THE GOAL – A PROCESS OF ONGOING IMPROVEMENT

THE BOOK IN BRIEF Alex, the main character in the story is the plant
manager at UniCo, is about to get his transfer back to
S ince its first publication in 1984, this book has
successfully inspired an industry to move
his hometown, some difficulties come up in his
factory where he works and there are chances of the
towards continuous improvement.
factory might getting shut down.
The fascinating part about this work is the attention-
Their shipments are late leading to increase in
catching idea of the writer to write a document for
production backlog and inventories are increasing.
the betterment of the industry in the form of a novel.
All this has further led to degrading the shipment
Although the book covers the concepts like quality with increasing costs.
throughput, efficiency, and revenue which come in
He is determined to solve the issue however he has
the dictionary of operations and production
other priorities including his wife Julie, to take care
managers, the very efficient writing style of the
of. The worsened situation of the factory is testing
writer to present it as a story makes this novel apt for
Alex not just professionally but also personally by
all readers ranging from college students like us to
impacting his married life.
people aspiring to become CEO or the CEOs
themselves. With the mammoth challenge of reviving the factory,
Alex refers to his old Physics professor, Jonah, and
The book is able to present the cases which can be
discusses with him the situation who not only gave
studied to apply in real-life situations as they
him some direction but also challenge him to change
highlight the learnings on which the real world
his views on the meaning of goals and productivity.
works.
Although the story ends with all positives, Alex
We shall see in the later review of the book how
being able to ship orders on time by improving the
characters have been shown thinking logically and
flow of productivity, the way they achieved it is
with a rational view to work on the solution of the
important.
problem at hand.
How he understood the constraints so well, and how
The story has been beautifully written by the writer
he managed them so well to achieve growth and
to give a solution to factories struggling with
regain profitability is something the author wants us
deadlines management, delays, and low sales and
to focus on.
revenues.

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 THE GOAL – A PROCESS OF ONGOING IMPROVEMENT

As a plant manager, one must be thinking that

making the processes more streamlined, reducing the
uncertainties and de-bottleneck areas of constraints
with capitalist mindset is the goal, however the book
reduces the goal to simple purpose of making more
and more money.

Another very key learning from the story is the way

emphasis has been put on the importance on focusing
on the process and making improvement a part of
that ongoing process instead of a goal.

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THE GOAL – A PROCESS OF ONGOING IMPROVEMENT

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