Throughput Accounting and Economics

As much as I enjoy reading the Goldratt books and his theory of constraints (TOC), I never considered his early book, The Race, a solid and readable primer on throughput for financial minds.

Several books have been published on throughput accounting since The Race was released in the early 1990s. In 2019, three TOC experts finished what I believe is now the best work on throughput accounting that even CEOs should read. The title is Throughput Economics.

In this conversation, we address simple definitions such as throughput, operating expense, and investment. We learn why efficiency measurements can lead to disastrous results and why this book is not just for manufacturers.

Notable links:

• Eli Schragenheim blog (one of the co-authors)
• Goldratt Bharat
• The Vanguard Method
• Kelvyn Youngman