The Goal

The Goal

Executive Summary

The benefits of the "Goal" novel book are numerous and the author highlights several aspects identifying problems and possible solutions to improve overall performance & management processes as an ongoing development. Alex Rogo, Manufacturing Plant Manager and the main character in the book reviews the fundamentals of redefining priorities in the process to achieve this goal. As I continued to read, the author elucidates diversified scientific, mathematic and upper level management methods. He identifies the problems as intrinsic constraints which are limiting people minds from moving forward and thinking out of the box. For instance, many businesses wasted labor hours and cost for studies and project reviews when the data is not applicable.

Alex engages his team to list questions concerning daily operations, procedures and in some cases abandoned company policies. i.e., he replaced outdated methods with robot which required less overall labor hours but was costly. If the robot ran side by side with the old methods, the production could increase to almost double. The author embraces the magnitude of continues process improvement method for management processes in all different forms of businesses by relating scientific methods such as bottleneck "Theory of Constraints" to improve management processes, "Socratic Method" to lead people to the solution of future problems, and "Evaporating Cloud" to think laterally hence out of the box while utilizing available resources. I learned from the author that management is science which can solve problems with logical and scientific methods rather than relying only on explicit experience. An example from actual business news, the sustainable success of Toyota Motor Company's management that applies "Kizen" method (in Japanese means continues process improvement) and it is integral part of the company's core competencies and competitive advantage. I agree with the author's statement: "the Goal of any company is to gain profit" by focusing on minimizing inventory, reducing operational costs and increase throughput and not necessary following the traditional measures such as layoffs and reducing wages ...etc.

Theory of Constraints "Bottleneck", Socratic Method &Evaporating Cloud

It's imperative to learn and deeply understand how to apply these methods as it helps in taking necessary measures to improve the overall procedure in business and personal life. As Dr. Jonah, Alex's distant advisor suggested to brainstorm with his team members and arrive at logical solution of various Q&A as a process of Socratic Method which is a form of inquiry and debate between individuals with opposing point of views based on Q&A to stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas. He simultaneously applied these scientific methods in business while realizing its contribution to facilitate the ongoing process improvement and in his personal life trying to save his marriage.

Alex was able to increase the throughput and net profit of the company by setting common mutual goals. Further, with Lou, chief accountant identified the feasible application of the theory on each divisional manager. He engaged his wife and applied Socratic Method by finding 5 logical steps to improve the plant performance as well as to resolve their marital problems. Later on this theory was recognized as Goldratt's theory of constraints and taught in management courses.

1. Identification of the constraint - The outdated technology and the heat treatment process was critical factor in reducing the preparation time in manufacturing process through correct identification of constraint.

2. Exploitation of the constraint - If outdated technology and heat treatment process is taking too much time to complete the program for each type of component, monitoring and evaluation bill of materials is necessary for exploiting the constraint rather than simply eliminating the constraint.

3. Subordinate other works to the constraint - Parallel processing of quality control prior the bottleneck reduces the idle time of machines to speed up the capacity of NCX-10 machine. 4. Elevate the constraint - Increase the throughput of the constraints irrelevant to the costs as they limit the entire system throughput. 5. Repetition for further improvement