Summary Of The Goal: A Process Of Ongoing Improvement

As students, we are subjected to read many works of literature through our academic careers that to say the least, we would find to be either boring or complete dribble. That was my presumed attitude while beginning this book The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement. Thumbing through the book, I would read bits and pieces here and there and I thought to myself. “How the heck am I going to finish this book? Or even be able to understand what is going on in this thing?” However I was very wrong after turning the last and final page. I found myself reveling in this wonderful piece of work that helped understand and come to realize some of the inner workings of the industrial industry and the problems I am likely to face in my future.
With almost
completing my time with ID. I have had to really consider what kind of role I want to play in the industry when I graduate. Whether it is management, sales, marketing, or finances. I knew that whatever title I received I would have to do some training to learn more about the job. But “The Goal” has shown me that there is much more learning and developing one must do to not only have yourself succeed, but your company and future as well. Alex, Ralph, Bob, Lou and Stacey all had a massive problem within their plant that was forcing the decision of a plant closure to loom over their heads. They had to reconstruct some of the most basic and common sense learning techniques into more scientific and Socratic methods. I have come to understand that as manager, I need to know more about the process and approach of how a company is ran in order to best optimize my efforts.
Before I can be successful it is imperative that I know what the true goal of the company is. Although this was considered common sense. The truth of what the answer was, was harder to realize than assumed. Always challenge the status quo and use a rational method. The problem with most ill managed companies is the management’s way of thinking. Much of what managers’ say and do is regarded as the truth. This can lead to the people not thinking at all. And managers trying to use their old ways to compete in an ever advancing world. The intrinsic order of things can be revealed through the scientific method. (Goldratt, 2004) Management is a thinking process that attempts to reveal this intrinsic order. It is based on the scientific method and the key relationship: IF . . . THEN. Managers can logically derive results from their hypothesis. (Goldratt, 2004)
The book helps you learn how to improve the performance of a system by providing you with a process that can be replicated and applied to analyzing any human or engineering system. The primary comparison is improving a manufacturing process, but the same principles apply more broadly to other circumstances. You will experience the power of the Socratic Method as a way to stimulate your mind to learn, and to use Socratic questions to stimulate the minds of others to become better thinkers and doers. It forces people to step back and really analyze the situation in front of them. Before reading this book I would have been inclined to keep grinding through the problem that Alex had, and solve the issue through brute determination. But after reading you have to come to understand that every problem you face in life cannot always be easily fixed with more effort. Sometimes it takes the need to cutback, limit, and reorganize the process in order to benefit and fix the situation. Goldratt thoughtfully distributes the common beliefs about today's production process. He demonstrates the side effects of these practices and illustrates the necessary changes in order for success. For example, when Alex and his staff realized that cutting the production lot size in half not only decreased inventory and increased throughput but also increased sales, they could promise shorter delivery times.
While I have not had the pleasure of completing and internship yet.
After reading this book I have been presented with a lot of pertinent and useful information that I can take and implement into not only my day to day operations. I can show what I have learned to a potential employer and help them do anything to improve their process. There are many things I have taken away from this book but a few key things that I will try to ingrain in my head are to always challenge the status quo and ask question with a pragmatic approach. There is always room for improvement and one should look at the overall operations of the system and not just at once centralized location within the system. When your operations are effective you are able to work better not harder. That was a big lesson I learned. Like I said previously my first inclination when reading of Alex’s problem was to just work harder and grind out some overtime to finish all of the past due orders. But I was terribly wrong. Efficiency and Productivity are not the same things. Working as a team is probably the most important lesson one can learn as well. If Alex did not have the help of his team. His plant would have surely closed. He motivated and coached his team into a new process that would benefit not only their jobs but their company. Resulting in many promotions throughout the plant. Finally the important roles that everyone in the corporate chain play, can make or break your business. Coordinating between Marketing, Operations, Accounting, Sales, etc.… All have major influence on what can be done. Working together with each department and meticulously analyzing the numbers can create room for opportunities and more throughput. Even these departments can be seen as Bottlenecks. If one area is slacking or lacking the capacity to operate it will become the “Herbie” of the company and hinder the performance and
throughput.
The Goal is a book that can be used by many for the purpose of learning positive managing techniques and thinking process. It is easy to read and understand for the most part. It has the ability to teach the reader about effective business operations. I have learned a lot through this book and plan on keeping it on my bookshelf forever. It has the knowledge and information I can use to remind myself of what it takes to manage and create a process. I will highly recommend this book now to any person I see struggling to solve a problem they have in their careers and maybe life.