Rating: 
Summary: ¿Thumbs Down on ¿Sifting Information¿ Out of this Book!¿
Review: In 1979, Eliyahu Goldratt wowed a half million readers, most of whom manufacturing managers, with his brilliant and fun novel - The Goal - about how to make a production plant really work. This fictional and entertaining account of a desperate plant manager, who takes a common sense approach to running a factory, formed the backdrop for the author to challenge conventional wisdom regarding the real purposes of manufacturing. Meanwhile, provoking us with innovative and thoughtful definitions about some of the most everyday concepts in our vocabulary, Goldratt indeed opened our minds to new ways of thinking about throughput, inventory, and expense.It was reasonable to assume from the title of this work, and its sub-title "Sifting Information Out of the Data Ocean", that our author may now have turned his sights upon the information processing environment, with hopefully some equally provocative and enlightening concepts to share. Alas, this is no "Diehard 2". Gone is the fictional narrative and easy writing style that made the story come alive with real life scenarios. Gone are the bold redefinitions of familiar terms. And gone is the general applicability of this dusty tome, as it turns out not at all for information practitioners and professionals, but rather for those poor minions trying to successfully schedule a factory floor. The book starts out trying to discern the difference between data and information, hardly a profound concept. Then we're treated to a long-winded regurgitation of the Goal (in case we didn't get it the first time, I guess...); followed by an onslaught of argument about the pitfalls of manufacturing cost accounting. Then we get numerous chapters on how to use software (presumably) to handle the sophisticated twists and turns of a shop floor schedule, which had literally no general appeal at all. (I would normally have given up by now had I not the intent to scribble these words...) Then at the end, almost in testimony to a weak effort, (the last) Chapter 40 just ends - no grand summary, no review of points and conclusions, no suggestions for further study or endeavor - just a period at the end of the last sentence. What a disappointment.
Rating: 
Summary: The ultimate planning thinking
Review: This book gives you the best guidelines to the planning and scheduling world. It is easy readable, but be careful. The theory looks easy, but it isn't. Read again and again, and the value of the book increases. Specially the last section is dynamite.
Rating:
Summary: People "get" TOC at different levels
Review: This book separates those readers who get TOC at a deep level from those who don't. It's not easy reading because it makes you think -- hard at times. But if you stick with it and really comprehend it, the last section is just as valuable as the first two.
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