This is a book about...

The main character of the book is Alex Rogo; he is a plant manager working in the manufacturing
industry. In fact Alex is an industrial engineer with an MBA. Alex is in charge and manages the injection
molding manufacturing part of the plant. According to the book Alex is ideal for the job but if he dose not
learn how to run his plant efficiently he will not make any money. Alex faces a tough road ahead of
revitalizing the plant from a money loser to a moneymaker.
Alex is faced with a difficult situation ahead. His company that he works for is losing money. For the past
couple of years the company has continued losing money now it is his turn to change things around. Alex
from his impressive resume was chosen for the position on the grounds that he was the right guy for the
position. He was promoted to the plant manager position 6 months ago. Before he was promoted the
plant was still in dire straits. Alex's superior Bill Peach came to the plan to see how the operation was
running to make sure operations were running smoothly as planned. Mr. Peach visited the plant to check
on an important order for a client. At the plant for some reason orders have not been on time they are
usually caught up in a bottleneck somewhere. In fact many orders as of late have been so far behind that
it is a major problem for the company and the lively hood of the workers.

As a possible solution strategy, Alex categorizes the orders that are behind schedule as being either now,
red hot, very hot or hot. How hot is hot just kidding! This situation is prevalent at the plant. This problem
has been lingering on for quite a while. Either the plant shapes up or the plant will be closed and
everyone will lose his or her jobs including Alex. During Mr. Peach's visit, he explains to Alex if that the
manufacturing plant is not the moneymaker it should be he would have no choice but to close the facility
down. Alex has three months to get the plant running according to Bill Peach's standards or he is out of a
job. Alex is faced with a real dilemma; if the company is not meeting standards set by management then
the plant will be closed.

Alex has dedicated most of his energy and time to the plant and its problems. He has been working many
late nights pondering the future of the company. Ale is having trouble understanding the problems at the
plant. He questions why the entire industry is losing money. The book mentions something about Japan
has entered the manufacturing market and have stolen some market share from the United States. How
will Alex handle the situation to regain the market share that they have lost is the hot issue.

Alex in a Chicago O'Hare airport restaurant runs into his favorite former professor Jonah. Alex discusses
to Jonah what he does for a living he explains the purpose of the robots and describes the whole facility.
Alex explains that the robots benefit is that of technology. Jonah however feels that robots are not
necessary in the manufacturing plant that he works in. Jonah throws out the question to Alex are the
robots actually increasing productivity or are they just stockpile of inventory? He questioned the use of
robots and automation in the manufacturing plants. Jonah also went on to ask have labor cost decreased
due to the robots? Do the robots decrease expenses? What has happened to the inventory? Have the
robots helped in shipping more products? Jonah continues to ask do the robots must be continuously
running without taking any breaks in between? Alex replied you are correct. He explained it is necessary
for the robots to run all the time. He justifies it by saying that we have to remain competitive in the
industry. Alex believes strongly in favor of the robots where Jonah has a different point of view. Alex
admits that he has a surplus of inventory in the plant and everything is still behind. There is still a
bottleneck somewhere. Jonah points out to Alex that he needs is to rethink his position of what is his
purpose at the plant. Jonah explains to Alex he needs to define the "Goal" of the manufacturing plant.

There comes a point in the book where Mr. Peach decides to call a meeting regarding the importance of
improving the status of the plant as well of the division that Alex works on. His main focus is that of the
financial situation. He had the entire staff get together and had a round table discussion about efficiency,
cutting costs, and productivity. Mr. Peach tries to figure out the problems that linger on in the plant. He
outlines the goal of the company at his lecture. He discusses at length the above issues. He continues if
the plant is not being productive in 3 months than the plant will be closed down.

His family life was also taking a turn for the worst. Even though Alex was a plant manager and making a
good salary his wife was getting upset with him. He was working late hours and was never home when he
was needed most. Communications problems arose at home with Alex and his wife. They began to have
marital problems due to the lack of communication. Alex became very complacent toward his wife and
started to lack the necessary communication skills needed for a marriage. While parked at a park
visualizing the plant he finally sees the light. Alex realizes what the actual goal of the plant is. With his
degree I am surprised that he didn't realize sooner that the goal of the plant is to make money! I have
trouble understanding that he did not know that the goal of the plant is to make money because that is
with any business.

The next day at work back at the plant, Alex holds a meeting and discusses with all of his coworkers what
needs to be done. At length he talks to the plant controller about his findings. The book discusses that the
plant can make money be increasing net profit while increasing net cash flow. After discussing with the
controller, Alex again calls on Jonah to discuss the state of the plant and arranges a breakfast with him.
Jonah also discusses in detail the goal. Jonah discusses operational expenses, inventory, and
throughput, which may lead to the goal. Jonah makes a key point here that the manufacturing as a whole
unit must be looked at. Efficiency is what Jonah goes into or is trying to explain to Alex. Jonah went on to
say that only the tasks directly associated to the throughput of production need to operate efficiently. Alex
used robots and Jonah kept constantly questioning why robots? It was not until Alex closely examined the
situation that he discovered that management was operating less efficiently. The extra costs were an
actual waste. Through closer investigation Alex found out that only the operations required to produce the
finished products are key to get the ultimate efficient rate needed.

Jonah asks Alex if anything at the plant what has changed? Alex again says that the robots are still
running all the time because they cost the most money. He says they are the most expensive piece of
equipment in the plant. Alex believes in the robots and says that he will only get right productivity when
the machines are running at full capacity. Jonah again believes on the contrary that you do not need
everyone working all the time to get great results. Jonah says that a plant in which everyone is working all
the time may actually be a negative (the well known more-for-less paradox).

Jonah explains to Alex that the only logical way to have an over abundance of inventory is having too
many people on. He believes excess inventory is caused by excess manpower. He also went on to
discuss another concept of a plant that it needs to be balanced. That the plant is working all together as a
unit to meet the demand of the market. Without a balanced plant operations can not run smoothly. An
unbalanced plant leads to layoffs, which in return decreases operational expenses. Alex was faced with
this dilemma on how to save the plant. He was also forgetting about his family life and watching that go to
pot. What was he to do?

The next morning Alex has the opportunity to take his son on a hiking trip with other boys and he has an
another revelation regarding work. During the hike there is one particular child that is the slowest in the
bunch that can not keep up with the rest of the other's. The slowest child was the bottleneck in this
situation. Alex finally decides to stop the children and put the slowest child first as the leader to resolve
the issue. The slowest became the leader and the group could go only as fast as the leader. Later in the
same day Alex played another game to understand the bottleneck issue. This gave Alex some more
understanding of the statistical fluctuation process and the effects it has on operations in the plant.

After the hike is all over Alex is faced with the fact that work has taken over his life. His wife has decided
to leave him due to that fact lately he ha been treating her like a stranger and not of a wife. Unfortunately
Alex has lost sight to what is actually important in his life.

Eventually Alex figured out how, for example statistical fluctuations occur and effect operations at the
plant. Jonah lets Alex understand bottlenecks and explains that they should be below market demand.
After speaking with Jonah, Alex talks with his co-workers and realizes that the bottleneck at the plant is
mainly a specific machine as well as the heat boxes. Due to the machine and the boxes the plant
unfortunately could not keep up with the demand. Finally after looking into the problem it was corrected
and they were able to meet the demand.

Alex finally persuades Jonah to come down to the plant to take a look at the problem. Jonah explains to
the staff that the actual cost of maintaining high inventory and the rejection of quality control (QC) has
decreased the operating time of the bottleneck. Due to that Alex changed procedures to put QC directly in
front of the bottlenecks. Jonah also explained that the capacity of the plant is equal to the capacity of the
bottlenecks.
Throughout the book the goal is to make money for the plant by reducing the bottlenecks. Bottlenecks
existed even after putting QC in front of them. The bottlenecks that were prevalent were training new
people using three machines and the new rules at the plant. Jonah also explained that in the plant when
you make a non-bottleneck do more work than the bottleneck you are not increasing productivity. Instead
you are increasing inventory and by virtue of creating excess inventory you are going against the actual
goal. Inventory is defined as any material that is not immediately sold. Inventory goods are any raw
material needed to complete the finished product. In general space becomes a major issue in the
manufacturing industry world. Companies are limited to floor space and any left over goods creates a
cash flow problem. Unsold finished products are a liability.

The effective prescription for Alex's problems is: Identify and explore the system's constraints, also learn
to cope and adapt to new conditions. The story is all about making decisions, thinking, and modeling. In
the book The Goal that is exactly what Jonah had to do using common sense ideas.
I especially liked...
I found the book to be very informative and easy reading which anyone could read in one sitting if they put
their mind to it. In today's manufacturing society production management I believe is one of the most
crucial ideals to stay competitive in the market place. In our competitive manufacturing industry if a plant
does not satisfy customer's wants and needs their sales and profits will suffer and unfortunately like in this
book, management may end up pulling the plug if sales continue to decrease. The book covers the
following topics in great detail: Communication; Inventory; Bottlenecks; Efficiency; and Capacity Planning.
I recommend this book because...
This book opens the eyes of anyone interested in management to the fundamentals of running a
business. It is wrapped inside a very interesting (and yes, even thrilling!) "real-life" story which is written
so well that this book could be a best-seller just because of it.

The Goal is a different type of management book.

Eliyahu Goldratt uses the approach of Socratic inductive reasoning to teach his Theory of
Constraints. He does this by presenting ideas in the form of a fascinating novel about people
dealing with the problems managers face at home and at work every day.
Alex Rogo is a plant manager who is continually fighting to meet the output requirements of his
business. There are ongoing conflicts between marketing, accounting and production in the
organization.
Through some suggestions from Jonah, a friendly management guru, Rogo learns to identify and
manage the problem areas in the operation.
Specifically, Rogo identifies production bottlenecks that are the critical points determining the
rate of production of the operation. Then he develops strategies for overcoming or living with the
bottlenecks.
A bottleneck is actually fairly easy to identify. In a manufacturing environment, walk down the
line until you meet a big stack of product waiting to continue along the process. In a service
environment, look for stacks of files in someone's office.
Goldratt's ideas are surprisingly applicable in manufacturing and service environments.
By studying and applying these ideas, you could improve your organizational effectiveness and
productivity, free up capital tied up in excess inventory, reduce customer frustration and reduce
organizational anxiety. The Goal should be on the "must read" list for most managers.
For more information on The Goal, visit Eliyahu Goldratt's website at www.goldratt.com.
For our new reviews of business and self-improvement books, subscribe to our newsletter,
Michael Gray, CPA's Tax & Business Insight!
[edit] Setting
Like other books by Goldratt, 'The Goal' is written as a piece of fiction. The main character is
Alex Rogo, who manages a metalworking plant where everything is always behind schedule. His
distant acquaintance, Jonah, who represents 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.
[edit] Bottlenecks
The book goes on to point out the role of bottlenecks (constraints) in a manufacturing process,
and how identifying them not only allows for removing them, but also yields a useful tool for
measuring and controlling the flow of materials. Alex and his team identify the bottlenecks in the
book and immediately begin to implement change to 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. They also were careful to make sure the bottlenecks were not starved and sitting
idle. They also moved quality control to before the bottleneck instead of after the process. At the
second bottleneck, the heat-treat, they re-ordered how batches travel through to eliminate less
than capacity runs, and out-sourced overage to a supplier. By careful observation and
manipulation of constraints, Alex and his crew manage to make their plant successful, and in the
end Alex is rewarded with a major promotion.
[edit] Socratic Method
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.
[edit] Evaporating Cloud
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, 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. 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.
Steps
1. Briefly tell what the book is about. Think through what is in the book from beginning to end,
and write a few sentences about the major events or topics. What happened that moved the story
forward? What was unique or compelling? Those are most likely the important points that
should be included in a summary.
2. Don't include everything. Strive for clear, succinct descriptions, and focus on keeping it short.
Including too much information goes against the entire concept of summarizing - and is a waste
of time and writing space. It is less work to add more information later if necessary.

3. Add your own thoughts. What did you think about the events or subject described in the
summary you just wrote? Include your reactions and reflections. For example: "I thought that
the part about Hazel running out was a bad idea because ...."

4.Finish with a concluding thought about the book as a whole. Why would you recommend it (or
not recommend it) to others?

• Read examples of summaries for books you have read. This will give you a feel for what
should and should not be included in your summary.

• Use your own words. Including phrases or sentences from the text is unnecessary, and
again goes against the concept of summarizing. Don't be tempted to use blurbs from the
bookcover or someone else's description or summary. Teachers will recognize when you
are not creating original work, and they will count it against you.