The book is excellent and an open eye for thinking, finding, and applying methodologic solutions to the daily process activties...

For the person that prefers novels to business books this is probably a great resource for learning. As an avid reader of business books, it was hard for me to get through. After listening to, I couldn't read it, I went back to skim read it and try to understand the details to the Theory of Constraints. I guess that's my next read because based upon the raves, there is something I'm missing in the way the story is told.

I enjoyed the book, and it was an easy read. Not much is really directly applicable to what I do but I enjoyed the modeling of, and abstractions around, an old business---even if nothing particularly earth-shattering is surfaced. Some of the narrative was a bit hokey, but none so much so that it made me want to stop reading.

I agree with others that this is good to have read, and helps to inform a solid operational and organizational theory.

This is a great book which causes the reader to examine all process as how it relates to constraints. The lesson is to ease the constraint and certainly don't be a constraint. The lesson is done in a story form and the danger it that it's too subtle or else would be missed without a discussion with someone else who is knowledgeable in the book.
There are also discussions about utilizing excess capacity and only calculating the variable costs without consideration for fixed and it is a compelling case.
The side story about his wife is superfluous, a distraction and waste of time, but otherwise a great book.

An old boss of mine at Amazon.com gave me a signed copy of this book to read about lean processing. Obviously, this book is a classic. What people fail to mention in their journey with the main character on lean manufacturing in desperate times, is the love story that unfolds in between the pressure of capitalism in a small town. While not a book to actually get specific action items, it does lay out a rather nice overview on concepts to look into for improvements at one's workplace. The story is nicely laid out in a narrative format in which our main character is "learned" through a zen like mentor, who dribbles out nuggets of information for him to sort through and implement at his factory. While this spreads the information out, with no real concentration of ideas for quick reference, it does build for suspenseful reading. If that is enough, you will also find out soon enough if the main character can save his factory, while keeping his marriage intact? The stress can be overwhelming at points, but a good enough read.

Book in excellent condition. I ordered for a used book and it was as good as a new book delivered to us.

Though geared to an industrial environment, this book teaches how to think when in need to improve processes. Makes great introductory reading for business process management professionals.

Goldratt's examination of throughput and cultural belief issues in a manufacturing environment are highly informative for anyone involved with a product slated for manufacturing. He illustrates his concepts with adeptly conceived metaphors and parables which makes grasping them much easier. In fact I would even go so far as to recommend this book to those involved in service industries, where his concepts of throughput and bottlenecks may be applied with great utility.
Additionally, on the financial side Goldratt presents models for cost of inventory which I found illuminating, although I am more concerned with the throughput side of the operation.
An excellent easy read I recommend to almost anyone in business.

This book is not only entertaining and educational, but in actuality represents some of the manufacturing organizations today. It teaches many lessons and fundamentals that one can apply to improve his company. It touches on topics that are highly practiced on the field of industrial and manufacturing companies such as bottleneck operation, process scheduling, theory of constraints, and batch processing. The book transitions from a division plant being in trouble of closing down to its complete turnaround to become not only the most productive division plant, but the plant that saved the company. I thoroughly enjoyed the way Goldratt systematically went through the process of improvement and methods that the plant manager utilized to turn around his division plant. Having studied these topics that the book touched upon prior to reading made it easy for me to see the relevance of what was going on through out the novel. I strongly feel that the insight this novel gave me in regards to the process of ongoing improvement is something that I will be able make good use of in my career.

I read a lot of books and I came across a great one this week, which I bought because I saw that it's endorsed by the author of The Goal. It's a leadership fable called Squawk!: How to Stop Making Noise and Start Getting Results

Per my graduate class in quality engineering:

"Read The Goal and provide an executive summary of the book. The summary should cover the main points of the process that Mr. Rogo and his team took to turn around the plant. In addition to the summary, answer the following questions."

Part I -- Executive Summary

The problem of production has challenged human beings since they first evolved. Even hunters and gatherers had to do elementary planning to evaluate local resources and ration their prizes to assure they met the basic needs of the tribe. Moreover, gathering these basic commodities from nature -- wild game, fruits, nuts, roots, stems, berries, and so forth -- constituted only the first step of the tribal production process. A primitive division of labor within the tribe created the equivalent of an assembly line on the micro scale with hunters, gatherers, preparers, tribal elders, caretakers, medicinal specialists, etc.

Over the millennia, this division of labor continued to specialize and to multiply the range of possible productive occupations. This trend exploded with the advent of new individual freedoms after the American Revolution. The resulting Industrial Revolution greatly swelled the diversity, complexity, and specialization of knowledge needed in the rapidly modernizing society. It resulted in the modern fields of engineering and especially industrial engineering, the study of systems that keep industries humming.

Because of their long history of storytelling, humans still show a strong preference for learning through dramatic interpretation. Young people learn moral lessons like the just rewards of industry through stories such as "The Little Red Hen." Such fictional tales of virtue tend not to make their way so much to older generations. A few exceptions exist in novels such as Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, a story which illustrates the role of the mind in man's life. A more recent exception comes in The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt, a story which illustrates his "Theory of Constraints" dramatically.

Goldratt, a consultant by profession, considers himself a philosopher in his own right. His frustrations in the early 1980s in attempting to convey his new theory of production to his clients led him to write The Goal with the help of professional writer Jeff Cox. Goldratt seeks to show, in the form of a novel, how commonly held yet faulty assumptions about ideal production plant behavior, such as using all processing resources to capacity, neglect integrated thinking at a systems level and lead to net profits far short of potential. To borrow the words of Ayn Rand, Goldratt tells the reader, in effect: "Check your premises." By the end of the tale, protagonists and readers alike have profitably done just that.

Goldratt cleverly tells the story from a first person point of view of its main protagonist, Alex Rogo. The novel opens with Alex struggling to keep his manufacturing plant afloat. As the plant manager, Alex has done his best to apply his degree as an industrial engineer to solve mounting production problems at his plant. But he has had to face the hard truth that his best simply will not do. The plant has fallen into a perpetual "fire fighter" mode in which jobs get "expedited" based on whichever higher manager screams the most loudly on that particular day. Preposterously long work shifts resulting from this modus operandi have placed stresses on his marriage to his wife, Julie, as well as his relationship with their two young children.

Alex encounters Jonah, an old friend and science teacher who challenges Alex on a number of his basic assumptions with a Socratic method of inquiry. "Then, tell me, what is the goal of your manufacturing organization?" he asks Alex after a brief series of opening questions. Although seemingly innocuous, the answer to the question of "the goal" actually opens a floodgate of other questions. These in turn cascade into answers that help Alex and his team of managers to transform the plant from the biggest loser in the company to the most profitable one.

For any plant, of course, "the goal" proves actually quite simple -- to make money. But Alex takes pages and pages of thought and dialogue in the early part of the novel to answer this question, first refuting other common answers such as "to produce products as efficiently as we can" and other misleading slogans before arriving at the final answer to his own satisfaction. His ensuing exchanges with Jonah over the remainder of the novel, combined with many other plot elements, help Alex to work backwards from this goal to the intermediate tasks the plant performs to achieve it. This leads to open challenges and confrontations with management up and down the chain of command in the company as Alex and his new converts strive to drive dogma from the corporate culture and replace it with a well-reasoned production philosophy -- the "Theory of Constraints."

The "Theory of Constraints" itself seems obvious by the end of the novel. It simply shows, for example, that the throughput of a plant will remain constrained by the narrowest "bottleneck" in the production line, with that line including the market demand itself. Hence, attempts to use other resources up and down the line from that bottleneck to full capacity result in backlogs before the bottleneck and idleness after it. Other problems, such as excess inventory and untimely retooling, also result from the "full capacity" fallacy. Moreover, as a plant reorganizes its resources to make the plant more effective, thus increasing its overall capacity, it can experience the phenomenon of moving bottlenecks. Alex Rogo and his team of experts deal with just this occurrence as their plant improves and they later document this as a key component of their process improvement strategy. (See Part II Question 1 for the step by step strategy.)

Goldratt keeps the story interesting with side plots to illustrate his theory, such as a Boy Scout hike that stretches or shrinks depending upon the sequence and ability of the hiking troops. He also shows that "constraints" apply beyond manufacturing plants to human relations as Alex struggles to hold his family together under the "constraints" of 16 hour work shifts. By the end of the novel, Goldratt resolves the conflicts among the characters satisfactorily and shows the happy reality of practicing his "Theory of Constraints."

Readers who liked Atlas Shrugged will enjoy The Goal. While much narrower in scope, it nevertheless remains a novel that challenges many widely held assumptions. As did Ayn Rand, Eliyahu Goldratt demonstrates himself a profound thinker who dares all of us to think more profoundly.

Part II -- Questions and Answers

1. Review the step-by-step approach implementing the Theory of Constraints (TOC) approach. In your opinion, which is the hardest step and why?

Per Chapter 37:

1. IDENTIFY the system's constraint(s).
2. Decide how to EXPLOIT the system's constraint(s).
3. SUBORDINATE everything else to the above decision.
4. ELEVATE the system's constraint(s).
5. WARNING!!!! If in the previous steps a constraint has been broken, go back to step 1, but do not allow INERTIA to cause a system's constraint.

In my experience, the overcoming of inertia mentioned in Step 5 represents the greatest challenge to implementing TOC. Comfort embodies the core of inertia. With management content with how a process currently operates, overcoming that inertia can prove almost impossible.

2. The first edition of this book hit print in 1984. Are the lessons still relevant? Explain.

The lessons of this book remain as relevant today as they did in 1984. Although the industrial culture has learned much since then, the principles remain timeless and warrant consistent and unyielding repetition. Only repetition of a principle assures its continued practice.

3. What is your biggest takeaway from this book and why?

First, my personal takeaway: Julie Rogo behaves like a psychotic drama queen from hell, and her parents, lying sacks of garbage. I fantasize a novel called Alex Shrugged in which immature Julie leaves her hard-working, productive husband under cover of her conniving, coddling parents only to return to the house to find the locks changed, the house sold, and her husband, children, and assets vanished without a trace. She would have gotten her just deserts.

Now, my professional takeaway: The largest lesson I took from this book involves the importance of setting forth principles dramatically. The compelling and engaging story complete with plot, theme, character, and style help to illustrate otherwise dry principles. One can say much the same for Ayn Rand's great novel Atlas Shrugged which illustrated the role of the mind in man's life.

4. The author claims that the TOC is hard for management to accept because the result runs contrary to common practice (i.e., 100% utilization may not be good). Which of these results, or measurements, or practices is the hardest to accept for management (in your opinion)? Explain.

I agree with the author that a result such as using a resource at less than full capacity remains the hardest pill for management to swallow. Management mythology suggests the old nineteenth century whip cracking slave driver who gets maximum effort from his minions and punishes those who "slack." Reality shows that slack remains a vital and indispensable part of any good management system.

5. There is an old saying that "if you measure it, they will do it." How does this phrase relate to the TOC approach?

Every measurement implies an acceptable range of performance. When the plant measured efficiencies of individual components in the system rather than the overall performance of the system, the metrics misled management to focus on "improving" those efficiencies at the expense of overall plant performance. Once the focus changed to the right metrics, plant performance improved dramatically.

6. As the demand on the system increased, problems arose in the plant -- first diagnosed as moving bottlenecks. As the demand on any system reaches capacity, what are the keys to implementing TOC?

Per the answer to Question 1, management must follow the process of constraint identification regularly.

7. Would you have accepted the French order for $701 per part (Model 12)? Is the answer the book takes always the correct answer? Explain.

Per Chapter 38:

"We calculate the load that this large deal will place on the bottlenecks -- no problem. We check the impact on each of the seven problematic work centers -- two might reach the dangerous zone, but we can manage. Then we calculate the financial impact -- impressive. Very impressive. At last we're ready."

Yes, I would have accepted the order. Yes, the book offers the right answer under the conditions given. The Goal of the plant is to make money. This decision served that goal.

8. Are there any flaws in this philosophy? State your perceived flaws, if any, and defend your answer.

The philosophy assumes that management can identify and control all constraints. This does not always hold true, especially in an age of intrusive government regulations with origins in political ambitions. The novel could have at least mentioned this externality as a "constraint" to the effectiveness of the Theory of Constraints.

Great book! I couldn't put it down. Very interesting how the author used a novel to present a breakthrough business theory.

I have just started to read this book, and from the very beginning it feels like you are inside the normal reality of manufacturing.
It is easy to write books about theories, but giving a real feeling of daily manufacturing issues is something new.
I expect a lot form reading the whole, since page by page you discover more as the guy who's involved in story.

This is a fantastic book. I like the approach used to bring the concepts across to the reader. I highly recommend this book.

This book is a novel with the purpose of instructing the reader in the theory of constraints. The book details how one should go about analyzing operations or any system to find, fix and/or optimize the overall structure and the overall process. It is about the analysis of processes and how to structure them and manage them, in view of the constraints contained within them. Anyone interested in accounting, operations management, process management, continuous improvement, etc. should read this book. It is a fast and easy read, but it contains much substantive insight into analyzing and optimizing processes.

I was required to get this book for an operations management course in college. It was definitely an enjoyable read, especially for a business book. The narrative format made for a very easy read. The real world examples offered make the connection between theory and application. We were given this book in place of a textbook, and it was about a million times more entertaining than any textbook.

Stories are one of the best ways to teach. Eliyahu Goldratt is a master at weaving a tale to teach a crucial concept in manufacturing.

The Goal is the story of locating bottlenecks and streamlining a manufacturing line. The story is full of twists and turns, a super consultant named Jonah who speaks in riddles and a cast of believable characters. To make the story even more believable it is spiced with real life problems at home that our hero Alex must solve simultaneously while he is desperately trying to save the plant he is responsible for from closing down.

Goldratt is on a mission to take manufacturing form an art to a science and this is his way of doing just that. The book is well worth the time for anyone interested in using critical thinking and common sense to solve manufacturing problems. Highly recommended!

The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking

This book is a very infomative and clear written book. Although it is not a breathe taking novel it is as best written as a text book could be written. Many senerios I found very helpful relating to my own real life experiences in the workplace and the challanges we meet everyday. Definitley well recommended. BUY IT...

I was pretty surprised at how good and informative this book was when I was reading it. It took me almost no effort at all to keep reading. This book gives you a glimpse of the responsibilities a manufacturing management have and the problem that they have to solve. It is an eye opener for anyone in management that is interested in the fundamentals of running a business. The narrator walks you through all the steps and processes on overcoming problems so you'd get a sense of what the logic is behind every solution. One good point that I got out of this book is that don't just follow the common practice, instead use your common sense.

In reading The Goal, I was not completely sure what to expect when I first began to read it. I was told that it was a novel, but at the same time I was being required to read it for an engineering Statistical Quality Control class, so I figured it would be quite interesting to see a novel used to explain something for engineering.

The novel, as soley a a story, was entertaining and brings up many aspects of life that pertain to working and how it relates with having a family. The interesting part about this aspect of the book, is that it utilizes the theory of the book as a whole, which pertains to engineering and manufacturing, showing the theory to be more universal.

The theory that I have spoken of is mainly that of having a goal and making sure that the goal remains the focus. This theory is the basis for all else that is presented in the book, although it is not the only theory presented. The theory of constraints is also spoken of and many other specific thoughts in the area of manufacturing.

Overall, I found this book to be very useful in bringing my view of how to approach problems, and in many ways life, to focus. It was an excellent reminder that we need to remember what we are doing and understand the implications of actions, but most of all, to focus on what we are trying to achieve.

I'll keep this short. Over the years I've read all kinds of books that try to teach you something that more often than not teach you how to sleep while reading. When someone recommended this book to me I thought, here we go again, but I was wrong. This book was fun to read and I had a hard time putting it down. Its goal was to teach you a few things and not one hundred which is how people both learn and retain. I highly recommend this book to everyone and its message goes beyond just manufacturing but can be applied to many different areas both in the work place and out.

If your organization/plant faces the classic problem of Quality, Cost & Delivery: "why can't we consistently get a quality product out the door on time at the cost that can beat the competition?" or if you have a plant manager who is "always promoting some new thing he's doing, and most of the time what he's doing isn't any different from the things everyone else is doing", then you better read this book and make others to read it as well.

This book introduced the Theory of Constraints to the world of business and has made its way to B-Schools as a textbook. Eliyahu Goldratt has done an excellent job in explaining his theory using a novel-style writing. It is a story of a struggling plant manager to improve his plant's performance and save it from closure. The expert in this story provoked the main character to "derive his solutions by supplying the question marks instead of exclamation marks".

Recommended read for every professional in manufacturing.

The concept(s) in this book are a key part of the lean manufacturing grouping of concepts. This is one of the little hinges that swing big doors. It is a high leveragbe activity to identify your constraints and to focus improvements at this constraint.

I found THE GOAL a book written in a direct language. My personal interest toward the topic takes me to look forward to the next book that the author wrote. Perhaps it's not only a question of Economics.

The "Goal" is tied to Fortune Magazine's small business editorial staff taking into consideration the epilogue is dedicated to case interviews by David Whitford, Fortune's "Small Business Editor at Large". To this extent, the book is an editorial for the commercial adventures of the author. On the other hand, unlike other business books, Goldratt manages to keep readers interest between applications by providing the drama of the day-to-day in the life of the principal player in the story, Alex Rogo (Plant Manager) who is positioned in the book to have [only] ninety days to save his plant, job, and marriage. We add to this a general disenchantment by Rogo's managers, the usual skepticism of labor unions, and we have an interesting read.

From a critical review perspective the book misses one important ingredient. There is no index of words or terms. So, the reader becomes displaced in note-taking and highlighting of sentences in the text. Not something all people enjoy when trying to synoptically reference the material; no matter how diligent they might be as scholars. In this regard, the book tries to pass itself off as a novel, when in reality it is a textbook, written in story form.

The story flow is straight forward. The book has a beginning, middle, and an end. Alex Rogo and his working associates deduce along as an academic and consultant named Jonah feeds vignettes of information throughout. Jonah gives Rogo the "Where's Waldo" approach to [a] next-move- dialog: then running to the airport or meeting leaving Rogo to search for answers in the nuanced language of the fog. Rogo then consults his fellow workers, his children, or his, about-to-be, estranged wife for clues to the answer. All while Rogo's boss has Rogo walking a widow's walk with traces of Snidely Whiplash - as Nell [that would be Rogo] remains tied to the railroad tracks. The drama leads to the reader wanting to identify with Rogo and help him prevail in [a] classic fight between good and evil - the company management in this case being uninformed, if not evil.

The book introduces situations known as "constraints" about which Rogo and company are to solve. These constraints revolve around production machines receiving too few, too many, or no production parts at all. Juxtaposed to the shop floor, the on the ground methodology begins with a simple example as Rogo Sheppard's a column of Boy Scouts on their way through the forest and the observation is made that if one of the Scouts does not walk at the same pace as the rest, the column comes apart This writer believes this may be the Goldratt version of Edwards Demining finding an oil spot on shop floor. Anyway, for the reader planning to examine the [whole] book, let me say that there will be times you do associate yourself with certain actors in the story - sometimes in a scary six degrees of separation, both business and personal.

No point in giving away the ending, however, one might imagine that all business books end rather well, and, for the record, please add an index in the next printing.

In the end of this "novel," the protagonist that just managed a massive turnaround of his manufacturing plant is on his way to managerial infamy as the head of the whole division. But first, he has to choose whom from among his through-putting dream team to promote to his former position, Plant Manager. Does he choose the wizened old Controller who is near retirement? Or the engaging, brilliant young number-cruncher? How about the member of his team who has clearly proved herself as the most intelligent, articulate, results-oriented, and focused member of the plant's management (and, incidentally, the only woman who is in a managerial position in the WHOLE BOOK?) Or, could he possibly choose the bear-like neanderthal who disrupts meetings with his foul language and inane suggestions, and whose current job primarily consists of stopping brawls on the plant floor?

Two points for the neanderthal!

In a senseless and ridiculously dated move, the protagonist bypasses the only female in management and, yes, promotes the neanderthal, who seems to lack any of the intellectual capacity and analytical thought of the rest of the management team. But the choice seems to fit, considering that even apes grooming themselves would be able to recognize the idea of a "bottleneck" in the system, and without consulting a Yoda-like physics teacher sage. How "Alex Rogo" managed to get an MBA without ever learning how to manage people--and, for that manner, an Engineering degree without learning how to manage processes--is beyond me.

But I will give Mr. Goldratt one thing--for a sexist, ploddingly simple business man, he writes pretty well. Despite begrudging the underlying assumptions about women in management and nearly pulling my hair out over Alex Rogo's unending questions (we don't even find out until page 40 that the goal of a company is to--gasp!--make money!), I did stay up until past 2 a.m. reading his glittery prose. And that was two days before my assignment on the book was due.

In fact, there's one brilliant scene in particular, with Alex Rogo and said female manager coming home laughingly drunk late one night only to find his estranged wife waiting for them in the dark...it leads me to think that maybe Eliyahu Goldratt should write soap operas.

I have lost count of the number of people to whom I have recommended this book. Whatever area of management you find yourself in, and at every level from business studies student to CEO and CFO, you are bound to pick up something useful from "The Goal."

The story follows the complex life of Alex Rogo as he works at one problem after another. With the help of his old friend, Jonah, he identifies and solves problem after problem, on the road to saving his manufacturing plant, his own job and those of his colleagues, and his marriage. Each problem is broken down into its simplest components so that the real priorities are easily identified and dealt with.

Satisfying the senior management of his company and the accountants that he has turned around the fortunes of his plant proves difficult, but he supports his arguments with solid evidence.

Managers will recognise many of the problems that Alex encounters as, although part of this fiction, they belong to the real world rather than the theoretical text books that they may be used to reading. The story is far from dull and is easy to read and to understand.

What particularly appealed to me, as a practitioner of process modelling and simulation, was the way that these techniques were used to bring about significant business improvements. The power and value of such techniques was ably demonstrated and should encourage many more companies to put them into practice.

Eli Goldratt has succeeded where many have failed, to put these concepts into language that everyone can understand and therefore benefit.

The only negative comment that I have about this book is that I felt that the background story became a little bit tedious towards the end, but the value gained from reading the rest far out-weighed this minor moan.

Buy it. Read it. Improve!

Thare are many other good reviews on this book what else could I add? Well I've read this one just a few days and really liked it but let's face it: it's not a thriller nor is it really a novel. It's just way too linear for that. But don't get me wrong. This is an excellent book but the style fall short of what I would expect from a novel. Nevertheless, it's still a 4 star book because the objective is not so much to be the next "Dan Brown" but to use the narrative as a teaching aid and to this effect it succedes really well.

Perhaps the only thing is that in a real scenario, I suspect that Alex, the main character, would have faced far more resistance especially when you are trying to change an industry norm. This is an endevor equivalent to saying "Everyone else is blind or dumb but listen to me I know what I'm doing". Unless you actually own the business or you can convince the owner, it's probably near impossible to do. Here a "cas de force majeure" gave our hero the necessary leway.

A good and easy read.

I was quite apprehensive before I bought this book because I had heard a few people say that it was a very difficult book to understand and was very hard to read without getting bored. I must say I was pleasantly surprised to find out that once I started reading it I couldn't put it down! It reads like a very interesting fictional novel with the Theory of Constraints as its main focus. I loved the fact that the author included a plot concerning the manager of the plant and his relationship with his wife because that also created another interesting aspect and provided quite a few breaks from the more in-depth, conceptual sections. Overall I give this book 5 stars! Don't be afraid if you have to read this book for a college class or some kind of assignment... you will enjoy it!

A very well written book for anyone involved in the management area of manufacturing. It is uncanny how close the details in this book compare to my day to day experiences. Very entertaining, educational and I highly recommend this reading.

This is a method to improve (production) processes. It also can show you to better manage a department, shop etc. The nice thing however, is that it is not written as a scientific book, but as a novel. The plot is simple. Alex Rogo -plantmanager- has to improve his business in a limited time. If he fails, the plant will shutdown. Together with his staff, he succeeds to turn the downgoing line, and make the plant a good running one!!! I would also recommend, if you missed reading TIN0 GEORGIOU'S masterpiece--THE FATES, go and read it. With fascinating and brilliantly created characters in `THE FATES' coupled with two intertwining plots makes for a completely enjoyable and page-turning read.

Other recommended titles: The Fates: A Novel

I bought this book because it is necessary for my Operation class. But I do not like to read the old story took place over 20 years ago.

Reading a text book has never been so much fun. I read this during my MBA classes. Why won't every author write their book and drive the point home with such fun stories that don't just drive the point home, but also keep it there forever?

"The Goal" is a hilarious novel but with a serious business message particularly with respect to production/operations management. The author expertly wove an intricate story about a plant manager (Alex Rogo) whose factory and marriage are failing into a compelling and convincing explanation about how to deal with constraints and bottlenecks effectively, not only in business but also in everyday life. This is a good captivating read particularly for those who find reading business and management books to be dry and having a soporific effect.

Alex Rogo's life is made very difficult by bottlenecks, constraints, excess inventories and pressure from management that demands efficiency in the factory operations. However, through mastering the theory of constraints (TOC), the appreciation of a business as a system, the effective use of industrial engineering techniques as well as common sense, Alex and his team overcome the problems.

This is an enlightening book that is easy to read and understand for people particularly those who a new to managing an organization. You will learn about the goal of an organization, waste (and how to avoid it), cost structures, team utilization, supply chain bottlenecks, identify improvements, work prioritization and enhance efficiencies.

You will get the most from this book if you also read the Toyota Production System which can fix many of the problems highlighted in this book. Among the highlights of the Toyota Production System are the Just-in-Time inventory system, production leveling, multi-skilling, the pull method of production planning which provides a more comprehensive approach to manufacturing operations. Another useful investment is to get a copy of the classic book "The Fifth Discipline" by Peter Senge (if you have not yet read it). Senge proposes the "systems thinking" method to help companies to become "learning organizations" that integrates all personnel levels and functions (such as production, human resources, finance etc) to increase the ability of the organisation to be more productive and effective.

In summary, this is an outstanding book packed with insightful wisdom that I recommend to employees at all levels in an organization as well as students studying business.

I received this product in good time and condition. Brand New. Saved quite a bit of money over the campus book store price.

The Goal is a well-written book, broadly applicable to anyone in business and to an extent life in general. It is a no-nonsense novel, utilizing and exploring real-life situations and personalities. What I liked most about the book is the integration of "scientific" approach to business, how assumptions are constantly questioned, explored, and reformulated, and how the human element is, albeit slightly, interwoven.

While the most benefit clearly is in manufacturing context, I find the book to be useful and I work in professional services. I akin the Theory of Constraints ("bottleneck management") to Stephen Covey's example of "moving big rocks", hence the applicability to life in general. Said another way, I believe one must focus on the things that are most constraining (the boundaries), and this method of thought is explored in The Goal. The book also interweaves personal experiences into the "core" business theme, which allows for some examination of life outside of work and of course personalizes the story.

Overall, great book and a suggested read for sure.

If you told me that a story about cost accounting in a factory would be interesting I would say you are nutts. However this story is extremely will written & entertaining thru the first 80%. The finish concerning philosophy could be left off.
I would listen to the book until I reached the end of a chapter because it was interesting even when I had arrived at my driving distination.
I do have an accounting background so that may affect my opinion.

The Goal is a fascinating book about the Theory of Constraints which was introduced to the world by Eliyahu Goldratt. I must admit the title didn't appeal much to me, but bought it anyway because it was recommended highly. After reading it, I realized that the title was perfect since it plays well into the questioning that needs to take place in order to identify the constraint or bottleneck in an organization. The book is written as a novel, which makes the book a lot easier to read and also a lot more entertaining
Alex Rogo is a plant manager and at the beginning of the novel is greeted at his plant by the VP who informs him that his production numbers need to improve or they will be shutting down the plant. Of course, during all this mess Rogo is also going through a rocky marriage and throughout the book the reader is taken through the struggle of both issues.
Alex seeks advice from an old Physicist from Israel named Jonah. Jonah takes Alex through the Socratic method of analysis which is the way Alex then communicates with his management team to solve the issues causing the low throughput in the factory. The conversations that take place between Jonah, Alex and the entire management team are extremely interesting and informative. I wonder how often this level of discussion actually takes place, but it sure makes for interesting reading.
A lot of the applications of the theory of constraints, although they take place in the factory, could be easily implemented in all industries.
Mr. Goldratt has written a business book that will remain relevant for many years to come. I highly recommend this incredible business book. Anyone who does business consulting and does not read and use the information on this book is doing his/her clients a great disservice.

This book is not only entertaining and educational, but in actuality represents some of the manufacturing organizations today. It teaches many lessons and fundamentals that one can apply to improve his company. It touches on topics that are highly practiced on the field of industrial and manufacturing companies such as bottleneck operation, process scheduling, theory of constraints, and batch processing. The book transitions from a division plant being in trouble of closing down to its complete turnaround to become not only the most productive division plant, but the plant that saved the company. I thoroughly enjoyed the way Goldratt systematically went through the process of improvement and methods that the plant manager utilized to turn around his division plant. Having studied these topics that the book touched upon prior to reading made it easy for me to see the relevance of what was going on through out the novel. I strongly feel that the insight this novel gave me in regards to the process of ongoing improvement is something that I will be able make good use off in my career.

I expected the Goal to be a typical business book, however was surprised that it was an easy read, most likely because it was in novel form. I was also surprised at the relatable characters and how the plot was developed to include both his professional and personal life. Goldratt did a good job at making the concepts of the story easily understandable, well described, and generally applicable to many different situations. Because of Goldratt's introduction and explanation of the different problem solving methods, the book can be understood by anyone who has a basic knowledge of industry. Overall I thought the book was well written to keep the readers attention and universally relevant and beneficial to anyone in the industry (managers, engineers, operators, etc.). I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in new ideas that can help increase efficiency, understand how to improve systems, and problem solving.

This book is a story about a plant manager which has to turn his plant around before they shut it down. However this book shows and explains many different options available on improving a plant. Like determining the bottleneck in a plant and increasing throughput and decreasing inventory. This book also talks about the theory of constraints (TOC)which is a vital problem in the plant. Also this books shows how stressful it is being in his position and having to deal with his family. Overall this book was really useful and is a really good book. It shows how many plants are across the country. I would recomend this book to all engineering students and anyone else how is in upper management.

The book talked about how to solve problems that I believe many companies face on their production line. I believe this book is very good book for not only people in industries but also for students to learn and see how they can use their knowledge to solve problems that industries faced. This book talks about theory of constraints which is the core problem of many companies along with bottleneck situation. By reading this book I now can see it clearly how all the classes that I took in school are so related in the real life. This book is awesome. Recommended not only for students and industries, but also for those who want to add knowledge to them.

TOC Overview
Defying conventional opinion which says that books on business must be boring, Eli Goldratt introduced to the world his "Theory of Constraints" in this novel published in 1984. Highly readable, the book uses layman's terms to present an unorthodox approach to improving competitive advantage. The novel is written about a manufacturing plant, but its philosophy can be applied to any company that relies on a production process. The book has been called a "Socratic" novel because Goldratt uses a sort of teacher-student discourse method to explain his theories. Today, generally referred to as the TOC (Theory of Constraints) or constraint management, Goldratt's philosophy attempts to re-focus production processes on the single-most important goal common to all free-market business: making money.

The TOC's greatest appeal is its logical simplicity. Like other operation improvement programs, Goldratt is also concerned with reducing waste and generating/sustaining competitive advantage. But Goldratt's perspective is different from other management systems because he approaches the problem with a clean slate. Leaving all traditional operations management jargon behind, Goldratt starts from scratch with both his definitions and his analysis. Nothing in The Goal requires an understanding of abstract business or economic theory. Everything has an immediate application, and Goldratt explains every concept using a real-life analogy. No doubt his background as a physicist contributes to this tendency. By his own admission, he thought of "science as nothing more than an understanding of the way the world is and why it is that way." Likewise, his exploration of an under-performing manufacturing plant in The Goal is a simple yet profound look at how a process works, and why.
The TOC is based on three fundamental principles, and Eli's theory suggests that all companies which keep these premises in mind will make money:
1. The only reason that companies do anything is to make money.
2. Anything that a company does to speed up the processes that generate money is appropriate.
3. Each business operation is one big process with many sub-processes.

The constraint theory is nested with these principles in that all sub-processes of the operation are defined by how much each one limits total production. The most limiting factors are identified hierarchically as constraints. If non-constraint aspects of the process (whether that be a machine or a worker) need to sit idle sometimes in order to match pace with the constraints, that's okay. In fact, it's a necessity or else excess inventory and higher work-in-progress (WIP) levels will result.
Oftentimes, where operations, accounting, and marketing interface within a company presents a conflict of interest, and Goldratt's book contains several examples of this. Performance measurements such as machine productivity stats, for example, are sometimes meaningless indicators because they don't contribute or even correlate to the company's goal. Alex, the plant supervisor, begins to realize this fact when he tries to impress his mentor, Jonah, by telling him how his plant now uses robots at one of the process stations and productivity in that area improved by 36%. Jonah astutely responds by asking if any of the workers were laid off, or if the plant was selling any more products. Alex admits that neither of these had occurred, yet. Jonah then predicted, correctly, that Alex's plant had an excess inventory problem. Adding robots to a non-constraint area didn't increase overall production, it only increased WIP and total production time.

As Goldratt illustrates through Alex's trials and triumphs at the plant, the most fundamental principle of TOC is that all processes must be subordinate to the ultimate goal of making money. The performance measurements of that goal are:
1. Net Profit - an absolute measurement in dollars
2. Return on Investment (ROI) - a relative measure based on investment
3. Cash Flow - a survival measurement

Notice the absence of metrics such as station productivity or worker utilization. Goldratt helps managers mired in traditional thought re-vamp their definitions of performance indicators and the way managers look at making money. Goldratt makes use of three common terms, the correct understanding of which are key to comprehending any business process: throughput, inventory, and operating expenses.

Throughput is the rate at which the system generates money through sales (not the rate of production!). Throughput equals sales revenue minus direct materials cost - it measures the speed at which the company makes money. Inventory is all the money that the system has invested in purchasing things which it intends to sell, or the money currently inside the system. It is the raw materials value tied up in work in progress and unsold finished goods. Large amounts of inventory are undesirable because it means that the company has spent money for product that hasn't generated revenue yet. Put simply, inventory is money. Operational expense is all the money the system spends in order to turn inventory into throughput. This is the money the company must pay out to make throughput happen. All costs of operations other than direct materials costs are operational expenses. The objective is not to reduce operational expense by itself, or improve one measurement in isolation. To achieve the goal, a company must "increase throughput while simultaneously reducing both inventory and operating expense."

Contrary to previous thought on the subject, all production stations achieving max productivity, or all workers working all the time, is a sign that the business as a whole system may be running inefficiently. The sum is greater than its parts. Full utilization of any non-constraint will produce more work in progress than the constraint can handle. This is where TOC differentiates itself from other operations management systems such as TQM and Lean which focus on eliminating waste in every possible corner of the business, speeding up every process increasing "efficiencies". What the TOC does, by contrast, is attempt to increase total system efficiency.

With this in mind, Goldratt details the "how" behind this theory using Five Focusing Steps. These steps should be followed in order by any business considering using the TOC in a way similar to how Alex did in the book. These steps accomplish incremental improvement to the overall operation.
1. Identify the system's constraint(s), and prioritize them according to importance. In this step, the "Herbies" of the plant are identified, so named after an analogy Goldratt uses in the book to explain how the whole operation is only as fast as it's slowest sub-process. The slowest boyscout, Herbie, causes a backlog of hikers on a narrow trail while the faster boys in front of him get further and further ahead. Herbie is a bottleneck.
2. Exploit the system's most critical constraint. In this step, the company looks for ways to get maximum output from the constraint, usually by proper scheduling and control so that the constraint station only works on good inputs. Waste of time and effort occurred in the book when the constraint spent valuable time working on production items that were scrapped by QC later down the line.
3. Subordinate everything else to that constraint. In this step, the whole operations is slowed down to the pace of the constraint. All operation improvement opportunities that would increase productivity of a non-constraint should not be invested in (like the expensive robots which only served to increase WIP inventory).
4. Elevate the system's constraints. Elevating the constraint means to find methods of increasing the capacity of the constraint, such as:
a. Performing regular maintenance on the constraint to prevent breakdowns.
b. Running the constraint for extra shifts.
c. Automating the constraint.
5. Repeat steps 1-4, focusing on a different constraint. However, Goldratt says to be wary of allowing inertia to become the bottleneck itself. Constantly look for the next system constraint, break it, and repeat.
(Goldratt, 1984)

SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
Strengths
The most prominent strengths of Goldratt's philosophy, already discussed briefly, are that it's philosophy is simple and its approach to understanding the whole production system is intuitive, logical, and yet profound. However, the theory has been the topic of many optimistic reviews (even after twenty years) because it provides very immediate and positive results to companies. By nature, focusing on the weakest and most critical link in any production chain will generate the greatest amount of improvement in a short amount of time (Spector, 2006).
Weaknesses
One of the weaknesses, or difficulties, inherent to the Theory of Constraints is that multiple bottlenecks can occur within a plant, and sometimes bottlenecks manifest themselves at different workstations at different times, particularly in a balanced plant. Achieving an unbalanced plant is what many manufacturers should, but do not do. Balancing capacity across a sequence of processes; attempting to match capacity with market demand at each work station, is usually detrimental to the system as a whole. Goldratt uses the "match bowl" game to illustrate how floating bottlenecks can occur in a balanced plant. A series of bowls is set on a table (each one representing a station). Matches represent product inventory and one die is used to simulate statistical fluctuations (variation) in performance at each workstation. The bowls are a series of dependent events and each operation has the same capacity (six products per day, or six matches). Each player has a workstation (bowl), and rolls the die to determine how many matches he can take from the previous player's bowl (representing one day's production). On the next turn, each player rolls the die, and again he can only pick up as many matches as are in the previous player's bowl even if he rolled a higher number. The demonstration shows that in a series of dependent events, where each operation has the same amount of capacity (a "balanced" plant), the variation will cause the bottleneck to move from operation to operation (bowl to bowl). Goldratt knew this and combated it by suggesting a version of continuous improvement (see Step Five of the Focusing Steps). It's important to realize that balancing each workstation in isolation against max production will cause excess WIP inventory and bottlenecks. Another weakness/difficulty in implementing TOC is that it is often met with significant emotional resistance, especially by institutionalized business minds. It is difficult to introduce anything knew, especially a philosophy that seems counter-intuitive and unorthodox at the outset. In the book, Alex encounters this defense mechanism amongst his peers and superiors. Goldratt recommends using the Socratic method (the way Jonah does) to elicit the answers from people's own minds, rather than preaching the new methodology. All parts of an organization need to decide together on how best to proceed - if accounting, for example, is kept in the dark, they're likely to be even more hostile towards the new performance metrics.
Opportunities
The opportunities that TOC presents are exciting, especially when applied to old management accounting techniques. There are many accounting "truths" that Goldratt deconstructs quite effectively in his book (Hendricks, 2005). Traditionally, all sub-process improvements were seen as a good thing, but according to Goldratt, "improvement" expenses are wasted if they are spent on non-constraints. Also, another favorite accounting metric, station productivity, can actually lead the plant to make adjustment that detract from the total operating efficiency of the system (or plant).
Threats
The Theory of Constraints, when implemented, is often faced with both internal and external threats. Without everyone "on board," so to speak, it's all to easy to succumb to traditional thought and conventional practices. However, using some uncommon sense and logic in overcoming some of the more prevalent misconceptions is necessary in order to produce results, and ultimately, achieve the goal of making money. It's important to remember that the "TOC is not a panacea for everything. It's not going to solve cultural problems within an organization."

Associated Concepts
Goldratt introduced a new set of jargon to the world of operations management, not afraid to use some rather odd-sounding phrases (e.g., "Jonah," "Evaporating Cloud," or "Reality Tree"). Unfortunately in the early years of development, the Israeli physicist and his unorthodox (but successful) publication of the first business novel ever combined to create an aura of quirkiness amongst the managers who followed his philosophy. In an attempt to "de-cultize" the TOC, it is more commonly referred to as "constraint management." In recent years, constraint management has become a highly applicable business philosophy that can be applied to almost any profit or non-profit organization, and has even been successfully merged into Lean and SixSigma to amplify results.

Potential Areas of Application
The most successful applications of constraint management have occurred in highly competitive industries such as the low-cost airline business and the hardware technology production business. One example of this success is Seagate Technology LLC, a hard disk drive producer with 42,000 employees worldwide. The company experienced unprecedented results after adopting both Six Sigma and later, constraints management. After introducing SixSigma in 1998 and experiencing positive but plateaued results, Seagate's projects lacked the prioritization and the constraint focus that the TOC could, and did, provide. After superimposing the principles of constraint management on top of it's already-established system of SixSigma, the company increased production completion by 80%, and the number of projects completed in three months or less (half the time of the company's previous average of 6 months), was increased by 70% in just 90 days. Constraint management looks at the system as a whole, identifies limiting factors, and works to ensure a harmonious "team" operation of all workstations within the production line. Also called "synchronous manufacturing," (in contrast to the dated notion of a "balanced" plant), Goldratt's approach revolutionized the way operations managers and accountants work in unison to achieve the Goal.

A very interesting book. I am currently studying for my CIMA exams and have found it very useful. An interesting way to learn (reading a novel with accounting principles behind it).

THE GOAL is written as a novel to help the reader understand the significance of the Theory of Constraints (TOC) in an actual business environment. Therefore, the reader needs to keep in mind this book is useful as an instructional tool not as an entertaining work of fiction. The main character, Alex Rogo, is the newly appointed, highly educated manager of a plant that's always behind schedule with really high cost. Alex must balance his efforts to save both the failing plant and his marriage.

Jonah, Alex's mentor, represents Goldratt. He consistently provides guidance to Alex- not by giving him the answer, rather, by providing a simple hint that encourages Alex to think about a viable solution for the plant. Alex finds this Socratic Method to be useful to pinpoint the various problems within the plant and finds it is also useful to determine what the problems are with his failing marriage. Rather than find this insulting, it is a great example of how TOC and the Socratic Method can be used in many areas.

The most favorable element of this book is the ability to follow Alex's thinking process. If Jonah were to spoon-feed Alex the answers, the reader would probably take for granted the difficulty in the bottleneck evaluation process of a business or any process. The pace of the book is great as well. It's slow enough to follow the logic of the entire problem resolution process, but fast enough where the reader is not bored by an over examination of detail. One factor I did find frustrating is the fear of failure Alex possesses. He was promoted because of his abilities and experience. However, he is afraid of making a decision without the guidance of Jonah. This does change midway in the novel when Jonah is unavailable for one of their pow-wow sessions and Alex is forced to play the role of Jonah with his team. It is during this time that he shows his charisma and why he is the team leader.

This book is a nice novel about a factory manager encountering typical problems in his company as: bad delivery performance, low quality and high cost. The story itself builds on the theory of constraints and covers many aspects, addressed by modern manufacturing insights from Quick-Response-Manufcturing (bottle-neck problems and its improvement, wrong understanding of utilisation at workstations, misleading accounting policies, hot-job disturbances, design for manufacturing, purchase and lot size flaws, queueing theory, influence of labour unions, tagging jobs etc.).

Even though the book will not provide the explicit theory behind the scene, it describes very well the problems we often find in companies even this days. The book covers not only softfactors than contains a lot of true findings about accounting and the often misleading interpretation of numbers we still have in the 21st century.

For people interested in operational improvement you should read books as Quick-Response-Manufacturing, Factory Physics or others. I read this book already 4 times and as your knowledge about the "mechanics" of operations grows, the book will be even more interesting, because for most of the problems arising in this novel you will recognize the flaw behind traditional thinking and what could be the solution.

What I liked most in the book is, that you always have to go where the problems are - so this is nothing else than the japanese genchi genbutsu (go see your self). Whether you work in operations ore anywhere, asking always questions about what is really going on and questioning of traditions and old policies often leads to real improvements.

May be one of the niciest business novels ever,
Best Regards,

Oliver

My accounting professor assigned this book, saying it is required reading for Harvard MBA school along with many other schools and new hires in business. However, the further I progressed in the book the more and more I wondered how that is possible. The writing style is for children. Eliyahu Goldratt is very juvenile in the way he handles descriptions, sentence structure, internal monologue, etc. The plot is very cliche and predictable. The main character, who is supposedly highly educated and is a factory manager, thinks and acts as if he never attended a day of class. His wife, the leading woman in the story, is the weakest female character I have ever seen in a book or movie.

In my class, many people postulated that this book was not meant to be a novel, as much as an example for the importance of the theory of constraints. But even if that is true, the probability that the initial circumstances in the book would coexist is of such low possibility, that I would safely say it is outside the relevant range. Therefore, trying to read this book to gain knowledge or insight into optimization or manufacturing is very hampered and wasted time. If you want to learn something about theory of constraints, I recommend reading a math optimization textbook instead.

Although I am not in manufactuing fields, this book still inspires me in many ways. This is a must read for any MBA-bound.

Good book in general, but personally it was a textbook for our class..

I realize it's not just a course requirement and that some business people may actually want to read this book. it does give some interesting perspectives and I would recomment it for someone who's interested in the material. Not real entertaining, but does give you soem unique perspectives on business processes.

I have read a lot of management/process books and I have to say I enjoyed this one. The points are made by telling a story. Great book for people in companies looking at lean manufacturing.

I would recommend this book to most people in business school and to any business owners involved in manufacturing. For the business owners, I think that after reading it, you will strongly recommend that your employees read it.