- Dr. Luis Amendola, PhD., Dr. Tibaire Depool, PhD
- Journal Magazine, vol. 32
Finding the needle in a haystack, the haystack syndrome
When we talk about decision-making, it is impossible not to think about data and information.
For this edition, one of my favorite authors comes to mind, Eliyahu Goldratt, who wrote about productivity, marketing, and how companies could achieve benefits if they maintained focus on their goal.
Goldratt in his publication “The Haystack Syndrome: Sifting Information Out of the Data Ocean” published as an essay in 1990 and later reissued, analyzes the contributions that properly understood technology can make in mitigating the constraints that prevent an organization from achieving its objectives or reaching its maximum potential, now and in the future.
In this regard, we must be aware of the dangers of getting lost in the haystack of data abundance, so we must find ways to locate in the haystack the valuable needles of useful information for each specific purpose that involves improving our profits and the sustainability of our business and operations.
These purposes can be oriented toward: avoiding superfluous expenditures of time and money, making more efficient decisions in the allocation of CAPEX-OPEX for assets, improving production efficiency, leveraging resources, meeting promised delivery deadlines and expected quality, calculating minimum stocks of raw materials and finished products and, above all, changing the mindset from cost accounting to value-generating accounting.
In this edition we will address topics that can help us avoid getting lost in a sea of data.
