The Goal
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- Date Submitted: 02/21/2012 10:12 PM
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The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement
Executive Summary
“The Goal: A Process of Ongoing improvement” is a book written in narrative form that tells the fictional story of Alex Rogo, a plant manager for UniCo Manufacturing, whose plant is performing poorly and given three months to significantly improve or face a shut-down of the entire plant. This ground-breaking business novel, first published in 1984, gives remarkable insight into the day-to-day life of an operations manager and challenges prevailing business practices and thought processes. The book's authors, Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox, through their colorful story, are able to show how business practices and thought processes have strayed from what they should be. “The Goal” also shows that business thinking based upon too many assumptions that accepted at face value. Basically, people are not questioning the things that they being told are true. In Alex's case, it assumed that if operating costs per unit are down and efficiencies are up then the company is being productive. However, these measurements neglect the bottom line. They should be less concerned with measurements that do not contribute to the success and profitability of the company. Basically what the authors are saying is that managers should exercise common sense in their decisions.In the book, Alex's superiors at the division level of the company concerned primarily with productivity and efficiency of plant operations. Alex's boss, Bill Peach, is constantly harassing him over his plant's productivity and efficiency metrics. UniCo concerned with how the cost per unit produced is increasing and believes that in order for the plant to be profitable it must run its machines at capacity and not have any idle time in labor. Unico's concern over having a low cost per unit is a prime example of how a company's management can lose sight of what is important. In the case of UniCo, what should be important is how much money...
Executive Summary
“The Goal: A Process of Ongoing improvement” is a book written in narrative form that tells the fictional story of Alex Rogo, a plant manager for UniCo Manufacturing, whose plant is performing poorly and given three months to significantly improve or face a shut-down of the entire plant. This ground-breaking business novel, first published in 1984, gives remarkable insight into the day-to-day life of an operations manager and challenges prevailing business practices and thought processes. The book's authors, Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox, through their colorful story, are able to show how business practices and thought processes have strayed from what they should be. “The Goal” also shows that business thinking based upon too many assumptions that accepted at face value. Basically, people are not questioning the things that they being told are true. In Alex's case, it assumed that if operating costs per unit are down and efficiencies are up then the company is being productive. However, these measurements neglect the bottom line. They should be less concerned with measurements that do not contribute to the success and profitability of the company. Basically what the authors are saying is that managers should exercise common sense in their decisions.In the book, Alex's superiors at the division level of the company concerned primarily with productivity and efficiency of plant operations. Alex's boss, Bill Peach, is constantly harassing him over his plant's productivity and efficiency metrics. UniCo concerned with how the cost per unit produced is increasing and believes that in order for the plant to be profitable it must run its machines at capacity and not have any idle time in labor. Unico's concern over having a low cost per unit is a prime example of how a company's management can lose sight of what is important. In the case of UniCo, what should be important is how much money...