Consultant Biographies


Steve Jackson

Steve Jackson was one of the first independent consultants in the world to be invited to receive "Jonah" training by Dr. Eli Goldratt, author of The Goal and originator of the Theory of Constraints (TOC) technology.

Starting in 1988, with an engineering degree and more than 15 years of manufacturing and systems experience already behind him, Steve worked alongside Dr. Goldratt, his partners and Associates for six years to further develop and to disseminate the TOC body of knowledge across North America. Steve was certified to the level of "Jonah’s Jonah."

Independent of the Goldratt Institute since 1994 Steve today is one of the most experienced TOC educators and consultants in North America, with know-how (and do-how) gained from hands-on involvement in a wide variety of organizations. He is one of the few TOC consultants Certified as "Expert" in all six TOC fields by the TOC International Certification Organization, TOC-ICO.

A popular speaker and educator, Steve has developed and delivered a wide variety of seminars and workshops to groups of up to 300 managers.

In 2004, Steve was invited to work with Eli Goldratt's organization again on a new program, called "Viable Vision" – with a project target of ensuring that a company's Net Profit in 4 years time exceeds their current revenues, with a large percentage of our fee paid as bonuses that are dependent on results having been achieved and banked.

Steve was a member of APICS for 20 years, and served as President of the local Chapter.


Rod Gelhorn

Rod's effectiveness can be illustrated by a story of how, when he arrived at a client site, some employees performed "the wave" – a compliment to the fact that he solves a LOT of problems with his scheduling and production management approach.

Rod abandoned a degree mid-stream to instead get one of the most practical college qualifications available (we're talking a long time ago here) -- Building Technology. He is simply one of the most practical, pragmatic, hands-on, get-it-done types you'll ever meet. He's also a stickler for doing it right. Whatever "it" is. And he's detail-oriented, as a matter of habit.

Rod has a decade of Plant Management in food packaging, hardware packaging, and window manufacturing – where he was responsible for the start-up of a new plant literally from green field to full production.

He made the conscious choice to learn Total Quality Management as a practitioner in a thin-film extruding plant before being invited to work with a leading TQM consulting company as a full-time consultant and educator. Since co-founding Synchronix, Rod's focus has been 99% on Theory of Constraints – while never losing sight of the value of the Total Quality tools in targeted situations.

As comfortable on the shop floor as in the front offices, Rod's focus is most often on helping clients develop the practical day-to-day operational aspects of their Synchronous Manufacturing implementations, including extending the implementations along the supply chain in both directions, working with the TOC Distribution and Supply Chain application. He has helped a variety of businesses develop their day-to-day shop scheduling systems, sometimes with an implementation time measured in days.

Rod is a past chair of the local Section of the American Society of Quality (ASQ).

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