I've been chatting a bit recently with Gijs Andrea who uses TOC in healthcare over in The Netherlands.
I'm going to publish a few questions and answers, but first here's a wee essay which Gijs wrote to introduce himself and experiences.
1985 - The Goal
Eli Goldratt visits The Netherlands. He explains his Theory of Constraints to a large audience in Utrecht. I have just switched from the telecom industry to healthcare. I don’t know why, but I was touched by the invitation to listen to an amazing story about Jonah. The show by Eli was inspiring: a small man on the stage, very, very self confident and sometimes shouting to me that it was really very simple!! But Eli talked about money, money, money! And as far as I knew, healthcare was everything BUT money. So how could I ever use Throughput, Operational Expenses and Inventory in a hospital?? It was about patients and doctors and nurses. I buy a book and leave puzzled….
1995 - The Haystack Syndrome
Eli Goldratt visits The Netherlands again. In Noordwijk he unfolds new insights, new technology and new logic. I have just started my own consultancy company in healthcare and searched for fast growth.
Again the Theory was very simple and very face-slamming. How could I not understand and not use it? How as a manager of my company could I calculate a loss when deciding on the P and Q? I almost left in deep depression and desperate to be able to translate his logic to my business. I buy a book and leave hopeful …..
2003 – The Critical Chain
Eli Goldratt must love The Netherlands: he comes again!! I feel my hope from the past still burning inside. Healthcare is still a mess: costing too much, producing too little, despite of all my consultancy work! There must be another way. Eli explains his Viable Vision in his own Eli-way, confronting me with everything I do not want to hear: identify the constraint and exploit it! Healthcare is one BIG constraint, capacity and money to begin with, but I again listen. There must be a way to apply such simple logic in complex healthcare. At last I dare to ask Eli about healthcare. He almost chokes, almost swallows his pipe, seems to look for help from above and asks me if I really want to continue working in healthcare. There are so many other areas in life to shift paradigms…but if I insist: talk to Patrick Hoefsmit and Alex Knight, they know more. I buy a Self Learning Program and leave inspired ….
2005 – The Race
Eli Goldratt again shows up behind the dunes of the low country, he seems to live there almost. He hasn’t changed a bit. He is still the same as the one in the Self Learning Program: inspiring, touching, moving people from where they are to where they do not want to be at first. I now know what he is talking about and I now know how to apply his logic in healthcare. The first hospital in The Netherlands has taken the challenge to shift a paradigm and apply TOC to achieve more of its goal: getting patients through the system (healthier of course!). And I took the challenge: let TOC be the main way in healthcare! It took a couple of years, but it’s never too late to shift your paradigm! I don’t buy books any more ….
2015 – The Viable Vision
Eli Goldratt still loves The Netherlands and not only for its beautiful skies and far sights across a flat country. Healthcare is so perfectly organized: no waiting lists at all, treatment is given instantly and rapidly at low cost. Nurses and doctors always smiling and taking time for every patient. Eli notices buffer management all over the place and feels really at home when taking his yearly body scan. He still feels strong enough to jump and shout and emphasize that TOC is of strategic importance for every industry, whether it is about profit or about not-for-profit. His Viable Vision is not a vision anymore: it is real and it works! You must be an idiot not to use it!
Gijs Andrea
TOCreate BV
The Netherlands
More to come ...
