This blog entry summarizes and provides comments on the book
The Goal, by Eliyahu Goldratt. The
Goal tells the story of Alex, a fictitious manufacturing plant
president. Alex is on the verge of losing his job for having
an unproductive plant. Alex is constantly reacting to
emergencies, he has a large backlog of customer orders, long lead
times and significant amounts of work-in-process inventory.
Alex's old friend, Jonah - a former physics teacher turned
process consultant - asks Alex a series of probing questions that
lead him to an epiphany which helps turn the plant around.
Alex wants to improve his plant's productivity. Jonah
responds by posing a question to Alex: What is his manufacturing
plant's goal? After determining that productivity in the
abstract is not the goal and sifting through a series of cost
accounting metrics, Alex finally realizes that the goal of his
plant and the overall company is simple: to make money. Jonah
posits that each and every
