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The Goal
機械メーカーの工場長である主人公のアレックス・ロゴを中心に繰り広げられる工場の業務改善プロセスを主題にした小説。通常、アメリカでベストセラーとなったビジネス書は、すぐに日本語に翻訳されるものだが、本書は世界で250万部売れたにもかかわらず、17年もの間日本での出版だけが認められなかった。いわば「幻の名著」である。
長引く経営の悪化、工場閉鎖までたった3か月の猶予期間、多忙な日々のなかないがしろにしてきた妻との離婚の危機…。アレックスは、あまりの危機的状況にすっかり意気消沈していた。その前に、モデルは著者と目される恩師、ジョナが現れ、彼にアドバイスを与える。工場を救うために業務改善に挑む登場人物の苦悩や目標達成の興奮が伝わってきて、ビジネスの醍醐味を感じさせるストーリーだ。
本書は小説ではあるが、その内容は恐ろしいほど実践的で、会計情報の正しい見方や落とし穴、「効率化」の陰に隠された諸問題を浮き彫りにする。魅力的なストーリーの中に複雑な業務改善のノウハウがわかりやすい形で盛り込まれており、ビジネスパーソンやマネジャー必読の内容である。
また本書は、問題解決にあたってはゴールを共有し、信念を貫くことが重要であること、数字の陰に隠された実態を見抜くことの重要性、情報共有化の意義など、経営において重要な示唆も与えてくれる。
本書が長い間日本で出版されなかった理由については、「解説」で著者エリヤフ・ゴールドラットのコメントが引用されている。それによると、「日本人は、部分最適の改善にかけては世界で超一級だ。その日本人に『ザ・ゴール』に書いたような全体最適化の手法を教えてしまったら、貿易摩擦が再燃して世界経済が大混乱に陥る」というのが出版を拒否し続けた理由らしい。
本気か冗談か知らないが、いずれにしろ、アメリカが出し惜しみするほどの名著を日本語でも読めるというのは非常に喜ばしいことである。（土井英司）
552 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2000
5261 people are currently reading
94165 people want to read
About the author
Eliyahu M. Goldratt
36 books707 followersEliyahu Moshe Goldratt (Hebrew: אליהו משה גולדרט) was an educator, author, physicist, philosopher and business leader, but first and foremost, he was a thinker who provoked others to think. Often characterized as unconventional, stimulating, and “a slayer of sacred cows,” he urged his audience to examine and reassess their business practices with a fresh, new vision.
Dr. Goldratt is best known as the father of the Theory of Constraints (TOC), a process of ongoing improvement that identifies and leverages a system’s constraints in order to achieve the system’s goals. He introduced TOC’s underlying concepts in his business novel, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, which has been recognized as one of the best-selling business books of all time. First published in 1984, The Goal has been updated three times and sold more than 7 million copies worldwide. It has been translated into 35 languages.
Heralded as a “guru to industry” by Fortune magazine and “a genius” by Business Week, Dr. Goldratt continued to advance the TOC body of knowledge throughout his life, building on the Five Focusing Steps (the process of ongoing improvement, known as POOGI) with TOC-derived tools such as Drum-Buffer-Rope, Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) and the Thinking Processes. He authored ten other TOC-related books, including four business novels: It’s Not Luck (the sequel to The Goal), Critical Chain, Necessary but Not Sufficient and Isn’t It Obvious? His last book, The Choice, was co-authored by his daughter Efrat Ashlang-Goldratt.
Born in Israel on March 31, 1947, Dr. Goldratt earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Tel Aviv University and a Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy from Bar-Ilan University. He is the founder of TOC for Education, a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing TOC Thinking and TOC tools to teachers and their students, and Goldratt Consulting. In addition to his pioneering work in business management and education, Dr. Goldratt holds patents in a number of areas ranging from medical devices to drip irrigation to temperature sensors. He died on June 11, 2011, at the age of 64.
Dr. Goldratt is best known as the father of the Theory of Constraints (TOC), a process of ongoing improvement that identifies and leverages a system’s constraints in order to achieve the system’s goals. He introduced TOC’s underlying concepts in his business novel, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, which has been recognized as one of the best-selling business books of all time. First published in 1984, The Goal has been updated three times and sold more than 7 million copies worldwide. It has been translated into 35 languages.
Heralded as a “guru to industry” by Fortune magazine and “a genius” by Business Week, Dr. Goldratt continued to advance the TOC body of knowledge throughout his life, building on the Five Focusing Steps (the process of ongoing improvement, known as POOGI) with TOC-derived tools such as Drum-Buffer-Rope, Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) and the Thinking Processes. He authored ten other TOC-related books, including four business novels: It’s Not Luck (the sequel to The Goal), Critical Chain, Necessary but Not Sufficient and Isn’t It Obvious? His last book, The Choice, was co-authored by his daughter Efrat Ashlang-Goldratt.
Born in Israel on March 31, 1947, Dr. Goldratt earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Tel Aviv University and a Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy from Bar-Ilan University. He is the founder of TOC for Education, a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing TOC Thinking and TOC tools to teachers and their students, and Goldratt Consulting. In addition to his pioneering work in business management and education, Dr. Goldratt holds patents in a number of areas ranging from medical devices to drip irrigation to temperature sensors. He died on June 11, 2011, at the age of 64.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,459 reviews
May 23, 2014
Great explanation of the theory of constraints and operations management. It's a business classic- first published in 1984 - but still relevant as it gets at the fundamentals. I almost removed a star for trying to create a fictional story to tell the book in that was badly told/edited. Did we really need the side story about the protagonists marital issues?
One of the biggest takeaways from this book is that it's incredibly important to set the right goals to manage a complex operation. This sounds obvious and intuitive, however it's actually much harder than most people think, and easy to get wrong. It gets down to the question of: is everyone working on the "right things". The things that will lead to the business making the most money. It's too easy to find a things that are easily measurable and saying "this thing is correlated with our success, so let's focus on it". It sounds like "cost accounting" fit into that bucket.
“What you’re saying is that making an employee work and profiting from that work are two different things.”
So how do you set the right goals? Focus on making money!
“So this is the goal: To make money by increasing net profit, while simultaneously increasing return on investment, and simultaneously increasing cash flow.”
One of the drivers of making money in any business that creates a product is throughput, or how fast a product can be made. The others are costs/operating expenses, and inventory. One of the key concepts of the book is that focusing on throughput rather than costs will yield much better results.
“The entire bottleneck concept is not geared to decrease operating expense, it’s focused on increasing throughput.”
The bottleneck theory, or the theory of constraints, was very useful to think about. My company produces software and not physical products, but each feature we develop definitely has steps it has to go through: creating the concept, research, spec, design, implementation (backend and client), testing, QA, measure results, analyze them, iterate, etc. Focusing on where the bottlenecks are with that process can help us move faster. And every startup needs to be moving fast - and not just at building - we need to be doing build, measure, learn as fast as we can.
A consequence of the bottleneck theory that is useful to keep in mind is that in any system only the bottlenecks should be 100% utilized. Every manager will have a natural tendency to want to utilize all their resources to 100% because that just seems... wasteful if you don't. People should be working full time right? But a system can only run at the speed of the slowest bottleneck, so non-bottlenecks will by definition have spare cycles, and it's important to keep them open for the important work and not fill it up with unimportant stuff that will bog them down when you actually need them on the important stuff.
I've seen this happen many times in software. An engineer finishes a project, and the big important project coming from the design team isn't done yet, so he picks up something small in the meantime. The next day that big important project is ready to go, but the engineer only needs "one more day" to finish this thing he started. And then that day becomes two and then three (because we didn't count QA). And then we've lost 3 days on our most important project for another project that doesn't matter at all. Add that up across a large number of developers, and you've lost a lot of time.
The theory of constraints is not limited to manufacturing, as the author shows. In the end, he is advocating it as a method or process of learning.
STEP 1. Identify the system’s bottlenecks.
STEP 2. Decide how to exploit the bottlenecks.
STEP 3. Subordinate everything else to the above decision.
STEP 4. Elevate the system’s bottlenecks.
STEP 5. If, in a previous step, a bottleneck has been broken go back to step 1.
One of the biggest takeaways from this book is that it's incredibly important to set the right goals to manage a complex operation. This sounds obvious and intuitive, however it's actually much harder than most people think, and easy to get wrong. It gets down to the question of: is everyone working on the "right things". The things that will lead to the business making the most money. It's too easy to find a things that are easily measurable and saying "this thing is correlated with our success, so let's focus on it". It sounds like "cost accounting" fit into that bucket.
“What you’re saying is that making an employee work and profiting from that work are two different things.”
So how do you set the right goals? Focus on making money!
“So this is the goal: To make money by increasing net profit, while simultaneously increasing return on investment, and simultaneously increasing cash flow.”
One of the drivers of making money in any business that creates a product is throughput, or how fast a product can be made. The others are costs/operating expenses, and inventory. One of the key concepts of the book is that focusing on throughput rather than costs will yield much better results.
“The entire bottleneck concept is not geared to decrease operating expense, it’s focused on increasing throughput.”
The bottleneck theory, or the theory of constraints, was very useful to think about. My company produces software and not physical products, but each feature we develop definitely has steps it has to go through: creating the concept, research, spec, design, implementation (backend and client), testing, QA, measure results, analyze them, iterate, etc. Focusing on where the bottlenecks are with that process can help us move faster. And every startup needs to be moving fast - and not just at building - we need to be doing build, measure, learn as fast as we can.
A consequence of the bottleneck theory that is useful to keep in mind is that in any system only the bottlenecks should be 100% utilized. Every manager will have a natural tendency to want to utilize all their resources to 100% because that just seems... wasteful if you don't. People should be working full time right? But a system can only run at the speed of the slowest bottleneck, so non-bottlenecks will by definition have spare cycles, and it's important to keep them open for the important work and not fill it up with unimportant stuff that will bog them down when you actually need them on the important stuff.
I've seen this happen many times in software. An engineer finishes a project, and the big important project coming from the design team isn't done yet, so he picks up something small in the meantime. The next day that big important project is ready to go, but the engineer only needs "one more day" to finish this thing he started. And then that day becomes two and then three (because we didn't count QA). And then we've lost 3 days on our most important project for another project that doesn't matter at all. Add that up across a large number of developers, and you've lost a lot of time.
The theory of constraints is not limited to manufacturing, as the author shows. In the end, he is advocating it as a method or process of learning.
STEP 1. Identify the system’s bottlenecks.
STEP 2. Decide how to exploit the bottlenecks.
STEP 3. Subordinate everything else to the above decision.
STEP 4. Elevate the system’s bottlenecks.
STEP 5. If, in a previous step, a bottleneck has been broken go back to step 1.
March 3, 2013
I have never been so excited to finish a book in my entire life. This book is like subpar fan-fic for operations enthusiasts.
Read
March 27, 2020It is hard for me to find the right tone to review this book, perhaps I'll open by saying that of all the business books I've read this remains the most approachable, and possibly also the best value for money once the case studies in the interview with the author at the end of the book (in this edition) are taken into account.
Really it is built around a very simple insight - that the speed of a convoy is determined by the slowest ship, what the book does is demonstrate the effect of consistently applying this insight to the workings of a business.
This is the basis of Goldratt's theory of constraints. On the whole human life exists within the triple constraints of time, cost and quality . For example if a house is built quickly at low cost the quality will be low, if you want a high quality house built quickly you have to be prepared to pay for it, or compromise on the time it will take. Goldratt has the idea of focusing on a constraint and redesigning the business around it.
The Goal is a novel, a groanworthy and terrible and didactic novel, a combination which makes it a success because it doesn't take itself entirely seriously . I cannot recommend reading this book highly enough as an opener to thinking about the flow of work through organisations, how organisations succeed or become dysfunctional. It's intended as a gentle introduction to the Theory of Constraints, but also opens the door to systems thinking. Editions with the extra interviews with how different businesses have applied Theory of Constraints are particularly enlightening and worth getting hold of.
The one message of the book that I found especially interesting was that eventually the greatest constraint on the fictional business in the novel is not its potential productivity but the capacity of the market to absorb its products. What I find interesting is that this is a message about the limits of the market in a business book. Maybe the boosters are correct and the ability of capitalism to invent products is near unlimited, maybe potential economic expansion could be extremely great however all that is irrelevant. The determining factor will be the size of the market. Or the inventiveness of advertisers to persuade us to want more junk.
There is a sequel: It's Not Luck which I don't find as successful a novel, partly because it is less groan-inducing and more worthy in tone but also because it doesn't go through the steps of the characters problem solving efforts in the same level of detail.
I suppose one reason why I am enthusiastic about The Goal is the part it plays in my thinking about the Industrial Revolution. There was nothing new in principle about the technologies of steam power, what changed was the ability of the market to consume - producing more is a high road to insolvency unless you can find the customers to buy your product. There maybe is the key, the world of The Goal, like our own, operates in a particular historical and sociological context, rather than a fantasy in which economic growth "to infinity and beyond", in the immortal words of Buzz Lightyear, is the solid basis in which all assumptions are rooted.
An example of the realism of the thinking in The Goal is that at one point the protagonist is faced with the possibility of a price war - competing with other manufacturers on the basis of price alone - but this is something that he doesn't want to do. By contrast I notice from time to time the adverts for a UK furniture store which promise the purchaser that they will have nothing to pay for a year, four years free credit, or even both. A market strategy predicated on a loving relationship with their funders. Then again it strikes me from time to time just how fantastical real life is.
On the other hand there's a more basic reason why I like it. I was never any good at Maths in school and so it was from this book that I learnt that when looking at figures if the answer looks wrong, what you need to do is think about the assumptions rather than just check the calculation. It is impressive where adding up the wrong figures in the right way will get you, individually or as a society.
Really it is built around a very simple insight - that the speed of a convoy is determined by the slowest ship, what the book does is demonstrate the effect of consistently applying this insight to the workings of a business.
This is the basis of Goldratt's theory of constraints. On the whole human life exists within the triple constraints of time, cost and quality . For example if a house is built quickly at low cost the quality will be low, if you want a high quality house built quickly you have to be prepared to pay for it, or compromise on the time it will take. Goldratt has the idea of focusing on a constraint and redesigning the business around it.
The Goal is a novel, a groanworthy and terrible and didactic novel, a combination which makes it a success because it doesn't take itself entirely seriously . I cannot recommend reading this book highly enough as an opener to thinking about the flow of work through organisations, how organisations succeed or become dysfunctional. It's intended as a gentle introduction to the Theory of Constraints, but also opens the door to systems thinking. Editions with the extra interviews with how different businesses have applied Theory of Constraints are particularly enlightening and worth getting hold of.
The one message of the book that I found especially interesting was that eventually the greatest constraint on the fictional business in the novel is not its potential productivity but the capacity of the market to absorb its products. What I find interesting is that this is a message about the limits of the market in a business book. Maybe the boosters are correct and the ability of capitalism to invent products is near unlimited, maybe potential economic expansion could be extremely great however all that is irrelevant. The determining factor will be the size of the market. Or the inventiveness of advertisers to persuade us to want more junk.
There is a sequel: It's Not Luck which I don't find as successful a novel, partly because it is less groan-inducing and more worthy in tone but also because it doesn't go through the steps of the characters problem solving efforts in the same level of detail.
I suppose one reason why I am enthusiastic about The Goal is the part it plays in my thinking about the Industrial Revolution. There was nothing new in principle about the technologies of steam power, what changed was the ability of the market to consume - producing more is a high road to insolvency unless you can find the customers to buy your product. There maybe is the key, the world of The Goal, like our own, operates in a particular historical and sociological context, rather than a fantasy in which economic growth "to infinity and beyond", in the immortal words of Buzz Lightyear, is the solid basis in which all assumptions are rooted.
An example of the realism of the thinking in The Goal is that at one point the protagonist is faced with the possibility of a price war - competing with other manufacturers on the basis of price alone - but this is something that he doesn't want to do. By contrast I notice from time to time the adverts for a UK furniture store which promise the purchaser that they will have nothing to pay for a year, four years free credit, or even both. A market strategy predicated on a loving relationship with their funders. Then again it strikes me from time to time just how fantastical real life is.
On the other hand there's a more basic reason why I like it. I was never any good at Maths in school and so it was from this book that I learnt that when looking at figures if the answer looks wrong, what you need to do is think about the assumptions rather than just check the calculation. It is impressive where adding up the wrong figures in the right way will get you, individually or as a society.
December 12, 2021
Could have been an email.
November 18, 2017
This book was as boring as the characters were annoying (which is extremely). From a learning prospective, since I read it for my operations management class, the topics in the book did overlap with class room discussion. However, Alex didn't know how to do his own job for the majority of the book and went crying to Jonah for help in every situation except the last one. Speaking of the last situation, it was an abrupt and lame ending. I thought we would end with him heading to corporate but it ended right before that which I found weird. Julie was a completely selfish and idiotic mother and wife. Also why was that part of the story necessary at all?
August 16, 2007
The best process improvement novel I've seen, this classic work explains the all-important Theory of Constraints through real life examples and a surprisingly good story. Most books of this nature are exceptionally unrealistic, but this one manages to keep the reader engaged, which is key for an instructional text like this.
The book's lessons have some practicality in normal, everyday life, but its greatest utility is for those involved in process improvement in industries such as manufacturing, distribution, services, and retail. All industrial and systems engineers need to read this book, as do all managers of processes.
The book's lessons have some practicality in normal, everyday life, but its greatest utility is for those involved in process improvement in industries such as manufacturing, distribution, services, and retail. All industrial and systems engineers need to read this book, as do all managers of processes.
October 18, 2012
NOTES
Productivity: to accomplish something in terms of a goal
“The future of our business depends upon our ability to increase productivity”. -Peach
What is the Goal?
Original thoughts
Increase producitivity
Produce products
Power
Market share / Sales
Cost-effective purchasing
Supplying jobs
Quality
Quality & Efficiency
Technology / R&D
Communications
Customer satisfaction
Make Money
Three measurements essential to knowing whether company is making money
Net Profit
ROI
Cash flow
Make money by increasing net profit, while simultaneously increasing ROI, and simultaneously increasing cash flow
But he realizes that at the plant level these measurements don’t mean much. Only at the top level.
More than one way to express the Goal - at the plant level
Throughput - the rate at which the system generates money through sales (not production. if you produce something, but don’t sell it, it’s not throughput)
Inventory - All the money that the system has invested in purchasing things which it intends to sell
Operational expense - all the money the system spends in order to rurn inventory into throuput
Questions to ask when adding a robot
Did we sell any more products as a result?
Did we reduce number of people on payroll?
Did inventory levels go down?
Goal: Increase throughput while simultaneously reducing both inventory and operating expense.
“Money”
Throughput is the money coming in
Inventory is the money currently inside the system
Operational expense is the money we have to pay out to make throughput happen
In manufacturing: An event, or a series of events, must take place before another can begin... the subsequent event depends upon the ones prior to it. The important thing occurs when dependent events are in combination with another phenomenon called statistical fluctuations
Boy Scout hike
The leader of the troop controls the pace of the line. If a gap forms and the line is lengthened all you can do is shorten it up to the distance of the person ahead of you - dependent events!
Dependency limits the opportunities for higher fluctuations
***Whoever is moving the slowest in the troop is the one who will govern throughput
Two types of resources
Bottleneck resource - Any resource whose capacity is equal to or less than the demand placed upon it
Non-bottleneck resource - Any resource whose capacity is greater than the demand placed on it
Bottlenecks
Do not balance capacity with demand, balance the flow of product through the plant with the demand from the market.
To increase the capacity of the plant is to increase the capacity of only the bottlenecks
Two principal themes on which you need to concentrate
Make sure the bottlenecks’ time is not wasted
…
Visual management in smooth work on manufacturing floor
Using the bottlenecks to predict when the next order will be shipped
There cannot be any idle time for bottleneck processes. Dedicate people full-time to those processes.
To shorten lead time, spend the idle time while a machine is working, to set up for the next batch
Theory of Constraints
The level of utilization of a non-bottleneck is not determined by its own potential, but by some other constraint in the system
Activating a resource and utilizing a resource are not synonymous
Cutting the batch size in half - result in half wip
The time a material spends in each stage from entry to being shipped out
Setup - the time the part spends waiting for a resource, while the resource is preparing itself to work on the part
Process time - the amount of time the part spends being modified into a new, more valuable form
Queue time - the time the part spends in line for a resource while the resource is busy working on something else ahead of it
Wait time - the time the part waits, not for a resource, but for another part so they can be assembled together
Common practice can mask common sense
Capacity Constraint Resources - CCR -
Management Techniques
Process of on-going improvement
Step 1: ID the system’s bottlenecks. (After all it wasn’t too difficult to identify the oven and the NCX10 as the bottlenecks of the plant.)
Step 2: Decide how to exploit the bottlenecks. (That was fun. Realizing that those machines should not take a lunch break, etc.)
Step 3: Subordinate everything else to the above decision. (Making sure that everything marches to the tune of the constraints. The red and green tags.)
Step 4: Elevate the system’s bottlenecks. (Bringing back the old Zmegma, swithcing back to old, less “effective” routings...)
Step 5: If, in a previous step, a bottleneck has been broken go back to step 1.
CCR
IDENTIFY the system’s constraint(s)
Decide how to EXPLOIT the system’s constraint(s)
SUBORDINATE everything else to the above decision
ELEVATE the system’s constraint(s)
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
Root Cause
What to Change?
What to Change to?
How to Cause the Change
Productivity: to accomplish something in terms of a goal
“The future of our business depends upon our ability to increase productivity”. -Peach
What is the Goal?
Original thoughts
Increase producitivity
Produce products
Power
Market share / Sales
Cost-effective purchasing
Supplying jobs
Quality
Quality & Efficiency
Technology / R&D
Communications
Customer satisfaction
Make Money
Three measurements essential to knowing whether company is making money
Net Profit
ROI
Cash flow
Make money by increasing net profit, while simultaneously increasing ROI, and simultaneously increasing cash flow
But he realizes that at the plant level these measurements don’t mean much. Only at the top level.
More than one way to express the Goal - at the plant level
Throughput - the rate at which the system generates money through sales (not production. if you produce something, but don’t sell it, it’s not throughput)
Inventory - All the money that the system has invested in purchasing things which it intends to sell
Operational expense - all the money the system spends in order to rurn inventory into throuput
Questions to ask when adding a robot
Did we sell any more products as a result?
Did we reduce number of people on payroll?
Did inventory levels go down?
Goal: Increase throughput while simultaneously reducing both inventory and operating expense.
“Money”
Throughput is the money coming in
Inventory is the money currently inside the system
Operational expense is the money we have to pay out to make throughput happen
In manufacturing: An event, or a series of events, must take place before another can begin... the subsequent event depends upon the ones prior to it. The important thing occurs when dependent events are in combination with another phenomenon called statistical fluctuations
Boy Scout hike
The leader of the troop controls the pace of the line. If a gap forms and the line is lengthened all you can do is shorten it up to the distance of the person ahead of you - dependent events!
Dependency limits the opportunities for higher fluctuations
***Whoever is moving the slowest in the troop is the one who will govern throughput
Two types of resources
Bottleneck resource - Any resource whose capacity is equal to or less than the demand placed upon it
Non-bottleneck resource - Any resource whose capacity is greater than the demand placed on it
Bottlenecks
Do not balance capacity with demand, balance the flow of product through the plant with the demand from the market.
To increase the capacity of the plant is to increase the capacity of only the bottlenecks
Two principal themes on which you need to concentrate
Make sure the bottlenecks’ time is not wasted
…
Visual management in smooth work on manufacturing floor
Using the bottlenecks to predict when the next order will be shipped
There cannot be any idle time for bottleneck processes. Dedicate people full-time to those processes.
To shorten lead time, spend the idle time while a machine is working, to set up for the next batch
Theory of Constraints
The level of utilization of a non-bottleneck is not determined by its own potential, but by some other constraint in the system
Activating a resource and utilizing a resource are not synonymous
Cutting the batch size in half - result in half wip
The time a material spends in each stage from entry to being shipped out
Setup - the time the part spends waiting for a resource, while the resource is preparing itself to work on the part
Process time - the amount of time the part spends being modified into a new, more valuable form
Queue time - the time the part spends in line for a resource while the resource is busy working on something else ahead of it
Wait time - the time the part waits, not for a resource, but for another part so they can be assembled together
Common practice can mask common sense
Capacity Constraint Resources - CCR -
Management Techniques
Process of on-going improvement
Step 1: ID the system’s bottlenecks. (After all it wasn’t too difficult to identify the oven and the NCX10 as the bottlenecks of the plant.)
Step 2: Decide how to exploit the bottlenecks. (That was fun. Realizing that those machines should not take a lunch break, etc.)
Step 3: Subordinate everything else to the above decision. (Making sure that everything marches to the tune of the constraints. The red and green tags.)
Step 4: Elevate the system’s bottlenecks. (Bringing back the old Zmegma, swithcing back to old, less “effective” routings...)
Step 5: If, in a previous step, a bottleneck has been broken go back to step 1.
CCR
IDENTIFY the system’s constraint(s)
Decide how to EXPLOIT the system’s constraint(s)
SUBORDINATE everything else to the above decision
ELEVATE the system’s constraint(s)
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
Root Cause
What to Change?
What to Change to?
How to Cause the Change
June 12, 2018
This is to Systems Thinking what The Five Dysfunctions is to management: A peachy piece of fiction, packed with applicable lessons in the most enjoyable format you can imagine. While other systems thinking books are somewhat dry, this one is filled with life, even romance, and well-grounded in reality. While five stars normally for me would mean 'life-changing,' in this case I can't resist because of a rare and wonderful balance between enjoyment, levity, and insight. This type of book, to me, is way better than crime fiction or fantasy. I wish business fiction was a genre with endless options.
In The Goal, a dysfunctional manufacturing plant is transformed after the protagonist has a chance encounter with his physics professor in an airport lounge. Through an unlikely rekindling of the relationship, the professor shows him simple systems thinking principles that are gradually incorporated at the plant. These principles completely transform the site. Through continued improvement, it turns traditional accounting and productivity practices upside down and soon outperforms all other plants in its industry.
If you're bought into the whole idea of learning to think in mental models, as Dalio describes in Principles or Munger in his Almanack, you'll love this book to see how it's applied in action. If not, perhaps this story will show you the usefulness of it in an entertaining, light-hearted fashion. The book will give you some hope that a hopeless situation can be turned around with a little ingenuity.
In The Goal, a dysfunctional manufacturing plant is transformed after the protagonist has a chance encounter with his physics professor in an airport lounge. Through an unlikely rekindling of the relationship, the professor shows him simple systems thinking principles that are gradually incorporated at the plant. These principles completely transform the site. Through continued improvement, it turns traditional accounting and productivity practices upside down and soon outperforms all other plants in its industry.
If you're bought into the whole idea of learning to think in mental models, as Dalio describes in Principles or Munger in his Almanack, you'll love this book to see how it's applied in action. If not, perhaps this story will show you the usefulness of it in an entertaining, light-hearted fashion. The book will give you some hope that a hopeless situation can be turned around with a little ingenuity.
September 24, 2023
It had a severe lack of fae. And spice. But I guess I did learn something about theory of constraints
December 3, 2008
Goldratt introduces the Theory of Constraints via this entertaining novel. I think this book is excellent if you are new to Operations. And I think the approach of telling a story rather reading a traditional text book is a good format.
It demonstrates why many traditional measurements and common intuition is wrong. The book revisits what the goal of a business should be and what is important to measure and control to achieve that goal. Through examples in the main character's personal life and work life, Goldratt explains the weaknesses of traditional cost accounting systems and what's important to track. In short, to optimize money earned, increase throughput, decrease operating expense and decrease inventory. And an important corollary is that any change requires impact to all 3 (throughput, operating expense and inventory). It is a fallacy that a change can impact only one of these metrics.
A good follow on book to this novel is Synchronous Manufacturing: Principles for World Class Excellence by Umble and Srikanth.
It demonstrates why many traditional measurements and common intuition is wrong. The book revisits what the goal of a business should be and what is important to measure and control to achieve that goal. Through examples in the main character's personal life and work life, Goldratt explains the weaknesses of traditional cost accounting systems and what's important to track. In short, to optimize money earned, increase throughput, decrease operating expense and decrease inventory. And an important corollary is that any change requires impact to all 3 (throughput, operating expense and inventory). It is a fallacy that a change can impact only one of these metrics.
A good follow on book to this novel is Synchronous Manufacturing: Principles for World Class Excellence by Umble and Srikanth.
July 5, 2017
2nd read-through: I still love this book. Primarily because of its collaborative solution finding process and its vocalness against local optima. Also from a didactic perspective I think this is something we (as people leading teams) should strive for: Enabling peers to make better decisions by themselves via good process.
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The references in "The Phoenix Project" pushed me towards reading this one as well. I really enjoyed listening to the audible version of this book and I would also argue that there's a lot to take from this book, even if you've already read "The Phoenix Project".
In a world where so many people are talking about scaling Agile, this is one of the books that gave me a lot more insights in the underlying principles of lean. The last chapters are especially great ammunition for folks that have to deal with By-The-Book advocates of certain methodologies. Separating the application of a principle (together with the assumptions) from the principle itself is a great way towards more insight and a more meaningful implementation of whatever methodology in the context of your environment/company.
Next stop is "Beyond the Goal"
P.S.: Started to listen to "Beyond the Goal" and realized that Jonah (from the audible version) sounds exactly like Goldratt himself. Coincidence? I think not :-)
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The references in "The Phoenix Project" pushed me towards reading this one as well. I really enjoyed listening to the audible version of this book and I would also argue that there's a lot to take from this book, even if you've already read "The Phoenix Project".
In a world where so many people are talking about scaling Agile, this is one of the books that gave me a lot more insights in the underlying principles of lean. The last chapters are especially great ammunition for folks that have to deal with By-The-Book advocates of certain methodologies. Separating the application of a principle (together with the assumptions) from the principle itself is a great way towards more insight and a more meaningful implementation of whatever methodology in the context of your environment/company.
Next stop is "Beyond the Goal"
P.S.: Started to listen to "Beyond the Goal" and realized that Jonah (from the audible version) sounds exactly like Goldratt himself. Coincidence? I think not :-)
July 1, 2010
د. إلياهو قولدرات ، فيزيائي تحول إلى عالم إدارة الأعمال ، حصل على بكالوريوس العلوم من جامعة تل أبيب ، وعلى ماجستيرالعلوم و الدكتوراة في الفلسفة من جامعة بارإيلان ، و الجامعتان في إسرائيل. ويتضح من اعتماره الطاقية اليهودية دائما أنه متعصب ، و هو صاحب نظرية القيود التي سيأتي شرحها.
طبعا لا تنخرشون ، صورته في الكتاب قبل خمسة و عشرين عاما! :^).
قصة الكتاب:
بطل القصة هو Alex Rogo ، وهو مدير مصنع للإنتاج ضمن شركة ضخمة تسمى UniCo ، و يدفعك قولدرات في روايته هذه إلى التعاطف الشديد مع بطلها إل روقو ، و الذي يعاني من مشكلتين متزامنتين ، مصنعه المهدد بالإغلاق خلال ثلاثة أشهر ، و حياته العاطفية مع زوجته التي تزيد مشكلتها سوءا معها بسبب غيابه الطويل وانهماكه في حل مشكلة المصنع ، الأمر الذي جعله مقصراً معها ، و مع طفله و طفلته.
وأثناء إحدى سفريات روقو الكثيرة ، يلتقي بأستاذ يهودي درسه مادة الفيزياء سابقا في المطار، حيث يصر أستاذه بعد محادثة قصيرة مع روقو أن مصنعه غير فاعل و أن روقو نفسه مدير المصنع ضائع لا يعرف هدف مصنعه الأساسي ، وقد استنتج الاستاذ هذا من خلال حديثه مع روقو الذي بدا مزهوا بالروبوتات التي تملكها شركته للأنتاج ، و التي ملأت المخازن بالمنتجات!
و الاستاذ اليهودي ليس إلا قولدرات نفسه ، وهو يلعب دور المرشد الذي يظهر و يختفي ، و يستمر روقو في متابعته و سؤاله ، و يحرص قولدرات هنا أو أستاذ روقو على تسريب مفاهيم نظريته الشهيرة نظرية القيود ضمن أحداث القصة ، ليدفعك للاقتناع بها تماما.
وهذا هو الرائع في هذه الرواية ، حيث تدفعك بشدة إلى التفكير في مقولات الاستاذ اليهودي المقتضبة ، بدافع حب شخصية روقو الغارق في مشاكله ، و ذي الشخصية الطموحة ، عبر كثير من النقاشات بين الموظفين المختصين بالمخرزون و الإنتاج و المحاسبة في شركة روقو ، و عبر التجارب الشخصية التي يمر بها روقو كقيادته لفريق من الطلاب الكشافة اثناء إحدى الرحلات الاستكشافية في يوم إجازة بعد غياب قائد الكشافين لمرضه ، الكتاب مليء بكثير من التعبيرات الفلسفية العميقة التي حشى بها قولدرات كتابه على لسان الأستاذ اليهودي أو من انفعالات روقو أثناء نوبات التفكير.
ومفهوم نظرية القيود ، أن أي منظمة ، المصنع مثلا في حالة روقو ، ليست إلا شبكة معقدة من الناس و العتاد و الإجراءات و القوانين ، و أن كل كينونه من هذه العناصر “سيء طبيعيا” بما فيه الكفاية ليملك على الأقل قيداً واحد يعوقه عن تحقيق هدف وجود بالطريقة المثلى ، وأن على المدير أو المسؤول في المنظمة أن يبحث عن هذه القيود ، و أن يحاول إزالتها ، بتحسين وضع القيد أو رفعه نهائيا ، فمثلا الآلة التي تنتج مائة قطعة في الساعة بشرط أن يتم تلقيمها بمائتي قالب من المواد الخام ، تملك قيدين ، قيد قيمته معدل ثابت ، و هو قدرة الآلة التصنيعية التي لا تتجاوز مائة قطعة في الساعة الواحدة ، و قيد آخر لا يمكن قياسه بالتحديد و هو قدرة الفرد العامل على الآلة على توفير مائتي قالب خام في كل ساعة لتلقيم الآلة ، فقد يستطيع أن يوفر المائتين وقد لا يستطيع بسبب مرضه أو عجزه أو اعتماده على ممول القوالب الخام الذي لديه قيوده بالتأكيد.
نعود للقصة ، و الجانب العاطفي الموجود فيها ، والمتمثل في وشك انهيار حياة روقو الشخصية ، بسبب غيابه الكثير و إخلافه لمواعيده مع زوجته ، و التي تشتكي من عدم اهتمامه بها و أطفالها ، و جعل المصنع الأولوية الأولى في حياته ، و يعرج الكتاب على وصف حياة الرجل الغربي ، الذي كثيرا ما يعيش كالآلة ، غائبا عن لطائف الطبيعة فلايرى الشمس إلا مشرقة و غائبة ، وربما خرج للعمل قبل الإشراق و بعد الغروب ، و عن كيف يعيش ممزق الأوصال ناكرا لفضل والديه كما يظهر من تعامل روقو مع أمه المسكينة التي لا تطيقها زوجته ، و كيف يغيب في الشراب للتغلب على كثير من مشاكله ، كما يظهر من انفعالات بيتش المسؤول عن روقو ، و عن روقو نفسه الذي يسرف في شرب البيرة لمجرد التفكير في كلام أستاذه اليهودي.
قرأت هذا الكتاب للمرة الأولى حين كان ضمن مقررات دراستي ، و نظرا لضيق الوقت ، فقد قرأت المطلوب فحسب حسب ماحدده أستاذ المادة ، وقد وجدت مؤخرا متسعا من الوقت لإتمامه.
طبعا لا تنخرشون ، صورته في الكتاب قبل خمسة و عشرين عاما! :^).
قصة الكتاب:
بطل القصة هو Alex Rogo ، وهو مدير مصنع للإنتاج ضمن شركة ضخمة تسمى UniCo ، و يدفعك قولدرات في روايته هذه إلى التعاطف الشديد مع بطلها إل روقو ، و الذي يعاني من مشكلتين متزامنتين ، مصنعه المهدد بالإغلاق خلال ثلاثة أشهر ، و حياته العاطفية مع زوجته التي تزيد مشكلتها سوءا معها بسبب غيابه الطويل وانهماكه في حل مشكلة المصنع ، الأمر الذي جعله مقصراً معها ، و مع طفله و طفلته.
وأثناء إحدى سفريات روقو الكثيرة ، يلتقي بأستاذ يهودي درسه مادة الفيزياء سابقا في المطار، حيث يصر أستاذه بعد محادثة قصيرة مع روقو أن مصنعه غير فاعل و أن روقو نفسه مدير المصنع ضائع لا يعرف هدف مصنعه الأساسي ، وقد استنتج الاستاذ هذا من خلال حديثه مع روقو الذي بدا مزهوا بالروبوتات التي تملكها شركته للأنتاج ، و التي ملأت المخازن بالمنتجات!
و الاستاذ اليهودي ليس إلا قولدرات نفسه ، وهو يلعب دور المرشد الذي يظهر و يختفي ، و يستمر روقو في متابعته و سؤاله ، و يحرص قولدرات هنا أو أستاذ روقو على تسريب مفاهيم نظريته الشهيرة نظرية القيود ضمن أحداث القصة ، ليدفعك للاقتناع بها تماما.
وهذا هو الرائع في هذه الرواية ، حيث تدفعك بشدة إلى التفكير في مقولات الاستاذ اليهودي المقتضبة ، بدافع حب شخصية روقو الغارق في مشاكله ، و ذي الشخصية الطموحة ، عبر كثير من النقاشات بين الموظفين المختصين بالمخرزون و الإنتاج و المحاسبة في شركة روقو ، و عبر التجارب الشخصية التي يمر بها روقو كقيادته لفريق من الطلاب الكشافة اثناء إحدى الرحلات الاستكشافية في يوم إجازة بعد غياب قائد الكشافين لمرضه ، الكتاب مليء بكثير من التعبيرات الفلسفية العميقة التي حشى بها قولدرات كتابه على لسان الأستاذ اليهودي أو من انفعالات روقو أثناء نوبات التفكير.
ومفهوم نظرية القيود ، أن أي منظمة ، المصنع مثلا في حالة روقو ، ليست إلا شبكة معقدة من الناس و العتاد و الإجراءات و القوانين ، و أن كل كينونه من هذه العناصر “سيء طبيعيا” بما فيه الكفاية ليملك على الأقل قيداً واحد يعوقه عن تحقيق هدف وجود بالطريقة المثلى ، وأن على المدير أو المسؤول في المنظمة أن يبحث عن هذه القيود ، و أن يحاول إزالتها ، بتحسين وضع القيد أو رفعه نهائيا ، فمثلا الآلة التي تنتج مائة قطعة في الساعة بشرط أن يتم تلقيمها بمائتي قالب من المواد الخام ، تملك قيدين ، قيد قيمته معدل ثابت ، و هو قدرة الآلة التصنيعية التي لا تتجاوز مائة قطعة في الساعة الواحدة ، و قيد آخر لا يمكن قياسه بالتحديد و هو قدرة الفرد العامل على الآلة على توفير مائتي قالب خام في كل ساعة لتلقيم الآلة ، فقد يستطيع أن يوفر المائتين وقد لا يستطيع بسبب مرضه أو عجزه أو اعتماده على ممول القوالب الخام الذي لديه قيوده بالتأكيد.
نعود للقصة ، و الجانب العاطفي الموجود فيها ، والمتمثل في وشك انهيار حياة روقو الشخصية ، بسبب غيابه الكثير و إخلافه لمواعيده مع زوجته ، و التي تشتكي من عدم اهتمامه بها و أطفالها ، و جعل المصنع الأولوية الأولى في حياته ، و يعرج الكتاب على وصف حياة الرجل الغربي ، الذي كثيرا ما يعيش كالآلة ، غائبا عن لطائف الطبيعة فلايرى الشمس إلا مشرقة و غائبة ، وربما خرج للعمل قبل الإشراق و بعد الغروب ، و عن كيف يعيش ممزق الأوصال ناكرا لفضل والديه كما يظهر من تعامل روقو مع أمه المسكينة التي لا تطيقها زوجته ، و كيف يغيب في الشراب للتغلب على كثير من مشاكله ، كما يظهر من انفعالات بيتش المسؤول عن روقو ، و عن روقو نفسه الذي يسرف في شرب البيرة لمجرد التفكير في كلام أستاذه اليهودي.
قرأت هذا الكتاب للمرة الأولى حين كان ضمن مقررات دراستي ، و نظرا لضيق الوقت ، فقد قرأت المطلوب فحسب حسب ماحدده أستاذ المادة ، وقد وجدت مؤخرا متسعا من الوقت لإتمامه.
April 18, 2022
আমার স্নাতকোত্তর পড়াশোনা ছিল বাণিজ্যে অর্থাৎ Business Administration । আমাদের BSchool এ সাংঘাতিক কৃতী, প্রচন্ড উচ্চাভিলাষী, তদুপরি সদা কর্মব্যস্ত আর hustling ছাত্রছাত্রীদের মাঝে পড়ে প্রথমে একটু হতচকিয়ে গেলেও, কিছুদিনের মধ্যেই বেশ মানিয়ে নিয়েছিলাম। পরীক্ষার ফলাফলের বিচারে ব্যাচের মাঝামাঝি ছিলাম, কিন্তু পড়ার বিষয়গুলো মোটামুটি ভালোই বুঝতাম। এই নিয়ে একটু প্রচ্ছন্ন গর্বও ছিল।
আর সেই হতচকিয়ে যাওয়া ছাত্রের থেকে মুখেন-মারিতং-বিশ্ব টাইপের ঝাঁ-চকচকে বাণিজ্য-স্নাতকোত্তর হয়ে ওঠার সবচেয়ে বেশি কৃতিত্ব দেব ইলাই গোল্ডরাট-এর The Goal বইটাকে। প্রফেসর সহায়ের Operations Management এর প্রথম সেমিস্টারে টেক্সট বইগুলোর মধ্যে এটা ছিল, আর গল্পের বইয়ের ধাঁচে লেখা হওয়ার কারণে প্রথম সপ্তাহের মধ্যেই বইটা গোগ্রাসে গিলে ফেলি। তারপরেও খানচারেকবার পড়েছি।
সাহিত্যগুণে বইখানি একেবারে ডাহা ফেল, কিন্তু বাণিজ্যের তত্ব আর ধারণা বোঝার জন্যে এর থেকে ভালো বই হয় না। কাজে আর বাড়িতে হাজার চাপে হাবুডুবু খাওয়া আলেক্স রোগো'র গল্পটা পড়তেও বেশ লাগে। বেশ গোলমেলে ব্যবসায়িক ধারণাগুলো একদম গল্পের ছলে বুঝিয়ে গেছেন লেখক গোল্ডরাট। থিওরি অভ কনস্ট্রেন্টসের (যেটাকে বাংলায় হয়তো বাধা-তত্বের ত্রিভুজ বলা চলে) ধারণাটা মাথায় সেঁধিয়ে গেছিলো - আর সেই জ্ঞান ঝেড়ে এখনো পাতে ভাত পড়ছে । তবে তার থেকেও, সর্বপ্রথমে আমার সবচেয়ে কাজে লেগেছিলো যে উপলব্ধিটা , সেটা হলো - A business exists for the sole purpose of making money. যে কোনো ব্যবসায়িক প্রতিষ্ঠানিক একমাত্র লক্ষ্য হলো মুনাফা লাভ করা।
এইটা আপনার খুব সোজা কমনসেন্স একটা ব্যাপার মনে হতে পারে। কিন্তু আমি ব্যবসায়ী পরিবারে বড় হইনি, বাবা মা মধ্যবিত্ত সরকারী চাকুরে, টাকাপয়সার প্রতি তাঁদের বাঙ্গালী পরিবারসুলভ আপাতবিতৃষ্ণার কারণেই হয়তো - এই ব্যাপারটা হৃদয়ঙ্গম করতে একটু সময় লেগেছিলো আমার। তবে এটা বুঝে যাওয়ায়, আর তারপর থিওরি অভ কনস্ট্রেন্টস আর বটলনেক থিওরি বোঝার পরে আমার বাণিজ্যযাত্রা অনেকটাই সোজা হয়ে যায়।
A business exists for the sole purpose of making money - এই বাক্যটির ভালোমন্দ বিচার করা আমার কাজ নয়, এই বইয়ের লক্ষ্যও নয়। কিন্তু একটা বাণিজ্যিক প্রতিষ্ঠানের যাবতীয় সিদ্ধান্তকে এই আতসকাঁচের মধ্যে দিয়ে দেখলেই তার ঠিক-ভুল বোঝা যায়, আর সেই প্রতিষ্ঠানের এক পদাতিক সৈন্য হিসাবে আপনার নিজের ছোটবড় সিদ্ধান্তগুলোকেও পরখ করে নেয়া যায়। আবার বলছি - বাক্যটির নৈতিকতা বিচার করা আমার কাজ নয় - সেটা সম্পূর্ণ আলাদা আলোচনা।
যাকগে, প্রসঙ্গে ফিরে আসি। থিওরি অভ কনস্ট্রেন্টস ব্যাপারটা খুব সোজা করে বললে এরকম দাঁড়ায় : যে কোনো বাণিজ্যিক প্রকল্পের - বা বাণিজ্যই বা শুধু ধরবো কেন -মানুষের যে কোনো কর্ম-পরিকল্পনা দাঁড়িয়ে রয়েছে তিনটে জিনিসের ওপরে। সময়, মূল্য, আর গুণমান অর্থাৎ quality .আপনি যে কাজই করবেন, সেইটা করার ওপরে দাঁড়িয়ে রয়েছে ওই তিনটে জিনিস। আর সেই ত্রিভুজের যে কোনো একটা হাতকে যদি বদলাতে হয় - ধরে নিন আপনার বাড়িটা আপনি ছয় মাসের জায়গায় পাঁচ মাসে শেষ করে ফেলতে চান, তাহলে আপনাকে গুণমানের ওপরে একটু ছাড় দিতে হবে, বা আপনাকে বেশি লোক লাগাতে হবে কাজটা শেষ করার জন্যে, আর সেজন্যে আপনার খরচ হবে বেশি।
আপাতদৃষ্টিতে এইটা সাংঘাতিক কোনো উপলব্ধি নয়, কিন্তু একবার যদি জীবনের প্রতিটা পরিকল্পনাকে এইভাবে ঠাণ্ডামাথায় ছকে ফেলার অভ্যেস হয়ে যায় , তাহলে কিন্তু আপনি আপনার যাবতীয় নতুন চিন্তাকে মোটামুটি একটা সন্তোষজনক ফলাফলে নিয়ে আসতে পারছেন।
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তবে এই The Goal নিয়েই আরেকটা কথাও বলে রাখা ভালো - আজকাল আমার মনে হয় যে আমার এই সব ধ্যানধারণা সব পুরোনো হয়ে গেছে। আমার এক বন্ধুর সঙ্গে আলোচনা হচ্ছিলো এই গুডরীডসেই, আর তখনই একটা প্রাসঙ্গিক আলোচনার কথা মনে পড়ার সূত্রে এই লেখাটা লেখার কথা ভাবলাম। সেই আলোচনার গল্পটা বলি।
একটা নব্যনতুন স্টার্ট আপ কোম্পানির প্রধান পরিচালন কর্মকর্তা অর্থাৎ Chief Operating Officer এর সঙ্গে কথা হচ্ছিলো । কথাপ্রসঙ্গে ছোঁড়া বলে যে “We are not very concerned about our bottomline at the moment” - অর্থাৎ - আমরা এই মুহূর্তে আমাদের কোম্পানির মুনাফা নিয়ে খুব একটা ভাবছি না ।
আজকালকার স্টার্ট আপ ইকোসিস্টেমে লাভলোকসান, মুনাফা, বটমলাইন নিয়েও কারোর অতটা মাথাব্যথা নেই মনে হয় । Transaction is god. বাকি সব আনুষাঙ্গিক। ... বাণিজ্যের ধ্যানধারণা সব পাল্টে যাচ্ছে, আমাকেই বোধহয় আবার একদম শুরু থেকে শিখতে হবে। এই আধুনিক যুগের জন্যে The Goal এর মতো একটা বই পেলে হয়।
আর সেই হতচকিয়ে যাওয়া ছাত্রের থেকে মুখেন-মারিতং-বিশ্ব টাইপের ঝাঁ-চকচকে বাণিজ্য-স্নাতকোত্তর হয়ে ওঠার সবচেয়ে বেশি কৃতিত্ব দেব ইলাই গোল্ডরাট-এর The Goal বইটাকে। প্রফেসর সহায়ের Operations Management এর প্রথম সেমিস্টারে টেক্সট বইগুলোর মধ্যে এটা ছিল, আর গল্পের বইয়ের ধাঁচে লেখা হওয়ার কারণে প্রথম সপ্তাহের মধ্যেই বইটা গোগ্রাসে গিলে ফেলি। তারপরেও খানচারেকবার পড়েছি।
সাহিত্যগুণে বইখানি একেবারে ডাহা ফেল, কিন্তু বাণিজ্যের তত্ব আর ধারণা বোঝার জন্যে এর থেকে ভালো বই হয় না। কাজে আর বাড়িতে হাজার চাপে হাবুডুবু খাওয়া আলেক্স রোগো'র গল্পটা পড়তেও বেশ লাগে। বেশ গোলমেলে ব্যবসায়িক ধারণাগুলো একদম গল্পের ছলে বুঝিয়ে গেছেন লেখক গোল্ডরাট। থিওরি অভ কনস্ট্রেন্টসের (যেটাকে বাংলায় হয়তো বাধা-তত্বের ত্রিভুজ বলা চলে) ধারণাটা মাথায় সেঁধিয়ে গেছিলো - আর সেই জ্ঞান ঝেড়ে এখনো পাতে ভাত পড়ছে । তবে তার থেকেও, সর্বপ্রথমে আমার সবচেয়ে কাজে লেগেছিলো যে উপলব্ধিটা , সেটা হলো - A business exists for the sole purpose of making money. যে কোনো ব্যবসায়িক প্রতিষ্ঠানিক একমাত্র লক্ষ্য হলো মুনাফা লাভ করা।
এইটা আপনার খুব সোজা কমনসেন্স একটা ব্যাপার মনে হতে পারে। কিন্তু আমি ব্যবসায়ী পরিবারে বড় হইনি, বাবা মা মধ্যবিত্ত সরকারী চাকুরে, টাকাপয়সার প্রতি তাঁদের বাঙ্গালী পরিবারসুলভ আপাতবিতৃষ্ণার কারণেই হয়তো - এই ব্যাপারটা হৃদয়ঙ্গম করতে একটু সময় লেগেছিলো আমার। তবে এটা বুঝে যাওয়ায়, আর তারপর থিওরি অভ কনস্ট্রেন্টস আর বটলনেক থিওরি বোঝার পরে আমার বাণিজ্যযাত্রা অনেকটাই সোজা হয়ে যায়।
A business exists for the sole purpose of making money - এই বাক্যটির ভালোমন্দ বিচার করা আমার কাজ নয়, এই বইয়ের লক্ষ্যও নয়। কিন্তু একটা বাণিজ্যিক প্রতিষ্ঠানের যাবতীয় সিদ্ধান্তকে এই আতসকাঁচের মধ্যে দিয়ে দেখলেই তার ঠিক-ভুল বোঝা যায়, আর সেই প্রতিষ্ঠানের এক পদাতিক সৈন্য হিসাবে আপনার নিজের ছোটবড় সিদ্ধান্তগুলোকেও পরখ করে নেয়া যায়। আবার বলছি - বাক্যটির নৈতিকতা বিচার করা আমার কাজ নয় - সেটা সম্পূর্ণ আলাদা আলোচনা।
যাকগে, প্রসঙ্গে ফিরে আসি। থিওরি অভ কনস্ট্রেন্টস ব্যাপারটা খুব সোজা করে বললে এরকম দাঁড়ায় : যে কোনো বাণিজ্যিক প্রকল্পের - বা বাণিজ্যই বা শুধু ধরবো কেন -মানুষের যে কোনো কর্ম-পরিকল্পনা দাঁড়িয়ে রয়েছে তিনটে জিনিসের ওপরে। সময়, মূল্য, আর গুণমান অর্থাৎ quality .আপনি যে কাজই করবেন, সেইটা করার ওপরে দাঁড়িয়ে রয়েছে ওই তিনটে জিনিস। আর সেই ত্রিভুজের যে কোনো একটা হাতকে যদি বদলাতে হয় - ধরে নিন আপনার বাড়িটা আপনি ছয় মাসের জায়গায় পাঁচ মাসে শেষ করে ফেলতে চান, তাহলে আপনাকে গুণমানের ওপরে একটু ছাড় দিতে হবে, বা আপনাকে বেশি লোক লাগাতে হবে কাজটা শেষ করার জন্যে, আর সেজন্যে আপনার খরচ হবে বেশি।
আপাতদৃষ্টিতে এইটা সাংঘাতিক কোনো উপলব্ধি নয়, কিন্তু একবার যদি জীবনের প্রতিটা পরিকল্পনাকে এইভাবে ঠাণ্ডামাথায় ছকে ফেলার অভ্যেস হয়ে যায় , তাহলে কিন্তু আপনি আপনার যাবতীয় নতুন চিন্তাকে মোটামুটি একটা সন্তোষজনক ফলাফলে নিয়ে আসতে পারছেন।
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তবে এই The Goal নিয়েই আরেকটা কথাও বলে রাখা ভালো - আজকাল আমার মনে হয় যে আমার এই সব ধ্যানধারণা সব পুরোনো হয়ে গেছে। আমার এক বন্ধুর সঙ্গে আলোচনা হচ্ছিলো এই গুডরীডসেই, আর তখনই একটা প্রাসঙ্গিক আলোচনার কথা মনে পড়ার সূত্রে এই লেখাটা লেখার কথা ভাবলাম। সেই আলোচনার গল্পটা বলি।
একটা নব্যনতুন স্টার্ট আপ কোম্পানির প্রধান পরিচালন কর্মকর্তা অর্থাৎ Chief Operating Officer এর সঙ্গে কথা হচ্ছিলো । কথাপ্রসঙ্গে ছোঁড়া বলে যে “We are not very concerned about our bottomline at the moment” - অর্থাৎ - আমরা এই মুহূর্তে আমাদের কোম্পানির মুনাফা নিয়ে খুব একটা ভাবছি না ।
আজকালকার স্টার্ট আপ ইকোসিস্টেমে লাভলোকসান, মুনাফা, বটমলাইন নিয়েও কারোর অতটা মাথাব্যথা নেই মনে হয় । Transaction is god. বাকি সব আনুষাঙ্গিক। ... বাণিজ্যের ধ্যানধারণা সব পাল্টে যাচ্ছে, আমাকেই বোধহয় আবার একদম শুরু থেকে শিখতে হবে। এই আধুনিক যুগের জন্যে The Goal এর মতো একটা বই পেলে হয়।
May 27, 2020
Fantastic book if you want to learn how to be an industrial engineer who sacrifices every bit of their humanity and all personal relationships to make sure your factory runs at tip top efficiency.
Don't make an engineering textbook into a garbage novel.
Don't make an engineering textbook into a garbage novel.
November 9, 2020
A story about a factory manager figuring out how to manage operations. A bit sexist. Hereto normative, patriarchal, fat phobic.
February 5, 2017
(4.5) more interested in application to project development (vs repeatable manufacturing).
I like the approach of 'discovering' the principles behind theory of constraints and how to optimize throughput through a repeatable manufacturing process. Seems quite practical and valuable in just that application.
Trying to figure how this can apply beyond just manufacturing. The latter portion of the book () starts to address how to apply Theory of Constraints beyond the operations of a plant to more generalized management. I kind of got lost there.
Also interested in how Goldratt thought his theory could apply to relationships. It seems as though Alex may have inadvertently used some of what he learned from Eliyahu--er, sorry, Jonah--with his wife.
I like the approach of 'discovering' the principles behind theory of constraints and how to optimize throughput through a repeatable manufacturing process. Seems quite practical and valuable in just that application.
Trying to figure how this can apply beyond just manufacturing. The latter portion of the book () starts to address how to apply Theory of Constraints beyond the operations of a plant to more generalized management. I kind of got lost there.
Also interested in how Goldratt thought his theory could apply to relationships. It seems as though Alex may have inadvertently used some of what he learned from Eliyahu--er, sorry, Jonah--with his wife.
April 17, 2020
The Goal introduces the Theory of Constraints in narrative form, following the struggles of the fictitious plant manager, Alex Rogo. Goldratt provides a high level, non-technical overview of constraint management, encourages the reader to challenge the merit of long-standing KPIs as they relate to the overarching goal of the company, and extols the benefits of the Socratic Method. Unfortunately, I found the narrative to be quite distracting. The plot is dry and predictable, and last third of the book was a drag. I would have preferred a more concise volume that relied less on storytelling.
April 30, 2015
Автор в данной книге показывает отличный пример распространённых ошибок в бизнесе и в жизни человека. Он пытается донести до каждого, что готовые решения не всегда верны, что к желаемому результату человек должен прийти путём собственных умозаключений.
Автор также даёт понять, что в гонке за эффективностью и за снижением затрат компании часто приносят себе вред и в итоге н��чинают меньше зарабатывать. Показывает, что таким образом возможно сделать бизнес убыточным, а следовательно даёт понимание как самому не делать похожих ошибок.
Следует прочитать. Рекомендую.
Автор также даёт понять, что в гонке за эффективностью и за снижением затрат компании часто приносят себе вред и в итоге н��чинают меньше зарабатывать. Показывает, что таким образом возможно сделать бизнес убыточным, а следовательно даёт понимание как самому не делать похожих ошибок.
Следует прочитать. Рекомендую.
November 10, 2016
Долго и упорно внедряют канбан на заводе, не понимаю зачем я вообще это читал. Художественная ценность -5 из 7; практическая - лучше прочитать статью вики про канбан. Сюжетная линия про брак главного героя очень cringeworthy.
June 27, 2019
Great insights. I found the writing a bit boring. The interviews in the end were the best.
March 4, 2025
I'm reluctantly giving this a 3 because it's better than reading a textbook, but it is operations fan fiction.
November 6, 2025
Same concept, new chapters
The Goal is a business novel that follows Alex Rogo, a factory manager racing to save his manufacturing plant from closure. Through his mentor Jonah, Rogo learns the Theory of Constraints (TOC) the principle that every complex system has one key limiting factor (a bottleneck) that determines overall performance. True improvement, therefore, doesn’t come from optimizing everything independently, but from identifying and managing that central constraint.
Now was that revolutionary? yes, it was a great theory.
Was it necessary to write 400 pages long novel? Maybe not.
Is this an enjoyable reading? sometimes.
Would you be better off reading just the core ideas? defintely.
While the book’s core concept is undeniably insightful and remains relevant decades later, I found the story unnecessarily long for the message it delivers.
To be honest, after reading a few of them, I only skimmed the chapters about his arguments with his wife, so clichè and boring.
Goldratt takes hundreds of pages to build up to what often feels like quite obvious conclusions, such as the notion that “the goal of a company is to make money.” This is presented as a revelation, but for many readers it will seem almost too basic, the sort of foundational truth you’d expect every manager to already know.
That said, one of the most accurate and valuable observations in the book is how managers often become siloed within their departments, losing sight of the company’s true objective. They chase local metrics efficiency, cost reduction, utilization without realizing these may actually harm the organization’s overall performance. Goldratt captures this organizational blindness very well: the fact that people optimize their own area of control without asking whether it contributes to the bigger picture. In this sense, The Goal does a great job of forcing readers to step back and think systemically.
And of course the protagonist impersonates this mentality
The following passage captures one of the pivotal conceptual shifts in The Goal — the redefinition of how we measure success in a business system. Goldratt, through the voice of Jonah, makes a fundamental point: traditional financial metrics like net profit, ROI, and cash flow may describe the company’s goal abstractly, but they’re too detached from daily operations to guide practical decisions. They tell you if you’re winning, not how to win.
Jonah’s introduction of throughput, inventory, and operational expense reframes performance in a way that connects strategy to action. These three metrics translate the abstract goal of “making money” into something tangible that managers can actually influence. The most striking part is his definition of throughput — not as production, but as the rate at which the system generates money through sales. This distinction is critical and often misunderstood even in real businesses: producing goods that don’t sell doesn’t create value — it only ties up resources.
By cutting off Rogo mid-sentence, Jonah underscores a mindset trap common among managers — the tendency to equate activity with productivity. The factory can be busy producing, but if there’s no sale, no money flows in, and thus no progress toward the company’s true goal. This moment encapsulates the book’s deeper message about breaking free from local optimization: it’s not about keeping every machine or worker busy; it’s about ensuring the system as a whole generates value.
At last Jonah explanation that the true cost of a bottleneck equals the total cost of the entire system divided by the number of hours the bottleneck operates completely reframes how managers should view time and efficiency.
Lou’s reaction — shock at discovering that one lost hour at the bottleneck equals a $2,700 loss, not a few dozen dollars — mirrors the reader’s own realization: in a tightly coupled system, every minute of bottleneck downtime translates directly into lost profit for the whole organization. This idea elegantly captures the essence of Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints: the performance of the entire system is limited by its slowest point, and therefore optimizing anything other than that constraint is meaningless or even counterproductive.
Jonah’s advice to “make sure the bottlenecks’ time is not wasted” is deceptively simple but carries enormous operational implications. Every idle moment, every defective part, every batch of unnecessary inventory steals capacity from the one resource that defines the plant’s output. What Goldratt is really highlighting here is a shift from local efficiency (keeping every machine busy) to global optimization (maximizing the throughput of the system as a whole).
Where the book falters is in its execution. The fictional structure, while designed to make the material accessible, feels repetitive and padded. Much of the dialogue circles around points that could be conveyed more succinctly. The subplot about Rogo’s marriage, with the classic “wife angry because he works too much” dynamic, is predictable and adds little beyond dramatizing the theme of imbalance.
Still, Goldratt’s central message about continuous improvement, bottlenecks, and system-wide thinking is powerful. The Theory of Constraints remains a cornerstone of modern operations management, and The Goal succeeds in making it understandable for a broad audience.
The Goal is a business novel that follows Alex Rogo, a factory manager racing to save his manufacturing plant from closure. Through his mentor Jonah, Rogo learns the Theory of Constraints (TOC) the principle that every complex system has one key limiting factor (a bottleneck) that determines overall performance. True improvement, therefore, doesn’t come from optimizing everything independently, but from identifying and managing that central constraint.
Now was that revolutionary? yes, it was a great theory.
Was it necessary to write 400 pages long novel? Maybe not.
Is this an enjoyable reading? sometimes.
Would you be better off reading just the core ideas? defintely.
While the book’s core concept is undeniably insightful and remains relevant decades later, I found the story unnecessarily long for the message it delivers.
To be honest, after reading a few of them, I only skimmed the chapters about his arguments with his wife, so clichè and boring.
Goldratt takes hundreds of pages to build up to what often feels like quite obvious conclusions, such as the notion that “the goal of a company is to make money.” This is presented as a revelation, but for many readers it will seem almost too basic, the sort of foundational truth you’d expect every manager to already know.
That said, one of the most accurate and valuable observations in the book is how managers often become siloed within their departments, losing sight of the company’s true objective. They chase local metrics efficiency, cost reduction, utilization without realizing these may actually harm the organization’s overall performance. Goldratt captures this organizational blindness very well: the fact that people optimize their own area of control without asking whether it contributes to the bigger picture. In this sense, The Goal does a great job of forcing readers to step back and think systemically.
And of course the protagonist impersonates this mentality
Then it occurs to me: those three guys are doing something now, but is that going to help us make money? They might be working, but are they productive?
For a moment, I consider going back and telling the supervisor to make those guys actually produce. But, well there really isn't anything for them to work on right now. And ... maybe even though I could perhaps have those guys shifted to someplace where they could produce, how would I know if that work is helping us make money?
That's a weird thought.
Can I assume that making people work and making money are the same thing? We've tended to do that in the past. The basic rule has been just keep everybody and everything out here working all the time; keep pushing that product out the door. And when there isn't any work to do, make some. And when we can't make work, shift people around. And when you still can't make them work, lay them off.
I look around and most people are working. Idle people in here are the exception. Just about everybody is working nearly all the time. And we're not making money.
Some stairs zig-zag up one of the walls, access to one of the overhead cranes. I climb them until I am halfway to the roof and can look out over the plant from one of the landings.
Every moment, lots and lots of things are happening down there. Practically everything I'm seeing is a variable. The complexity in this plant-in any manufacturing plant-is mind-boggling if you contemplate it. Situations on the floor are always changing. How can I possibly control what goes on? How the hell am I supposed to know if any action in the plant is productive or non-productive toward making money?
The answer is supposed to be in my briefcase, which is heavy in my hand. It's filled with all those reports and printouts and stuff that Lou gave me for the meeting.
The following passage captures one of the pivotal conceptual shifts in The Goal — the redefinition of how we measure success in a business system. Goldratt, through the voice of Jonah, makes a fundamental point: traditional financial metrics like net profit, ROI, and cash flow may describe the company’s goal abstractly, but they’re too detached from daily operations to guide practical decisions. They tell you if you’re winning, not how to win.
Jonah’s introduction of throughput, inventory, and operational expense reframes performance in a way that connects strategy to action. These three metrics translate the abstract goal of “making money” into something tangible that managers can actually influence. The most striking part is his definition of throughput — not as production, but as the rate at which the system generates money through sales. This distinction is critical and often misunderstood even in real businesses: producing goods that don’t sell doesn’t create value — it only ties up resources.
By cutting off Rogo mid-sentence, Jonah underscores a mindset trap common among managers — the tendency to equate activity with productivity. The factory can be busy producing, but if there’s no sale, no money flows in, and thus no progress toward the company’s true goal. This moment encapsulates the book’s deeper message about breaking free from local optimization: it’s not about keeping every machine or worker busy; it’s about ensuring the system as a whole generates value.
Okay," I answer, "so I can say the goal is to increase net profit, while simultaneously increasing both ROI and cash flow, and that's the equivalent of saying the goal is to make money."
"Exactly," he says. "One expression is the equivalent of the other. But as you have discovered, those conventional measure. ments you use to express the goal do not lend themselves very well to the daily operations of the manufacturing organization. In fact, that's why I developed a different set of measurements."
"What kind of measurements are those?" I ask.
"They're measurements which express the goal of making money perfectly well, but which also permit you to develop oper ational rules for running your plant," he says. "There are three of them. Their names are throughput, inventory and operational expense."
"Those all sound familiar," I say.
"Yes, but their definitions are not," says Jonah. "In fact, you will probably want to write them down."
Pen in hand, I flip ahead to a clean sheet of paper on my tablet and tell him to go ahead.
"Throughput," he says, "is the rate at which the system generates money through sales."
I write it down word for word.
Then I ask, "But what about production? Wouldn't it be more correct to say-"
"No," he says. "Through sales-not production. If you produce something, but don't sell it, it's not throughput. Got it?" "Right. I thought maybe because I'm plant manager I could substitute-"
Jonah cuts me off.
At last Jonah explanation that the true cost of a bottleneck equals the total cost of the entire system divided by the number of hours the bottleneck operates completely reframes how managers should view time and efficiency.
Lou’s reaction — shock at discovering that one lost hour at the bottleneck equals a $2,700 loss, not a few dozen dollars — mirrors the reader’s own realization: in a tightly coupled system, every minute of bottleneck downtime translates directly into lost profit for the whole organization. This idea elegantly captures the essence of Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints: the performance of the entire system is limited by its slowest point, and therefore optimizing anything other than that constraint is meaningless or even counterproductive.
Jonah’s advice to “make sure the bottlenecks’ time is not wasted” is deceptively simple but carries enormous operational implications. Every idle moment, every defective part, every batch of unnecessary inventory steals capacity from the one resource that defines the plant’s output. What Goldratt is really highlighting here is a shift from local efficiency (keeping every machine busy) to global optimization (maximizing the throughput of the system as a whole).
The actual cost of a bottleneck is the total expense of the system divided by the number of hours the bottleneck produces," says Jonah. "What does this make it?"
Lou takes out his calculator from his coat pocket and punches in the numbers.
"That's $2,735," says Lou. "Now wait a minute. Is that right?"
"Yes, it's right," says Jonah. "If your bottlenecks are not working, you haven't just lost $32 or $21. The true cost is the cost of an hour of the entire system. And that's twenty seven hundred dollars."
Lou is flabbergasted.
"That puts a different perspective on it," says Stacey. "Of course it does," says Jonah. "And with that in mind, how do we optimize the use of the bottlenecks? There are two principal themes on which you need to concentrate
"First, make sure the bottlenecks' time is not wasted," he says. "How is the time of a bottleneck wasted? One way is for it to be sitting idle during a lunch break. Another is for it to be processing parts which are already defective-or which will become defective through a careless worker or poor process control. A third way to waste a bottleneck's time is to make it work on parts you don't need."
"You mean spare parts?" asks Bob.
"I mean anything that isn't within the current demand," he says. "Because what happens when you build inventory now that you won't sell for months in the future? You are sacrificing present money for future money; the question is, can your cash flow sustain it? In your case, absolutely not."
Where the book falters is in its execution. The fictional structure, while designed to make the material accessible, feels repetitive and padded. Much of the dialogue circles around points that could be conveyed more succinctly. The subplot about Rogo’s marriage, with the classic “wife angry because he works too much” dynamic, is predictable and adds little beyond dramatizing the theme of imbalance.
Still, Goldratt’s central message about continuous improvement, bottlenecks, and system-wide thinking is powerful. The Theory of Constraints remains a cornerstone of modern operations management, and The Goal succeeds in making it understandable for a broad audience.
February 4, 2025
Had to read this book for school
July 11, 2022
Малко от нас са работили във фабрика или завод, или дори само са били поне веднъж в такъв. Още по-малко пък знаят как работи цялото това нещо и изобщо цялата сфера на индустрията, наречена "производство". Нека не се лъжем, голямата част от хората, които четат книги са офисни плъхове и това да си изцапат ръцете с машинно масло никога не е влизало в житейските им приоритети...
Настоящата книга е култова в сферата и описва един популярен метод за управление на производството.
Звучи ви скучно? А е доста интересно - едно, че книгата е всъщност роман и второ, че описаните в нея проблеми и решенията им говорят на едно бих казал подсъзнателно ниво на всеки, чийто мозък обича да се занимава с пъзели и причинно следствени връзки.
Авторът използва художественото повествование на приключенията на един директор на завод, който трябва да оправи за три месеца батакът в производството си, иначе ще бъде уволнен, заводът затворен и всички хора в него съкратени. С помощта на един професор по физика, който не разбира от производство, ама за сметка на това разбира от взаимосвързани системи, той разбива остарелите догми на управлението и, разбира се, постига неочакван успех, па дори и не се развежда с жена си.
На съвсем разбираем език книгата описва някои основни положения от управлението на производството, които са отдавна известни на хората, които се занимават с това (все пак книгата не може да се каже, че е нова), но за такива като нас, според мен е доста интересна, за да добием основна представа за материята - така, както ми беше особено интересно да добия основна представа за сферата на продажбите.
Настоящата книга е култова в сферата и описва един популярен метод за управление на производството.
Звучи ви скучно? А е доста интересно - едно, че книгата е всъщност роман и второ, че описаните в нея проблеми и решенията им говорят на едно бих казал подсъзнателно ниво на всеки, чийто мозък обича да се занимава с пъзели и причинно следствени връзки.
Авторът използва художественото повествование на приключенията на един директор на завод, който трябва да оправи за три месеца батакът в производството си, иначе ще бъде уволнен, заводът затворен и всички хора в него съкратени. С помощта на един професор по физика, който не разбира от производство, ама за сметка на това разбира от взаимосвързани системи, той разбива остарелите догми на управлението и, разбира се, постига неочакван успех, па дори и не се развежда с жена си.
На съвсем разбираем език книгата описва някои основни положения от управлението на производството, които са отдавна известни на хората, които се занимават с това (все пак книгата не може да се каже, че е нова), но за такива като нас, според мен е доста интересна, за да добием основна представа за материята - така, както ми беше особено интересно да добия основна представа за сферата на продажбите.
February 19, 2020
Such a refreshing format. It's quite impressive considering that it was written in 80s. I enjoyed it even though I never was interested in the processes on the factories. Might try implementing the theory at my work, however, I can't imagine how that would be helpful for other industries.
March 18, 2020
You always have to count on Murphy's Law showing up!
August 14, 2013
I wanted to love this book. I very nearly loved this book. Unfortunately, I read "The Phoenix Project" first.
I keep flipping between 3 and 4 stars for this. The book deserves 5 for its place in business history, and I flip to 4 for it because it will communicate on a general-purpose level far better than a book like "Phoenix."
But having been around people who understood about bottlenecks and the Theory of Constraints (if you don't know what those are, put down this review and go read the book) for some time, the book seems less revelatory to me. It's impossible to state what the impact of this would have been on mid-80's American manufacturers, let alone what its impact should be on our industry. The book essentially introduces the reader to TOC and many of the practices that were later encoded in the fabric of the lean and agile movements through a Socratic dialogue - posing a series of challenges to its characters and then asking them (and you, the reader) to extrapolate from past lessons and determine the next appropriate course of action just ahead of the characters.
If you're in IT, "Phoenix" will speak more clearly to your situation and will translate more directly to your work and world. Read "The Goal" afterwards to gain a deeper/fuller understanding of the Theory of Constraints - some of the explanations and the translation of WIP to inventory will help you visualize practices you struggle to describe daily.
If you're not in IT, just read it - it's a breezy, light book, and is written to slightly below the level of an airplane novel. There are some really gendered and racially-insensitive notes that are likely injected to reflect the book's imagined audience, a factory foreman. This dates the novel somewhat, but the struggles the characters are facing - both interpersonal and work-related - continue to hit home, and overall the book executes its core mission competently.
I keep flipping between 3 and 4 stars for this. The book deserves 5 for its place in business history, and I flip to 4 for it because it will communicate on a general-purpose level far better than a book like "Phoenix."
But having been around people who understood about bottlenecks and the Theory of Constraints (if you don't know what those are, put down this review and go read the book) for some time, the book seems less revelatory to me. It's impossible to state what the impact of this would have been on mid-80's American manufacturers, let alone what its impact should be on our industry. The book essentially introduces the reader to TOC and many of the practices that were later encoded in the fabric of the lean and agile movements through a Socratic dialogue - posing a series of challenges to its characters and then asking them (and you, the reader) to extrapolate from past lessons and determine the next appropriate course of action just ahead of the characters.
If you're in IT, "Phoenix" will speak more clearly to your situation and will translate more directly to your work and world. Read "The Goal" afterwards to gain a deeper/fuller understanding of the Theory of Constraints - some of the explanations and the translation of WIP to inventory will help you visualize practices you struggle to describe daily.
If you're not in IT, just read it - it's a breezy, light book, and is written to slightly below the level of an airplane novel. There are some really gendered and racially-insensitive notes that are likely injected to reflect the book's imagined audience, a factory foreman. This dates the novel somewhat, but the struggles the characters are facing - both interpersonal and work-related - continue to hit home, and overall the book executes its core mission competently.
February 16, 2020
If you struggle with missed deadlines, overtimes or generally problems with capacity - that book is a must for you. "The Goal" also shows why "maybe sometimes we are behind the schedule but once we start to work faster we are again on the track" is short term thinking and wasting resources.
The book shows what happens if:
- people don't measure their work,
- a company doesn't think about their work as the production line,
- someone doesn't deliver (even a little bit),
- the wrong metric will be chosen as the KPI - it may destroy the company,
- "We have great people who know what they should do" is treated as the substitute of planing and measures,
- teams/departments think only about optimizing their efficiencies - instead of thinking about the flow of the entire company
The book is novel - which makes insights easier to understand. But you can skip the first 20% of the book which doesn't provide anything meaningful. I strongly recommend reading the appendix. The best appendix which I've ever read.
"The goal" also shows why good solutions given on a silver plate are treated commented as "eh, I knew it earlier, it is obvious - show me something that I don't know"
The book shows what happens if:
- people don't measure their work,
- a company doesn't think about their work as the production line,
- someone doesn't deliver (even a little bit),
- the wrong metric will be chosen as the KPI - it may destroy the company,
- "We have great people who know what they should do" is treated as the substitute of planing and measures,
- teams/departments think only about optimizing their efficiencies - instead of thinking about the flow of the entire company
The book is novel - which makes insights easier to understand. But you can skip the first 20% of the book which doesn't provide anything meaningful. I strongly recommend reading the appendix. The best appendix which I've ever read.
"The goal" also shows why good solutions given on a silver plate are treated commented as "eh, I knew it earlier, it is obvious - show me something that I don't know"
August 25, 2015
This book is fantastic. Not only does it introduce the Theory of Constraints, but does it so as if ToC was invented by the main characters themselves: Revealing the reasoning behind the theory, unfolding each step in a logical progression, highlighting the pitfalls and finally crystallizing the method.
Truly genius.
Truly genius.
January 24, 2014
It is a Fantastic book, full of wisdom and knowledge. For all Industrial Engineers and those who are interested in management trust me and read it :)
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