The Goal is a fiction novel written by Eliyahu Goldratt and Jeff Cox.

The story
is about a man Alex Rogo, who is a plant manager at a manufacturing
company,
UniCo. Rogo is faced with the company losing money over his plant. He is
given an
ultimatum by Bill Peach, the division vicepresident, to increase production
levels
and profit in order to keep the plant running, Rogo is given three months to
do so.
What Rogo doesnt know at the time is that the whole division is struggling
and may
be dropped by the company. Rogo spends so much time at work trying to
figure out
how to make the plant successful, that it interferes with his home life. Rogo
continues to neglect his wife, which he has done since taking this position six
months ago. At the current time of crisis he spends nights at work coming
home to a
sleeping family on a daily basis. Rogos wife becomes so frustrated with his
behavior after warning him, she leaves for a while, leaving the children with
Rogo.
Rogo comes in contact with an old Physics professor of his Jonah, while Rogo
is on his way to speak about the new robotics used in his plant. Jonah is
currently
working with the science of organizationsmanufacturing organizations in
particular (29). Jonah begins to talk to Rogo about the production levels of
his
plant since obtaining the robots. To Rogos disbelief Jonah proves to him that
production has not gone up, while inventory and operating expense have.
Rogo is
enlightened by Jonahs new way of thinking of production in the
manufacturing
field. Rogo begins to question his plants ways and consults his newly created
team
of helpers in his time of crisis, Lou, the plant controller, Stacey Potazenik
inventory
manager, and Bob Donovan, floor manager. Alex figures out that the goal of
the
plant is to make money, everything that is done in the plant is in order to get
a
profit, that is what they are working towards, and now he needs to focus his
efforts
on achieving this.
Rogo and his group analyze the bottlenecks and nonbottlenecks in their
plant, the constraints and nonconstraints. A bottleneck, Jonah continues,
is any
resource whose capacity is equal to or less than the demand placed upon it.
And a
nonbottleneck is any resource whose capacity is greater than the demand
placed on
it, (139).
In order to achieve his goal the plant must simultaneously reduce inventory,
reduce operating expenses, and increase throughput, which is that which can
be
sold. With Jonahs help the team finds ways to increase capacity with their
bottlenecks by using nonbottle necks for processing, have quality control in
front of
the bottlenecks, and run the bottlenecks during idle time of the workers. This
process becomes known as the Theory of Constraints where; one identifies
their
constraints, exploits their constraint increasing output, subordinates
everything else

so not to limit the entire output by making the bottlenecks have to wait,
elevates the
systems constraints meaning increase throughput, and then repeats with
new
constraints that come along with increased throughput. In the end Rogo
winds up
taking Bill Peachs vicepresident position and is back with his wife. Rogo
saves his
plant.
This book is a good tool to explain complex managerial subject matter to
uninterested students or readers. Goldratt is able to achieve this with the
way he
writes keeping the subject light by incorporating his family life and personal
interaction with the problems more dominant than technical descriptions. It
was
easier to read because of this, but I found myself wanting to skip parts
because I felt
that it wasnt going to help me with my major. I just wanted to get down to
the
theory, but if I had I would not have found it as interesting. People praise this
book
for how Goldratt could propose such a complex matter through a novel, but I
felt
that the subject of what he had in the novel pertaining to his family would
deter
people from becoming involved in management in the manufacturing
business. I
was most disturbed when Rogo did not know the goal of the company was to
make
money. I found myself several times throughout the book answering his
questions
pages in advance to him, which made me feel that Goldratt dumbed it
down too
much in some areas. I am also confused as to why if this theory was so
successful
wouldnt Jonah have published it and all companies be working under these
constraint rules. I also am confused as to whether Goldratt is in fact the
originator
of the idea of the theory of constraints or he has just used it as his subject
matter.