The Goal Essay
Paige Sander
Management 421
Ms. Barnes
February 27, 2012
“The Goal” Essay 1 In Eliyahu Goldratt’s novel “The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement”, he tells a story about a man going through hard times, in both his work life and personal life. Alex works in a manufacturing plant that is barely staying afloat, and his boss has left it up to him to keep the business running with a three-month time span to do it in. Even though “The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement” is just a story, it is still very relatable to businessmen, businesswomen, and students. The three categories of constraints that are shown in the story are knowledge, material, and supplier. The knowledge constraint caused for the manufacturing plant to not be looking at the correct statistics to see the plant’s productivity. Since the managers of the plant were not looking at the correct statistics it led them to believe that the plant was operating at a good level when really they were not at all. Alex learning from Jonah, his physics teacher from school, minimized this constraint. Jonah had a way about him that led for Alex to think deeper then he ever had about the productivity of the plant. Alex came to realize what the actual goal of the plant is (to make money) and what numbers are needed to measure if their goal was being met. Once the knowledge started formulating within Alex he was able to take it to other employees that way people knew how to start acting to achieve the goal of making money. It will be a lot easier for them to help keep the manufacturing plant afloat when they know the correct measures to take. The second constraint for the manufacturing plant is material because they have too much inventory on hand. Since they have so much of an excess of material on hand this causes for them to be spending more money than they need to right now on materials that they are not even going to use for another seven months. Also, the manufacturing plant has to spend
Management 421
Ms. Barnes
February 27, 2012
“The Goal” Essay 1 In Eliyahu Goldratt’s novel “The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement”, he tells a story about a man going through hard times, in both his work life and personal life. Alex works in a manufacturing plant that is barely staying afloat, and his boss has left it up to him to keep the business running with a three-month time span to do it in. Even though “The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement” is just a story, it is still very relatable to businessmen, businesswomen, and students. The three categories of constraints that are shown in the story are knowledge, material, and supplier. The knowledge constraint caused for the manufacturing plant to not be looking at the correct statistics to see the plant’s productivity. Since the managers of the plant were not looking at the correct statistics it led them to believe that the plant was operating at a good level when really they were not at all. Alex learning from Jonah, his physics teacher from school, minimized this constraint. Jonah had a way about him that led for Alex to think deeper then he ever had about the productivity of the plant. Alex came to realize what the actual goal of the plant is (to make money) and what numbers are needed to measure if their goal was being met. Once the knowledge started formulating within Alex he was able to take it to other employees that way people knew how to start acting to achieve the goal of making money. It will be a lot easier for them to help keep the manufacturing plant afloat when they know the correct measures to take. The second constraint for the manufacturing plant is material because they have too much inventory on hand. Since they have so much of an excess of material on hand this causes for them to be spending more money than they need to right now on materials that they are not even going to use for another seven months. Also, the manufacturing plant has to spend