt

“Não é óbvio?” é tão instigante quanto o primeiro romance de Eli Goldratt, “A meta”. Depois do sucesso de “A meta”, uma novela de negócios voltada para a indústria, Goldratt nos traz uma história capaz de mudar a visão de muitos profissionais da área do varejo. Todo varejista acredita que é fundamental ter o máximo de produtos e o mínimo de rupturas para se ter um bom desempenho. Alguns costumam culpar a área de compras, pela falta de produtos, e a logística, pela demora na reposição de estoque. Mas nessa história que poderia muito bem ser real Paul nos mostra que invariavelmente estamos cegos diante de situações convencionais, acomodados em seguir padrões que muitas vezes impedem o crescimento dos negócios."

Genres: Business, Management, Economics, Audiobook, Leadership, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Eliyahu Moshe Goldratt (Hebrew: אליהו משה גולדרט) was an educator, author, physicist, philosopher and business leader, but first and foremost, he was a thinker who provoked others to think. Often characterized as unconventional, stimulating, and “a slayer of sacred cows,” he urged his audience to examine and reassess their business practices with a fresh, new vision.

Dr. Goldratt is best known as the father of the Theory of Constraints (TOC), a process of ongoing improvement that identifies and leverages a system’s constraints in order to achieve the system’s goals. He introduced TOC’s underlying concepts in his business novel, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, 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 35 languages.

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 (the process of ongoing improvement, known as 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: It’s Not Luck (the sequel to The Goal), Critical Chain, Necessary but Not Sufficient and Isn’t It Obvious? His last book, The Choice, was co-authored by his daughter Efrat Ashlang-Goldratt.

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.

Reviews

[Girish · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant book to understand the (winning) concepts of retail industry! Written as a novel of turnaround of a family owned retail business which is on the cusp of a leadership change and is trying to figure out it's way back to profitability. Caroline, the daughter and next chairman, currently heads procurement while her husband Paul is learning the ropes as a store manager of a single store in a region.

The book starts out with it's characters taking the good old fashioned positions on inventory, store fill, expansion plans and warehouse plans. Thanks to a crisis, Paul's store actually stumbles onto a better way of operation and the book then becomes a series of discoveries and evolution of ideas and concepts that bring back the store, the region followed by the network to leadership position. The discoveries are not just logical and common-sensical ('Isn't it obvious?') but also decisively educative. The strong principles seem to provide a winning formula for retail.

Retail industry is an inventory and cash flow game. Every player is actually is in for the penny, in for the pound. Goldratt brilliantly applies the theory of constraints to the sector, much different from the manufacturing setup where TOC originated. For many industry veterans, this book bought many aha moments and no wonder the book sells hope to retailers drowning under tonnes of inventory.

A palatable educative book and highly recommended.

[Dmitry · Rating 5 out of 5]

(The English review is placed beneath the Russian one)

Отличное пополнение коллекции «классика менеджмента», т.к. книгу определённо можно поставить рядом с книгами таких авторов как Друкер, Портер, Деминг, Хаммер (Реинжиринг корпорации), Тайити Оно (Производственная система Тойоты), Лайкер (также Тойота) и др. Книга строго узконаправленная. Это классический менеджмент, если угодно, старого образца, в том, истинном смысле слова, которое использовали в XX веке (а не тот, что используют в веке XXI). Плюс, автор один из немногих, кто пишет о крайне редкой теме в бизнес-литературе – управление запасами – из-за чего книга получает дополнительный бал. Фактически, это ситуация монополии. Но, и нужно отметить, и качество самой книги такое же высокое, как и самая знаменитая книга автора - «Цель». Я бы даже сказал, что книга взяла всё самое лучшее от бизнес-романа «Цель», значительно улучшив его художественную часть. Вообще, художественная часть бизнес-романов всегда страдала в подобном жанре, ибо ей уделяли всегда мало внимания из-за чего книга была не до конца проработанной. Ведь уж если ты пишешь бизнес-роман, то постарайся и художественную часть выполнить на таком же или хотя бы приблизительном уровне. Книги же Голдратта никогда подобных проблем не имели. Мне даже иногда кажется, что из него получился бы неплохой писатель художественной литературы.
В этой, небольшой по объёму, книге автор поднимает довольно важную проблему дефицита товарных позиций и одновременно, затоваренность магазина всеми остальными, зачастую намного хуже продающимися, SKU. Т.е. мы имеем явную проблему управления запасами, как магазина, так и склада. Данную идею впервые я прочитал в бестселлере «Клиенты на всю жизнь», где автор также столкнулся с проблемой, когда автосалон был забит непопулярными авто. Решение – делать маркировки. Например, зеленый цвет обозначает ходовой товар, жёлтый – среднюю позицию, а красный – товар который продаётся крайне тяжело или не продаётся вовсе. В той книге автор не стал развёртывать данную тему, ограничившись только вот таким коротким объяснением. В данной же книге автор решил максимально раскрыть тему. Но в основе её именно такое вот подразделение товара.
Начиная с анализа всего имеющегося в нашем распоряжении товаров, мы делим их на три группы. Далее, пишет автор, совместно со складом мы сокращает запасы магазина и теперь их хватает только на несколько недель (также стоит отметить, что популярность товаров прямо влияет на величину их запасов). Далее мы создаём систему, в которой фиксируется, в режиме реального времени, каждая продажа, благодаря чему склад поддерживает запасы магазина на максимально низком уровне. Создаётся система похожая на систему «точно вовремя», хорошо описанная в книге Тайити Оно. Благодаря тому, что мы сократили запасы в магазине, мы создали возможность заполнить освободившиеся пространство новыми вариантами имеющихся товаров или же абсолютно новыми товарами из-за чего мы увеличиваем разнообразие товаров в магазине, что в перспективе вполне может привести к увеличение посетителей (а также покупателей) нашего магазина, ибо мы можем предложить им более широкий выбор. Это довольно интересное предложение, которое делает автор книги. Вышеописанное, это некий базис. Разумеется, в книге описаны и детали и дальнейшее улучшение, а также соответствующие прочие изменения, которые необходимо сделать, но суть одна.
Конечно, интересно увидеть, как это работает в реальной жизни, а не только в теории. Но тут нужно понимать одну важную вещь, точно такую же, что связана с книгой Оно «Производственная система Тойоты» и прочими подобными книгами: книги написаны для стран Запада. Будут ли они тогда работать в таких странах как Россия, Украина и пр., это большой вопрос. Позволяет ли наша инфраструктура поддерживать на таком высоком уровне сокращения цикла поставок? Ведь недопустимо, что бы ходовой товар закончился посреди дня в каком-нибудь магазине. Но даже в этом случаи книга интересна, прежде всего, идеями и возможностью задуматься над собственным магазином, повышением его эффективности. Так что книгу можно также рассматривать как некую пищу для ума. Плюс, как я уже сказал, книг на данную тему, хороший книг, крайне мало.

Excellent addition to the collection of classic management as the book can be placed next to the books of authors such as Peter Drucker, Michael Porter, Edwards Deming, Michael Hammer (Reengineering the Corporation), Taiichi Ohno (Toyota Production System), etc. The book is narrowly focused. It is classic management, in the sense that it was used in the 20th century (and not the one used in the 21st century). Plus, the author is one of the few who writes about a rare topic in business literature - inventory management - which is why the book gets an extra point. In fact, this is a monopoly situation. But the quality of the book itself is just as high as that of this author's most famous book "The Goal." I would even say that this book took the best of the previous business novel "The Goal," greatly improving its fiction component. Usually, the fiction part of business novels has always suffered in this genre because it has always paid little attention, due to which the book was not fully worked out. Books Goldratt never had such problems. I even sometimes think that the author would be quite a good writer of fiction.
In this book, which is small in size, the author raises an important problem of the shortage of goods items, and at the same time, the oversupply of the store by all the other SKUs. I.e., we have a clear problem with inventory management, both in the store and in the warehouse. This idea was first read in the bestseller "Customers for Life" by Carl Sewell, where the author also faced a problem when the car showroom was full of unpopular cars. The solution is to make labels. For example, green is a tradable product, yellow is the middle position, and red is a product that is extremely heavy or not sold at all. In the book Clients for Life, the author did not elaborate on this topic, limiting himself to this brief explanation using three color markers. In this book (Isn't It Obvious?), the author decided to reveal the topic as much as possible.
Starting from the analysis of all available goods, we divide them into three groups. Further, the author writes, together with the warehouse we reduce the store inventory, and now the stock is only enough for a few weeks (it is also worth noting that the popularity of products directly affects the value of their stock). Next, we create a system in which each sale is recorded in real-time so that the stock of the store is kept as low as possible. The system is created similar to the system "just in time," well described in the book of Taiichi Ohno. Because we have reduced the stock in the store, we have created the opportunity to fill the vacated space with more variants of goods or completely new goods, so we increase the variety of goods in the store as a whole. Which, in the long run, may lead to an increase in the number of visitors (as well as customers) to our store, because we can offer them a wider choice. It is quite an interesting proposal, which is made by the author of the book. The above described are just the basics. Of course, the book also describes the details and further improvement as well as related other changes that need to be made, but the essence is that.

[Paolish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Muchas vueltas, da muchas vueltas para explicar el primer problema; literal hasta como la cuarta explicación de queda claro; algo que podría manejar mejor y así reducir páginas. Intentando hacerlo agradable mezclado chistes, cosas de familia y conversaciones triviales pero al final vuelve otra vez de comercio y logística, que te abrumas demasiado. Te presentan un gran desafío que al final en un capítulo se resuelve todo, el final muy pobre. Cree que el apéndice sería un flujo diagrama o una metodología de la solución que se presentó de cada problema, pero no fue así.

[Matjaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man, I haven't stumbled upon an author that wraps stone cold and often boring reality of mundane everyday business in a fluent story with perfectly ordinary people that are dealing with various problems in their daily (work) lives. Loved the slow and graspable linear guidance through the process from the problem to the solution with many obstacles in between.

As I'm in retail it really hit close to home with massive stock covered in dust sitting on the shelves in my company. Made me rush towards action and change... today.

The ending was a bit rushed and it could explore a bit more in certain parts.

Solid 4/5

[Ciprian Dobre-Trifan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Retail wonders of ToC.

I like how this book grows the principles of ToC from scratch again, now starting at the other end of the supply chain.

[Alistair MacDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Isn't It Obvious is another good Novel by Goldratt. This book applies The Theory of Constraints to retail management, warehousing, and supply chain efficiencies. The interactions between the father and daughter in this novel reminded me of the interactions between Goldratt and his daughter in their book called The Choice. The title, "Isn't It Obvious," refers to a general rule: right solutions appear self-evident, but only after discovery. Goldratt talks about this kind of solution blindness in his other books too. The effect can be that a good idea gets rejected too early because they appear to be too simple. It is nice to follow through the series of novels by Goldratt and get a feel for how to apply the TOC in different industries.

[Niels Philbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book to understand the Theory of Constraints (TOC) in a retail/chain perspective. The Goal does a better job of it in a more engaging fashion though, so listen to that one first unless you are specifically in retail.

[Michael Fruergaard · Rating 3 out of 5]

23.03.2010. 232p. A bit too obvious :-)

[Fehim · Rating 4 out of 5]

İlk olarak Eliyahu M. Goldratt’ın çok satan Amaç romanında üretim sektöründe faaliyette bulunan bir firma üzerinden anlatılan Kısıtlar Teorisi (Theory of Constraints / TOC) bu romanda da perakende sektöründeki bir firma üzerinden anlatılıyor.

Hikaye şöyle başlar:

Paul, ev tekstili mağazasının deposunu su basınca boşaltmak zorunda kalır. Bölge deposuna göndermek üzere iki haftalık ihtiyacının üzerinde olan bütün stok mallarının bir listesini çıkarır ve görür ki bunlar sadece depodaki mallardan oluşmaz, reyonlarda bulunan birçok mal da bu listeye dahildir.

Tek cümlelik özet:

Kısaca anlatmak gerekirse stok sistemini itme değil çekme esasına göre değiştirmiştir aslında.

Spoiler olmayan alıntılar:

Bir dağın yanında duruyoruz ve dağın tepesinde bir çanak altın var. Dağa tırmanıp tırmanmamaya karar vermek için biz sadece altın çanağın büyüklüğüne baktık ve bunu tırmanmanın sıkıntılarıyla karşılaştırdık. Şimdi durduğumuz yerde timsahların olduğunu düşün. Çanağın büyüklüğüne bakmadan bile tırmanmaya karar verebiliriz, bu çok eziyetli olsa bile. (Paul, s.82)

Kaos Teorisine göre herhangi bir SKU’nun herhangi bir mağazadaki satışını tahmin etmek, bir ay sonrası için hava tahmini yapmaya benziyor. (Caroline, s.187)

Darren, insanları iki gruba ayırırım. Bir grup belli bir referansa göre ne kadar iyi yaptıklarını ölçer; diğeri başkalarının ne başardığına aldırmadan başarılarını içinde bulundukları ortamın potansiyeline göre değerlendirir. (Henry, s.196)

[Rich · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Isn't It Obvious?" by Eliyahu Goldratt is a thought-provoking parable that delves into the complexities of business management and decision-making with a retail environment.

The book follows a fictional story that illustrates the challenges faced by organizations in optimizing their processes. Goldratt's ability to weave practical lessons into a narrative format kept me turning the pages, eager to see how the characters would navigate their dilemmas.

One of the standout aspects of the book is its emphasis on critical thinking, questioning the status quo, and consider innovative solutions to common problems. This perspective is refreshing and serves as a reminder that sometimes the answers we seek are right in front of us, waiting to be uncovered.

However, I did find some parts of the book a bit repetitive, and certain concepts could have been explored in greater depth. Nevertheless, the overall message is clear and impactful, making it a worthwhile read for anyone interested in improving their business acumen.

[Bob Wallner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in the fictional style that is made Dr Goldratt famous, Isn't It Obvious, expands his theory of constraints into the replenishment world of retail.

I have not worked in retail since I worked in a grocery store in my teens. I got this audiobook as I really enjoy the author's perspective on things. Many of the concepts presented here could absolutely be applied to the world of distribution even within a manufacturing organization. Having the right material at the right time and not an excess of it, is critical to supporting any environment not just retail.

I really did enjoy this book and I do believe I will read it again especially if there comes to a time where I'm working to try to get a supply chain organized. These principles are universal.

[Harshal Patil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the author's application of the Theory of Constraints in retail. He clearly showed the importance of reducing the gap between identifying customer needs and having the right product selection ready. The book also emphasized not losing a sale—a key point I recall from another how-to book on e-commerce and drop shipping.
Although I don’t work in retail or e-commerce, I read this book twice because of its engaging style. It had a 4 out of 5 impact on me, as I learned how to apply TOC in real-world scenarios.
It also emphasized the importance of following the POC, MVP, and gradual scaling route. Through its story, the book showed how to prepare a persuasive pitch by truly understanding your audience’s needs.

[Keith Goh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Improvement for retail environment.
Inventory control and reduction.
Proper forecasting at the earliest possible stage ( raw materials) or central warehouse.
Small stock delivery = transportation time + one week quantity.
Order every week.
Production lead time one week.

In my scenario.
Forecasting base on last month sales
Leadtime is 2 weeks.
Cap is 30mt, monthly is 15mt
Hence the turn around time is 2 -3weeks.
To reduce it, higher throughput is needed or longer work hours.
If turn around time is 3 weeks. You need to standby 4 weeks quantity.
Keep stock at the raw material stage.

[Howard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have heard really good things about 'The Goal' by Goldratt but have not read that book. So when opportunity presented itself to read this, I readily took it. Unfortunately, this book did not resonate with me. It is not that the book is bad or anything. It is just that there is nothing that really jumps at you as a 'Aha' moment... The story is pretty linear and the story telling is neat. Just that it failed to invoke much curiosity in me.

May be it might be useful and insightful for someone in the logistics domain. Not for me!! Sorry....

[Bruno Figares · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy read but a bit lighter than i had expected

I am going to end up reading all of Eliyahu's books it seems. This is in the same spirit as the goal but on retail supply chain issues. I was expecting a bit more though, the problem seemed to well defined at the start and the solutions almost trivial. I suppose there is always a bit of serendipity when big improvements l like these are found...

[Jeno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another take on ToC.
It goes somewhat beyond the original 'the goal', but the franchising part is only briefly touched.
It is a rather short story to compliment Goldratt's main idea-books.
Like a series of industrial novels, if you wish.

From the storytelling perspective, the writing always isn't 'seamless' enough, you know why the phrase was written right and there, some dialogues are rather cheesy.
But hey, we are not for Gaiman's magic here, are we?

[Govind Rathi · Rating 5 out of 5]

The idea is a recurring theme among most of his books but the storytelling is good. To have a business management guru speak of things in such lucid manner with interesting story telling is a gift for me. I am fortunate to have stumbled upon is works. Recommend it to everyone, even to folks not interested in business or management.

[Ruturaj Yadav · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant. I've always been a huge fan and follower of Eliyahu M Goldratt's books and the Theory of Constraints! This one places TOC concepts in my area of sales / retail - making it relatable. Love the style of the book where the business concepts are entwined with a fictional story and you relate to the problems of Paul and Roger and Carolyn. Highly recommend it!

[Rohan Shukla · Rating 4 out of 5]

An easy read through for theory of constraints application in retail and distributions. It helps highlight "Obvious" choices made by the character in the novel to solve business problems. Need to validate in real world situations if these choices hold true.

[Ekshwaku Gohil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good basic retail principles

Highlights the basic principles of retail, which surprisingly many don't realise.

The same has been articulated in a beautiful story line. The book is relevant for most retail operations irrespective of their size or product segment.

[Aaditya Agarwal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basic- refreshed a lot of fundamentals for me.

Liked the simple way in which it is written. Gave a lot of insights about warehousing and how to really reduce inventory, while increasing sales.

[Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing! Goldratt can explain a “simple and obvious” issue that many companies face and no one can solve in interesting way through a novel that makes you not want to leave the book and actually understand the issues and solution. I would really recommend this book

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book Goldratt explains the theory of constraints from the perspective of a retail company. How to lower cost and still be able to let the customers buy the products they want comes with its own challenges that differ from the limitations in production.

[Vishnu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprisingly fun read. It is a business books that goes in to long monologues of technical explanations. But it is so easy. Characters are real humans. Scenarios are imaginable. Ends on a hyper positive note but most of it is quite believable.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Key teachings, beautifully told

This book just flows and emphasises the lessons with such clarity. Once you start reading, you won't put it down.

[Mr.garfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

TOC but retail.

[Toshihiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun to read, lean a lot.

It is very readable and also inspiring the way solving conclicts. I like this plain success story that also ease the stress on everyday worok.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

omg

[Nicole Gauvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A business novel, not as good as "The Goal" but not bad either.

[Arvenal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely useful for entrepreneurs (especially those who are in retail)