Synchronix was formed in 1994 as an alliance of two experienced professionals, Steve Jackson and Rod Gelhorn, Both based in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland, they discovered that they shared a common interest in improving Manufacturing Business Performance, yet had widely different backgrounds associated with their work inside Manufacturing businesses, and their expertise with improvement technologies.
Steve had a background in MRP/ERP and was one of a small but growing core of experts working with Dr. Eli Goldratt to further develop and implement the Theory of Constraints, TOC.
Rod was an experienced Plant Manager (3 Plants, including a Green-fields start-up of a windows factory). He had become first an expert user, and then a Consultant and Trainer in Total Quality Management.
Since 2013 Steve and Rod have continued to collaborate on projects, while Rod has pursued contract assignments with Lower Mainland companies, and with manufacturers in California and Mississippi (working first with the R&D group in CA then shifting to help implement TOC is their start-up plant in Mississippi).
Rod has continues to break new ground in developing and implementing custom-engineered scheduling solutions. He also played a vital role from the inside, as a manager helping to implementing DDMRP-compliant software.
Steve continues as a TOC specialist with more than 30 years experience in the technology.
Learn more of Steve’s background as a TOC Consultant in Canada.
Steve & Rod also have informal associations with BC- and US-based consultants in the general Fields of Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, and some specialist TOC applications.
More Background: Steve Jackson, Theory of Constraints Consultant
By 1994, Steve had been an expert in the technology known as Theory of Constraints, or TOC, for 6 years, working with Eli Goldratt’s organization and building on 11 years of ERP/MRP experience (23 implementations) and 6 years of industrial management experience.
Between his initial education and training in the Theory of Constraints in 1988, and current time in 2020, Steve has continued to specialize in the Theory of Constraints technology as it has evolved and expanded its application far beyond its original Scheduling and Shop Floor Control.
Throughput Accounting, TOC-based Distribution and Supply Chain management, Sales, Marketing, Strategic Planning and the construction of aligned Strategy and Tactics; Critical Chain Project Management, and with an early involvement in the emerging “Demand Driven” technologies including Demand Driven MRP (DDMRP). Steve is not a specialist in DDMRP; but Rod Gelhorn was fully involved in an early implementation, and Steve & Rod have colleagues who are at the leading edge of development of DDMRP concepts and DDMRP-compliant software.
Steve was one of the original TOC team working with the late Eli Goldratt to develop and articulate the TOC Thinking Processes, and expand the range of TOC applications, in 1988 – 1994.
He also joined the Goldratt Network of independent consultants again to work with Eli Goldratt and his team with their “Viable Vision” initiative. One form of this was to give manufacturing businesses a custom-built Road Map combined with full consulting, coaching and training support, to grow such that their top line became their bottom line inside 4 years.
Although these are not terms Steve uses, he was formally Certified by Eli Goldratt’s organization first as a “Jonah,” then a “Jonah’s Jonah.” The Certification positioned Steve to teach the TOC and the TOC Thinking Processes both to practitioners and also to those managers who aspired to become certified as “Jonahs” themselves. The “Jonah” terminology stemmed from a leading character in Eli Goldratt’s best selling business novel, The Goal.
Software is now an Option … but only an option
For close to 20 years, Synchronix custom-engineered powerful Excel-based Drum-Buffer-Rope solutions that worked with clients’ systems of record (typically, ERP systems).
For a while, robust 3rd party software looked to be a better solution; but that software has become largely unavailable to smaller manufacturers in recent years (specifically, those with revenues under $150 MM).
Accordingly, Synchronix has returned to our Excel solutions. We have simply not found anything that works as well.
To put this into perspective: we have repeatedly implemented our Excel solution when all other attempts by a manufacturer to find a scheduling solution have failed — so the Excel solution is not to be underestimated. We have been chosen even when sDBR software has previously been implemented. With our advanced spreadsheet DBR we have scheduled extremely complex environments, as well as those that aren’t complex as such but often present challenges — such as Job Shops.
And we have implementations that have remained in place, producing exceptional results, for many years.
A Focus on Results
Synchronix’ focus is not on implementing Theory of Constraints; it is on delivering results, and we have a superb track record.
We use the TOC because it’s simply so powerful; but we have no hesitation in pulling in other bodies of knowledge – elements of Lean, or Six Sigma, for example – as necessary.
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