Necessary But Not Sufficient is a 2000 novel authored by Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt and co-authors Eli Schrangenheim and Carol A. Ptak and published by the North River Press, which has previously published most of Goldratt's works. Necessary but not Sufficient is written as a "business novel" and shows the fictional application of the Theory of Constraints

Theory of Constraints

The theory of constraints adopts the common idiom "A chain is no stronger than its weakest link" as a new management paradigm. This means that processes, organizations, etc., are vulnerable because the weakest person or part can always damage or break them or at least adversely affect the...

 to Enterprise resource planning

Enterprise resource planning

Enterprise resource planning systems integrate internal and external management information across an entire organization, embracing finance/accounting, manufacturing, sales and service, customer relationship management, etc. ERP systems automate this activity with an integrated software application...

 (ERP) and operations software and organizations using that software. The fourth of four published (as of 2007) Goldratt business novels, this one does not share any of the settings or characters of the previous three novels (only The Goal

The Goal

The Goal is a management-oriented novel by Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt, a business consultant whose Theory of Constraints has become a model for systems management. It was originally published in 1984 and has since been revised and republished every few years, once in 1992 and again in 2004...

 and It's Not Luck

It's Not Luck

It's Not Luck is a business novel and a sequel to The Goal. The plot continues to follow the advancement of the main character, Alex Rogo, through the corporate ranks of large manufacturer, UniCo....

shared the same characters).

Quotes

"Technology is a necessary condition, but it's not sufficient. To get the benefits at the time that we install the new technology, we must also change the rules that recognize the existence of the limitation." (p. 125)