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The Goal, by Eliyahu M. Goldratt examines the life of an American plant manger in his
quest to find out what exactly the goal of a plant manager is and how to go about reaching
this goal. Along the way towards realizing the goal, the plant manager is forced define
and understand the theory of constraints. It is important to understand the theory of
constraints for the manager to be able to identify what restrictions are being opposed onto
his various operations and to know how to reverse their affects. In this particular case it
takes the manager having to continually deal with orders being finished late and therefore
unsatisfied customers and an irate employer in order to realize that serious problems are
occurring within his plant.Once the goal, which inevitably turns out to be money, is
found, it is imperative to figure out how to express the goal in the form of a measurement.
Three measurements are able to not only express the goal of making money, but also
make it possible for the manager to develop operational rules for running his plant. These
measurements are: throughput, inventory, and operational expense, and everything that
the manager manages in his plant is covered by them. Still, the manager must do much
thinking and research in order to figure out just how to express his goal in terms of these
measurement.In addition to expressing the goal, the manager is troubled by whether
employees, robots, and machinery actuall need to be running at all times. At first glance
many managers seem to think that an idle worker is an unproductive worker, but Goldratt
shows us that in reality a plant in which everyone is working all the time is very
inefficient. The manager in the book soon comes to realize that machines don’t run
themselves -- it takes people to create excess inventory, so sometimes when a worker is
taking a break, thereby leaving a machine idle, it’s actually a good thing.One huge
problem that often arises in a plant such as the one Goldratt has lead us through is
distinguishing between two resources. One is the bottleneck which is when many
operations are feeding their output into one operation whose capacity is less than the
combined capacities of the operations that provide input, leaving units to queue up while
waiting to be processed. If bottlenecks can be improved then productivity will increase
until the output rate of the bottleneck is equal to that of the output rate of the operations
feeding it. The second resource is the non-bottleneck which is any resource whose
capacity is greater than the demand placed on it. In the Goal it can be seen that the main
problem for the plant manager is the bottleneck and how to make the flow through the
bottleneck only slightly less than demand.First and foremost, every manager and future
manager should definately sit down and read this book. Even if it does not of
characteristics of a particular plant, the basic concepts that The Goal discusses can be of
help to nearly every manager of any kind of business. Learning to deal with such things
has bottlenecks, excess inventories, and the theory of constraints is something that many
managers struggle with. Also, Goldratt teaches that, contrary to the belief of nearly every
manager in the world, capacity should never be completely
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************** them the quickest and and the lowest cost. The engineering department
is in charge of such things as approving which parts go through heat treatment and
making sure that everything is performed up to code for top qualtiy and
performance.Though The Goal is more or less directed toward managers, and even more
specifically plant managers, it can basically be read and enjoyed by anyone. Not only
does it show how to manage a plant, but it also show how to manage ones’ life. Though
for many, a successful career signifies a successful life, we have to remember that family
and friends are also a sign of success and that they can be just as big contributors to a
career-person’s rise to the top as his co-workers.In order to deal with such a problem the
plant manager consults a mentor who keeps him constantly thinking and researching
possible remedies to the many problems that are occurring within his plant.The Goal isn’t
just a book, it’s a novel. Goldratt takes his reader through an enjoyable narrative through
both the work life and the personal life of an American plant manager. Through this
easy-to-read story I was able to better understand how inventory and how it goes through
both bottlenecks and non-bottlenecks has such a huge impact on all aspects of a plant.
And just like the plant manager in the book, I was always under the impression that idle
workers meant trouble for the business. I never considered its impact on inventories and
therefore on productivity. This book really opened my eyes to things such as this and the
inner-workings of a manufacturing plant... something that I had little exposure to before.
One thing that I did not find easy to understand was the theory of constraints, though I
know this is probably a huge part of the novel. I realize that there are many restrictions
on a plant’s operations, but I’m still unclear about how the theory of constraints was
involved in this particular situation. The Goal shows that there is an answer to all
questions -- it’s just a matter of asking yourself the right questions and then going through
the logical thinking processes in order to come up with those answers. In addition The
Goal is about not just one manager finding the answer to one goal, but about a group of
people, rather a team, both on the job and at home, working together and brainstorming in
order to meet a series of common goals. And, finally, Goldratt teaches that things are not
always as they seem and sometimes we have to forgoe traditional methods and take a
chance with new ideas, thinking, and innovations. Basically, we have to do what it takes
to reach the goal.
Word Count: 1028
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