The Goal, by Eliyahu Goldratt- book report
February 23, 2014
QUAN 6610 Book Report
The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Goldratt and Cox
KEY IDEA
The Goal centers around the protagonist Alex Rogo, who is a manager at a manufacturing and production plant for UniCo that is performing badly and is given three months to improve or face closing. His old physics professor, Jonah, is his guide and mentor through the story, using the Socratic Method, as Alex and his team learn to formulate what later becomes the Theory of Constraints to turn the plant around and eventually earn him a promotion to division manager.
SUMMARY
The story begins with outlining the problems Alex Rogo is facing. His plant is incredibly late on shipments because of inefficient processes. It takes the entire plant to make sure one order goes out before the end of the day. Rogo works in a high stress environment where daily, processes must be restructured just to get out an order of the most upset customer that day.
His manager, Bill Peach, gives him an ultimatum of three months to turn the plant around or face closure. In addition to this, his marriage is suffering because of his long hours at work.
Alex is deeply worried with this deadline. Alex embarks on tracking down Jonah, his old physics professor, to help him begin to isolate the problems in his factory. Jonah uses the
Socratic method of questioning Alex, instead of feeding him the answers directly to what he
BOOK REPORT: THE GOAL
1
seeks. He forms a team of department heads; Bob the plant’s head supervisor, Lou his chief accountant, Stacey the inventory manager, and Ralph the data processing manager. With the team assembled, and the Socratic guidance of Jonah, they use the logic of the scientific method to discover bottlenecks within the plant. Additionally, a hiking trip with his son’s boy scout group helps him stumble upon the solution to statistical fluctuations and independent events (embodied by Herbie, a boy carrying too much in
QUAN 6610 Book Report
The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Goldratt and Cox
KEY IDEA
The Goal centers around the protagonist Alex Rogo, who is a manager at a manufacturing and production plant for UniCo that is performing badly and is given three months to improve or face closing. His old physics professor, Jonah, is his guide and mentor through the story, using the Socratic Method, as Alex and his team learn to formulate what later becomes the Theory of Constraints to turn the plant around and eventually earn him a promotion to division manager.
SUMMARY
The story begins with outlining the problems Alex Rogo is facing. His plant is incredibly late on shipments because of inefficient processes. It takes the entire plant to make sure one order goes out before the end of the day. Rogo works in a high stress environment where daily, processes must be restructured just to get out an order of the most upset customer that day.
His manager, Bill Peach, gives him an ultimatum of three months to turn the plant around or face closure. In addition to this, his marriage is suffering because of his long hours at work.
Alex is deeply worried with this deadline. Alex embarks on tracking down Jonah, his old physics professor, to help him begin to isolate the problems in his factory. Jonah uses the
Socratic method of questioning Alex, instead of feeding him the answers directly to what he
BOOK REPORT: THE GOAL
1
seeks. He forms a team of department heads; Bob the plant’s head supervisor, Lou his chief accountant, Stacey the inventory manager, and Ralph the data processing manager. With the team assembled, and the Socratic guidance of Jonah, they use the logic of the scientific method to discover bottlenecks within the plant. Additionally, a hiking trip with his son’s boy scout group helps him stumble upon the solution to statistical fluctuations and independent events (embodied by Herbie, a boy carrying too much in