IT IS NOT LUCK by Eliyahu Goldratt

I read this book right after the” THE GOAL “ of the same author. As ı wrote before I was impressed of the first book. Either the narration is marvellous either the contents are very inspiring and evocative.

This books looks like to be almost the continuity of first. It is conveying you to start to think about from a wider context of your core business. Small problems may distract you very much to see the whole picture.

The author is suggesting to draw or outline the EXISTING REALITY TREE and from where you go to FUTURE REALITY TREE, through TRANSITION TREE…

Below I am giving some quotes from the book :

 “you know what happens when you let bad situations naturally develop.”
Left to themselves, things go from bad to worse.”

“In the past a good product line was sufficient to sustain the company for four or five years. That’s not the case anymore. It’s become a rat race. I estimate that we will have to come out with a new product line every year.”

“I knew that if you overcame your obsession that big money can only be found in the large quantities, you would find that there are enough additional lucrative markets that require small quantities”

“slave drivers always lived in better conditions than the slaves.”

“Managers are trying to run their companies by striving to achieve local optima.”

“Usually we think that in order to increase the perception of value of the market we have to come up with new, improved products.”

“what is really determining the perception of value of a product in the eyes of the market? It’s not the effort to produce it, it’s the benefits derived from having the product.”

“We know that there are two types of benefits. Adding something positive or eliminating something negative.”

“we can get the easiest and quickest improvements by concentrating on eliminating the negatives.”

“If, ‘The company takes actions that sufficiently increase the perception of value the market has for the company’s products,’ ” I say, starting to build the“Future Reality Tree, “then, ‘The perception of value the market has for the company’s products is higher than the current prices”

“We need to do it in a big enough market, big enough to exhaust all our capacity. And we need to do all of it in a way that will be difficult for our competitors to copy.”

“Maybe the new product is just the old one with small modifications?”

“The company introduces small changes that sufficiently increase the perception of value the market has for the company’s products.”

“Market perception of value is in accordance with the benefits of having the product.”
“If we want a marketing solution for our company we shouldn’t analyze our company, we should analyze the company’s market. The solution to marketing is in the market”

“If we want to bring a lot of benefits to the market we’d better address its core problem, not the symptoms, as everybody else is doing.”


“The objective is, ‘Bring the buyer to see your product as the best value for his money”

“Transition Tree: the “how to” tree; the detailed logic of how to transfer from the present into the desired future.”

“the market punishes companies that don’t satisfy the market perception of value.”

“No one yet has invented a unit of measure for security or satisfaction”

“We shouldn’t ever build a strategy based on a market forecast.”

“Concentrate on small changes that eliminate the negatives for the market.”

“if you follow a good strategy, the market should never drop on you”

Avram Aji
01.05.2018

DYING TWICE

It is not possible to die two times in life if you don't believe to reincarnation. Moreover we are very sure that we will be dying soon or later. Knowing that ,whatever we do will not be preventing our final fate we have to settle our life accordingly.

The major philosophycal issue throughout history is how to live our life. Do we have to live such as we are going to die the next day or struggling as much possible such as we are immortal?

HEDONISM is a school of thoughts that argues pleasures and happiness are the primary and the most important intrinsig goods and the aim of human life.

CYNISISM is practicing rather the contrary by theaching his follower to live a life of virtue and in agreement with nature. Rejecting desires health , wealth , power , fame a life free from possessions and properties.

There are moments in life that you feel like dead. This occurs when you loose someone ver close you , bankrupcy , loosing an important job and getting a divorce. 

AVRAM AJI
28.04.2018

ECONOMICALLY ACHIEVABLE

THE EASIEST WAY TO GET RID OF A HEALTH PROBLEM IS TO BAN THE IMPORTATION OR PUT STRONG BARRIERS IN FRONT

Let’s look deeply into the RAPID ALERTS of this week. Mostly it consists things that do not have an immediate impact on human health. For instance micotoxines encountered at whatever level will not kill anybody immediately.

The same applies for pesticides residues or heavy metals . I do not want to pretend that the residuals are not harmful but rapid alert means that something which must be fight against immediately as otherwise a huge disaster will occur. But this is not the case. EU authorities have chosen the easiest way to get rid of the problem . Just ban the importation and destroy the merchandise.

University professors are making wonderful job in investigating the harm that such residues can make to the human beings. But most of them is a long term issue.

You don’t get sick or die the day after you eat a food which contains higher lever than the allowed one of pesticide or heavy metals. The daily  intake is important for the accumulation toxic chemicals
such as lead or mercury. Pesticides that we are consuming are so different . Today laboratories are checking more than 700 chemicals and finding different products most of the time. Hence the probability of our exposure to one sole chemical is almost impossible. On the contrary the researches are made against one chemical alone on how affecting the human body.

Lets say you need to eat 20 kg daily  dried figs containing high content of aflatoxine for 20 years to have liver cancer. There is no country in the world that consumes 20 kg/ year per person the the world hence spending millions of dollar to analyse aflatoxine content in figs is useless and waste of time.

But what authorities have done is to set a limit such as achievable limit. (10 ppb) But this is not a limit which takes into consideration the price to achieve . Nobody cares about the results if authorities decide 20 instead of 10. The average content of aflatoxine in natural form is not higher than 20. Hence nobody asks for the effort we make to reduce the content by %50 . How much does it costs to the consumer? What happen to  the high aflatoxine content merchandise? Thousansds of analysis are made. Millions of dollars are spent to install color sortex machines . But nobody asks for its efficiency and more important the benefit we get.

Everybody must look after ECONOMICALLY ACHIEVABLE levels but not just ban.

Avram Aji
28.04.2018

MY COMMENTS ON ELIYAHU GOLDRATT - THE GOAL

I have been recommended to read this book by a friend. 

First of all I would like to inform you that although this is business educational book,  it is written in a novel format. It is much better to understand its content and how was implemented in a large industrial factory. 

The leading actor is working hard to save the factory where he is working to be closed down because of lack of profit margins.

There is a consultant who is asking questions to our manager to find out the ineffective procedures in the factory.  They are looking the bottlenecks of the production as a starting point. And from there they improve the flow of the raw materials. They succeeded to a quicker production , lower inventory and get more orders. In a very short of time the factory made big progression and was saved to be closed down. 

Very easy to read and understand. 

SIGNALS

Signals are very important in our life. 

We are getting various internal and external signals continuously.

Developed countries are taking much care about to guide his citizens to facilitate their life. Road signals are one the major practice in our life. Once I hired a car in Cologne – Germany and had been able to pick my stuffs from one fairground and carry to Frankfurt fairground –even- without asking the road to anybody. Tomtom was not invented yet . In Manhattan all the roads and boulevards are in sequence. Hence you may only go in a wrong direction for one block. I was yesterday in the Industrial spare parts selling area where all the streets were all mixed up numbers. We had to stop asking many times until we found the shop we want. So a lot of waste of time.

In Israel all houses have same illuminated street and house numbering. It is making so easy to find where you go. 

Internal signals that we get is rather complicated and may misguide you -if you don't read it properly-. In whatever situation you start to feel uneasy and frustrated than you must start to think about what is wrong with you. Take necessary actions immediately and relief yourself.

In 1998 I get mad with my partner , I collect everything personal from my desk in my factory and left the business. Three days many mediators came to visit me to find a solution to our conflict. I returned to work with some tiny compromises I got. We bankrupted in 3 years. 

Listen carefully you inner voice. If you feel uneasy there are things that is going wrong in your surrounding . Fix them before you endure it for a long. 

Avram Aji
13.04.2018

SUPPLIER SELF APPROVAL QUESTIONNAIRES

Being a producer of dried fruits and spices I am in contact with hundreds of importers. Most of them has now Quality Management Systems. In the past this was operated according to ISO 9000 standards but nowadays this has gone far away. Now BRS , IFS , FSSC requirements are beyond expectations.

Quality Managers are just looking to all  articles in the standard and try to addapt themseleves to be certified. Needless to say these procedures have overcome the purpose of the controls.

Latelay I have been filling 28 page self approval questionnaire. Needless to say it was prepared by an obsessed quality manager.

            - Is there a weight control in your process ?  YES
            - Do you calibrate ? YES
            - How often ? YEARLY
            - What if the scale got rotten meantime ? WE CHECK DAILY WITH ETALONS
           
Than you have to calibrate your etalons as well. Than you need your quality manager be educated on calibration. 

There is no end to these questions?

At the end what is the risk of uncalibrated scales ? There is no any health risk at all. If you encounter any problem either you complaint and reject. 

There is no way to comply with all the requirements. If anybody is able to succeed to do it  its price will be sky high and nobody can pay. The system will be unsustainable.

Avram Aji
04.04.2018