Our History
Goldratt Research Labs (GRL) was founded in 2007 by Dr. Alan Barnard, on request of Dr. Eli Goldratt, the creator of Theory of Constraints and best-selling author of The Goal, to create a research organization that would be a spearhead for developing new knowledge and new applications of Theory of Constraints to help organizations and individuals make better faster decisions when it really matters.
Today, Goldratt Research Labs is the world’s leading source of Theory of Constraints based research and innovation services, as well as a provider of strategic and tactical decision support technologies.
GRL works with customers from both the private and public sector, typically through joint-research projects, to design, validate, plan, execute and operationalize solutions that help them overcome constraints to Growth.
Our customers include some of the world’s largest organizations within manufacturing, distribution, mining, high-tech and publishing, as well as government agencies and NGOs.
We offer customers access to field tested Theory of Constraints best practices and solutions across a wide range of applications as well as advanced analytics and decision support technologies that has been proven to deliver step-change improvements in operational and financial results in a low cost, low risk and sustainable way.
Our Approach
To help organizations and individuals achieve and sustain a step-change in their operational and/or financial performance, GRL employs a robust research methodology to help organizations answer two simple but important questions.
- How much better can we do?
- What is the simplest, fastest, low cost and lowest risk way of doing it?
Our Robust Research Approach typically include the follow steps:
- Validating the importance of a problem/opportunity by quantifying the extent and system wide consequences to all stakeholders if this problem is not resolved or the opportunity cannot be capitalized on.
- Identifying and validating root cause hypotheses and/or, developing viable win:win:win solutions in collaboration with key stakeholders.
- Developing a detailed Strategy and Tactic Tree to answer all the Why, What and How questions related to all the necessary and sufficient changes and the sequence of their implementation to achieve the desired level of performance
- Testing these solutions through low cost/low risk “proof-of-concept” pilots using dynamic simulation models.
- Auditing the implementation and pro-actively identifying and overcoming unexpected implementation obstacles; and
- Assisting organizations and their IT partners in implementing these solutions within their IT systems.
OUR FOUNDER AND CEO – DR ALAN BARNARD
Dr. Alan Barnard is one of the world’s leading Decision Scientist and Theory of Constraints’ experts. Alan is the CEO of Goldratt Research Labs, a company he co-founded in 2008 together with Dr. Eli Goldratt, creator of Theory of Constraints. After their first meeting in 1993, there was an immediate connection between Alan and Eli. Alan and Eli were both curious about understanding why good people make and often repeat bad decisions within their life and in managing organizations and also were passionate about applying a robust science and an holistic approach to developing new Thinking & Decision making methods and advanced Technologies to help people make better faster decisions – decisions that move them closer to their goals.
Today, Alan works as a Strategy advisor, Researcher and Theory of Constraint (TOC) expert and educator with both Fortune 500 companies as well as NGO’s and Government Agencies. His clients include Microsoft, Cargill, Tata Steel, Nike, ABB, BHP, Cisco, South32, SAP, Intel, Penguin Random House, BC Rail, Larsen & Toubro, Premier Foods, Fujitsu, Habitat for Humanity, UNDP, UNWFP and Utah Governor’s Office of Management and Budget.
Alan holds a B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering (Cum Laude, 1991) and MSc and PhD in Management of Technology & Innovation (MOTI). His PhD thesis was titled “How to identify and unlock inherent potential within organizations (private & public) and individuals?”.
Alan is very active in a number of Non-Profit Professional Organizations and Universities within his fields of interest. Alan is the former President of SAPICS (www.sapics.org) and former chairman of TOCICO (www.tocico.org). Alan is also the Chairman of Odyssey Institute (www.tocoydssey.org), a Non-Profit organization he co-founded with Dr. Eli Goldratt in 2005 and also serves as external board member of BHP’s Science and Innovation Council (www.bhp.com). Alan is also a frequent supervisor of PhD students and guest lecturer at the DaVinci Institute and Duke University.
For more information about our Founder and CEO, go to www.dralanbarnard.com
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About Team Section
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OUR PASSIONATE TEAM
THE CREATOR OF THEORY OF CONSTRAINTS – DR ELI GOLDRATT
Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt was an educator, author, scientist, philosopher, and business leader. But he was, first and foremost, a thinker who provoked others to think. Often characterized as unconventional, stimulating, and “a slayer of sacred cows,” Dr. Goldratt challenged management teams to examine and reassess their business practices with a fresh, new vision.
Dr. Goldratt created and developed the Theory of Constraints (TOC), an overall framework for helping organizations and individuals to determine:
- What to change—find and use the leverage point
- What to change to—create the simple, practical solutions
- How to cause the change—build a secure and stable improvement environment.
Dr. Goldratt was an internationally recognized leader in the development of new business management philosophies and systems. He was a sought-after educator by many of the world’s largest corporations, including General Motors, Procter & Gamble, AT&T, NV Philips, ABB and Boeing. He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from Tel Aviv University and his Masters of Science, and Doctorate of Philosophy from Bar-Ilan University. In addition to his pioneering work in business Management and education, he held patents in a number of areas ranging from medical devices to drip irrigation to temperature sensors.
Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt was the founder of TOC for Education, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing TOC ideals to teachers. After retiring from the Avraham Y. Goldratt Institute in the mid 90s, he founded Goldratt’s Marketing Group to make the TOC knowledge available to the market in the form of self-learning resources, Goldratt Consulting to bring companies to being ever-flourishing, and Goldratt Schools to teach and train individuals seeking to expand their TOC knowledge — the Goldratt Group was created. He asked Dr. Alan Barnard to create Goldratt Research Labs as an independent company, spearheading the development of new knowledge and applications of TOC through research partnerships.
The TOC concepts were first illustrated in his best-selling book “THE GOAL”, a non-traditional approach to convey knowledge — it is a business textbook written in novel form, disguised as a love story. The books that followed were “THE RACE”, “WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED TOC?”, “THE HAYSTACK SYNDROME”, ”PRODUCTION THE TOC WAY”, “IT’S NOT LUCK”, “CRITICAL CHAIN”, “NECESSARY BUT NOT SUFFICIENT”, “ISN’T IT OBVIOUS”, and “THE CHOICE”. He was a frequent contributor to scientific journals, magazines and business publications and sat on several editorial boards.