Interview with Rajeev Athavale Part 3.....

In this posting we will finish our interview with Rajeev Athavale about a new series of E-books he has recently published.  I want to say again that, if you are just beginning to learn about TOC, these books are just right for you.  But even if you are totally familiar with TOC, you will totally enjoy what Rajeev has put together.  And now on to the interview.
 
Bob: Tell my readers what else you have published?

Rajeev:  I have published a collection of articles authored by respected and well-known TOC Experts from all over the world.  The authors list (in alphabetical order) is as follows:

Adail Retamal, Alejandro Cespedes, Bill Dettmer, Daniel Walsh, David Burch, Dr. Alan Barnard, Dr. James R. Holt, E. R. “Tuck” McConnell, Eli Schragenheim, Etienne Du Plooy, Frank Patrick, Gary Bartlett, Henrik Martensson, Henry Camp, Jake Dell, Jerry Hahn, Joseph Pangilinan, Justin Roff-Marsh, Kevin Fox, Kevin Kohls, Martin Powell, Oded Cohen, Orion Avidan, Ravi Gilani, Robert Newbold, Rudolf Burkhard, Stefan Van Aalst, Ted Hutchin and Tony Rizzo.

Bob:  Tell us more about these articles.

Rajeev: These articles have been divided in two volumes, each volume containing 40 articles.  We’ve all found seams and traces of TOC gold scattered all over the web – echoes and extensions of the magnificently simple and profound concept so well-articulated and conveyed by Eli Goldratt.

Bob: Tell us more Rajeev.

Rajeev: “Echoes of TOC” gathers some of the best of these echoes together into a single easily accessible resource that you can refer to when you want to be reminded of an insight or to browse occasionally to refresh and extend your own mastery. It will also help to grow your clients’ insights into TOC, making it easier for you to help them capitalize on those insights even further.  It’s ideal for the TOC enthusiast, whether new to TOC or an expert in TOC practice.

Bob:  What have you written about how readers can implement what you're writing about Rajeev?

Rajeev: TOC Applications: Implementation Guidance (TOCDIY).  I have written three eBooks to help easy implementation of TOC applications for Manufacturing, Distribution and Projects.  They are small eBooks and give a very systematic path for implementing TOC.

Bob:  Are these small ebooks written for just consultants and what specifically will they explain to you? 

Rajeev:  If you are a business owner or a consultant or a manager in manufacturing business and you have problems in delivering orders on time, your lead time is increasing over a period of time and you have high inventory on the shop floor, the eBook for Manufacturing can certainly help you.

Bob: How about when you have distribution issues?
 
Rajeev: If you are a business owner or a consultant or a manager in Distribution business, and you have frequent shortages and surpluses and are carrying high inventory, the eBook for Distribution can certainly help you.

Bob:  How about people who are having trouble delivering projects on time, on scope and on budget? 

Rajeev:  If you are a business owner or a consultant or a manager engaged in Projects, and you are struggling to deliver the projects on time, within Budget and with full scope, and your project lead time is increasing over a period of time, the eBook for Projects can certainly help you.

Bob: So it looks like you've covered the most important topics and you've pretty much defined who these books are for?

Rajeev: If you are a consultant or an implementer implementing one or more of these applications, these eBooks will serve as a handy guide or checklist for the steps to be followed.  These eBooks are meant for Business Owners, Managers, Consultants and Implementers. These eBooks are Instruction Manuals for the three business applications and provide step by step guidance for implementing TOC applications.

Bob:  What else do you want to tell my readers Rajeev?

Rajeev:  If you find these reviews helpful, please acquire them and use them for your business and recommend them to others.  Here are the titles:

1. Theory of Constraints – Do It Yourself Kit for Small & Medium size Enterprises for Manufacturing.
2. Theory of Constraints – Do It Yourself Kit for Small & Medium size Enterprises for Distribution.
3. Theory of Constraints – Do It Yourself Kit for Small & Medium size Enterprises for Projects.

Bob:  Sometimes I get questions from people where English is not their first language.  Have these ebooks been translated into other languages?    

Rajeev:  These three eBooks have been translated in the following languages:

French – Joel-Henry Grossard https://leanpub.com/book_search?search=grossard

German – Juergen Kanz https://leanpub.com/book_search?search=kanz

Italian – Carlo Buora https://leanpub.com/book_search?search=Buora

Spanish – Alejandro Fernendez   https://leanpub.com/book_search?search=Alejandro+Fernandez

Portuguese – Luis Cristovao https://leanpub.com/book_search?search=Luis+Cristovao

Bob: So where are these eBooks available for my readers?

Rajeev:  These eBooks are available on www.leanpub.com and considering the need, I would like all my eBooks to get translated in other languages. Currently, translations are happening in Chinese and Catalan language. I will be happy to have these eBooks in languages like Russian, Japanese etc.
If TOC people on your blog are interested in translating, they may reach me at Rajeev_athavale@yahoo.com

Bob: What prompted you to write these eBooks?  What was your objective? 

Rajeev: Over the years, there are several videos, books, training programs, websites, blogs, articles etc. have been developed by various experts starting with Dr. Goldratt. It is a great source for learning TOC.  I felt that if anybody wants to learn TOC systematically, there should be an easy and systematic way to do so. Even those who know TOC may need some material to check their knowledge and polish it.

There are universities, colleges, Business Schools that teach or at least desire to teach TOC. What basic materials do the professors and students have? If more and more educational institutions want to teach TOC, they will certainly need textbook kind of material. But is that really available?  The desire to create such material led me to create TOC Learner’s Guide series of eBooks.

Bob:  What's next after gaining the basic knowledge? 

Rajeev: There are people who are Gurus in TOC; many of them have learned directly from Dr. Goldratt and worked with him. As a take away from their vast experience, from time to time, they have published several articles, papers etc.   It would really be great if after gaining basic knowledge of TOC, one gets an easy access to such material. It will not only polish the knowledge gained but also give greater insight into TOC.

Bob:  Is this material available under one roof? Or does one needs to go on searching for them over the net? What are the chances that one will find them? Isn’t there a danger that such valuable resource may get lost over a period of time? Can someone not collect such pearls from these Gurus and make it available?

Rajeev: The desire to collect such material and make it available led to the creation of “Echoes of TOC (eTOC)” series of eBooks.

Bob: So, what next? Is that all?

Rajeev: Gaining knowledge about TOC and its applications is good, but not good enough!  One needs to know how to implement it. Implementation is a different ball game. The sequence of steps is very important. What should be done first? When and what should be done next? How does one know about it? How can we make it easy, simple and systematic to implement? There should be some material that gives step by step guidance for implementing TOC applications.  The desire to create such material led me to create TOC Do It Yourself (TOC DIY) kit.

Today, there are people who learned and worked with Dr. Goldratt. Unfortunately, Dr. Goldratt is no more. Imagine the situation after say two decades. It may so happen that most of these Gurus may not be available to teach us and clarify and polish our knowledge. The young generation then needs something to fall back on.  Hopefully, these eBooks may provide a jumpstart for them. And they can rely on them for the core knowledge about TOC.

Bob: Is this all the knowledge about TOC?

Rajeev: Not really. I have touched upon some important aspects of TOC. I have not yet dwelled upon topics like Sales and Marketing, Thinking Processes etc.  Also the fact is, TOC got developed and evolved over the years. I am sure it will continue to develop further. May be many years later, somebody will write a sequel to these eBooks. And that must happen to keep the latest knowledge well documented.

Bob: Before we end this interview, I have one last question Rajeev. When and how did you start your TOC journey?

Rajeev: It was year 2000 when my daughter was doing her MBA. Her professor asked the students to read the book "The Goal." I bought this book for my daughter. I found the title to be attractive. So I decided to read it. And it changed my life.

I went on reading Goldratt’s next book “It’s Not Luck” and thereafter I read all his books (and then by the books some other authors too). Fortunately, the internet is a great source of information and it opened up the wealth of knowledge for me.

 

I implemented the “Critical Chain” in a small way for few projects in my company and got a feel of the power of this approach. I always looked for the opportunity to use Goldratt’s Five Focusing Steps in whatever I did.

 

And then a big opportunity came my way.

Bob: And what was that Rajeev?

I had the opportunity to work on a large Viable Vision project executed by Goldratt Consulting.  As a part of the project, I was trained by various experts like Oded Cohen, Mickey Granot, Philip Wiljoen, Eli Schragenheim, Humberto Baptista, Kiran Kothekar and Martin Powell.

Apart from the training and on the job experience, study of Goldratt’s webcast, Strategy & Tactics Trees, TOC Insights, TOC Simulators, TOC Games and TOC SLPs helped me to enrich my knowledge. Now I am an ardent fan of TOC. Reading about TOC has moved me from “I am impressed” to “I like it” to “I want to know more…”  I did not realize when it became a passion for me. Now, I eat, sleep, breath and walk TOC.

 

Bob: Thank you Rajeev for sharing your vast knowledge of TOC and I encourage everyone to check out Rajeev's writings.  The website again is:  https://leanpub.com/u/rajeevathavale

Rajeev: Thanks Bob.

Bob Sproull