Our TOC research services

Our Services

Goldratt Research Labs (GRL) was founded in 2007 with a mandate from Dr. Eli Goldratt to develop and disseminate NEW TOC knowledge through win:win:win partnerships. In the past 4 years, GRL has already successfully partnered with a number of organizations from both the private and public sector who had challenges for which there are no standard Theory of Constraints solutions and/or where their specific conditions required significant customization to one or more of the standard solutions in TOC.

The aim of all our research and development projects are to deliver a clear win for our customers (sustainable growth in their organizational goal units), a win for ourselves (development of new and valuable TOC knowledge) and a win for other stakeholders (disseminating non-confidential parts of the new knowledge into the public domain through journals and conferences to benefit other key stakeholders).

Goldratt Research Labs has four different partnership approaches to assist organizations with achieving and sustaining ambitious organizational performance growth improvements.

Research based Project
Results Based Project
Education based Project
Business Partnerships

1. Research based Project

Our research based project approach combines industry experience and proven applied scientific research methods to answer important questions and develop simple and practical solutions for important business problems. A typical research project has four phases:

Quantifying the extent, consequences and causes of an important business problem
Developing a solution and designing a test for the solution to quantify the likely business results.
Conducting the test(s) of the solution to validate effectiveness and efficiency through one or more “proof-of-concept” pilots and making changes to the original design based on lessons learned.
Finding the best way to implement and institutionalize the full scale solution and achieve ongoing improvement with a combination of technology (E.g. an ERP System), education and changes to organizational policies, measurements and decision support systems.

Part of our research services including partnering with the organization’s senior management team to develop a TOC based Strategy & Tactic tree containing all the necessary and sufficient changes related to the new solution as well as to define the sequence of implementation. To facilitate the development of a full S&T and its validation with stakeholders, we use the HARMONY S&T software and also work with the management team where appropriate to write white papers (for internal and/or external distribution) to document the outcome of each of these four phases.

Interested to see an example of such research outcome white papers and S&T's? Click here

If you would think you have a business challenge or research question worth answering, you are welcome to contact us at alan@goldrattresearchlabs.com

2. Results Based Project

Our results based research projects are ideal for those organizations that are willing to establish longer term partnerships based on sharing the risks and rewards of research outcomes in a win:win (fair) way. From time to time there are situations where either a cash flow problem or uncertainty in the magnitude of the results could make a results based research project an attractive option for our customers and ourselves. By “results based” we mean that a significant part (typically between 50 to 90%) of our total fees will be conditional on the bottom line impact achieved as a direct result of our research project. The two types of results based research projects include:

Projects to achieve profitable growth through decisive competitive edges

Example: Can reducing shortages and surpluses be turned into a decisive competitive edge to get customers to buy more and/or pay more?

Projects to achieve profit growth through functional improvement

Example: How can the implementation of a new technology such as an ERP system be capitalized on to really increase profitability now and in the future?

If you would like to discuss how we can work together to deliver incredible profit growth for your organization on a results based project, please click here

3. Education based Project

Our education based research projects are ideal for those organizations that want to evaluate and or capitalize on the latest TOC knowledge, education materials, research methods and insights through customized management education programs presented by leading TOC experts.

Our interactive educational programs combines the latest Theory of Constraints (TOC) knowledge with the practical experience of international recognized TOC experts to share their analysis and research processes through customized educational sessions that include education, simulation modeling and coaching. These customized education and coaching programs are ideal for senior management and their direct reports responsible for evaluating TOC and/or using the latest TOC best practices and thinking processes to achieve and sustain very ambitious growth/improvement targets.

Goldratt Research Labs have developed a number of customized educational offerings which include:

“Achieving more with less in less time” program for the public sector

Duration : 5 days
Attendees : All Key stakeholders
Outcomes : Consensus on how each stakeholder can contribute to help close important service delivery or other improvement gaps by better exploiting (and not wasting) their scarce resources.
Approach : Using the simple yet powerful TOC analysis roadmap developed by Dr. Alan Barnard as part of his PhD, together with TOC’s 5 focusing steps, all participants learn and apply TOC’s breakthrough analysis and solution development approach to answer Why Change, What to Change, To What to Change, How to cause the Change and How to measure and continuously improve in a way that will be a win:win:win for all stakeholders.

Strategy Analysis Workshop for complex private sector organizations

Duration : 5 days
Attendees : Senior Management
Outcomes : Consensus on what can provide the company with decisive competitive edge(s) - sufficient to get enough customers to pay and/or buy more to meet their profitable growth targets - and to identify what changes will be necessary and sufficient within each function and each level to build, capitalize on and sustain such decisive competitive edges. The outcome of this workshop will be a customized Strategy & Tactic tree.
Approach : Using the 6 “Viable Vision analysis questions” developed by Dr Eli Goldratt as a framework together with a TOC Throughput Accounting decision model, participants learn the latest TOC knowledge and thinking processes to identify, quantify the impact of, build, capitalize on and sustain decisive competitive edges for their company to meet their profitable growth targets.

Identifying the inherent improvement potential within a function or company

Duration: 2 days
Attendees: Senior Management
Outcomes: Consensus on what inherent improvement potential can be unlocked through better exploiting and/or elevating constraint resources and what will be the likely impact on the “bottom line” of such changes.
Approach: Using TOC’s 5 Focusing Steps, we help the management team identify the gap between current and potential performance, identify the most significant causes of these gaps and potential solutions for removing or reducing these causes. We use a TOC Throughput Accounting based model to help managers quantify the impact of all changes on the organization as a whole (impact on sales, costs and investments).

“Unlocking the full value from an ERP Implementation”
Duration : 5 days
Attendees : Senior Management and ERP Implementation Partner(s)
Outcomes : Consensus on how to unlock the full value of a ERP implementation
Approach : Using the “Necessary but not sufficient” questions developed by Dr Eli Goldratt as a framework together with a TOC Throughput Accounting decision model, participants learn the latest TOC knowledge and thinking processes to identify and quantify the potential power and impact of a new technology such as an ERP system, and to find ways to unlock this value through a more focused and simplified implementation.

If you would like to discuss how we could work together to meet you educational needs, please contact us .

4. Business Partnership

Under special conditions, Goldratt Research Labs will be willing to enter into equity partnerships with investors or business owners who want to significantly improve the return on their investment and/or value of a business but either face a cash-flow constraint (i.e. cannot afford outside assistance) or want to “outsource” their TOC Research capability in return for equity in their business

If you would like to discuss a business partnership in further detail please contact us .