| The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Eliyahu M. Goldratt |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | North River Press |
| Publication date | 1984 First Edition, 1986 Revised First Edition 1992 Revised Second Edition, 2004 Revised Third Edition |
| Media type | Softcover |
| Pages | 384 |
| ISBN | 978-0-88427-178-9 |
| OCLC Number | 56194659 |
| Dewey Decimal | 823/.914 22 |
| LC Classification | PR9510.9.G64 G6 2004 |
| Followed by | It's Not Luck |
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. This book is usually used in college courses and in the business world for case studies in operations management, with a focus geared towards the Theory of Constraints, bottlenecks and how to alleviate them, and applications of these concepts in real life.[1] This book is widely used in leading colleges of management to teach students about the importance of strategic capacity planning and constraint management.
Contents |
Like other books by Goldratt, The Goal is written as a piece of fiction. The main character is Alex Rogo, who manages a production plant owned by UniCo Manufacturing, where everything is always behind schedule and things are looking dire. At the beginning of the book, Bill Peach, a company executive, tells Alex that his plant has three months to turn operations at his plant around from being unprofitable and unreliable to being successful.[2] His distant acquaintance, Jonah, who many believe represent Goldratt himself, helps him solve the company's problems through a series of telephone calls and short meetings. A second story line, which only occasionally intersects with the main topic of the book, describes Alex's marital life.
The book goes on to point out the role of bottlenecks (constraints) in a manufacturing process, and how identifying them not only makes it possible to reduce their impact, but also yields a useful tool for measuring and controlling the flow of materials. Alex and his team identify the bottlenecks in the process and immediately begin to implement changes to help speed up capacity. In response to questions about the logic of using outdated technology, Alex's team brought in an old machine they received for free in order to increase the capacity of the NCX-10 machine, one of the two bottlenecks.
In the book Jonah teaches Alex Rogo by using the Socratic method. Throughout the book whenever a meeting or telephone call dialogue happens with Jonah he poses a question to Alex Rogo or a member of his crew which in turn causes them to talk amongst themselves to come up with a solution to their problem. When Alex Rogo is with his wife he finds the Socratic method to be a way to fix his marriage which he then uses, with his crew, to come up with the five steps they should use to fix problems in the plant which ultimately leads him and Lou to think up the three things every division manager, the position Rogo is promoted to, should be able to do.
The book gives a good example of the Evaporating Cloud thinking process when Alex Rogo wants to increase the plant's throughput but he can not do so according to a salesman,[3] Johnny Jons, because there are not any deals available. However, later it turns out that there is a deal from a French client who wants a certain part at a low price and in a massive amount, the conflict being they won't make a big profit and Alex's plant can't produce the amount wanted in time. Alex's team comes up with the idea that if they can't produce it all at one time they could produce the quantity in pieces which bumps the price back up because the client isn't ordering in bulk anymore.(This is not what it says in the book. The book says they are unable to produce the 1000 parts in 2 weeks but they are able to produce 250 parts a week for 4 weeks to satisfy the order. The price remains the same, and the flow and cost are better managed between both manufacturer and buyer. Page 245 of the 20th anniversary edition (3rd revised edition 2004)) The French client hears of the plan and makes a deal with Jons even though it's a little more costly which increases the throughput of Alex's plant and the net profit of UniCo by finding a win-win solution to a situation that had goals in conflict with each other.