Certified Buyer , Rudrapur. Certified Buyer , Pune. Certified Buyer , Gurugram. Certified Buyer , Mumbai. Certified Buyer , Chennai. Usually delivered in days? Jeff Cox Eliyahu M. Add 3 Items to Cart. Although this book revolves around production management, even a layman will find it interesting and useful. The way author has mixed the concepts of management with his life story, is amazing. I believe, everyone who is interested in understanding how to figure out the goal of a business and how to achieve it, should read this book. The Goal is an excellent read.
Written in simple and concise manner, this book is a nice mixture of a fiction work and real life operations principles. The author goes out of his way to describe every minute detail ranging from the characters' appearances to machine descriptions to the hassles of a relation in trouble. The cherry on the cake is the explanation of the principles in a fluid and inclusive manner, so much that, one will go through them as simple conversations and then suddenly Very Nice book, A must read for all employees.
However I feel that the Delivery estimates that are provided by you are way to high - 2 weeks almost, for delivering 1 book??? I feel there is a lot of scope for improvement there.
Your actual Delivery however took 4 days, which I still feel is high. I think a book's delivery to a metropolis should not take more than days. Anything more than that is too much. The author Eli goldratt has used his great simple style of teaching techniques which are useful to solve manufacturing problems.
How Jonah appears in between the whole story and teaches the main protagonist Alex Rogo to how to overcome problems in his plant. Return to Book Page. Preview — The Goal by Eliyahu M. Written in a fast-paced thriller style, The Goal is the gripping novel which is transforming management thinking throughout the Western world.
Alex Rogo is a harried plant manager working ever more desperately to try and improve performance. His factory is rapidly heading for disaster. So is his marriage. He has ninety days to save his plant—or it will be closed by corporat Written in a fast-paced thriller style, The Goal is the gripping novel which is transforming management thinking throughout the Western world.
He has ninety days to save his plant—or it will be closed by corporate HQ, with hundreds of job losses. It takes a chance meeting with a colleague from student days—Jonah—to help him break out of conventional ways of thinking to see what needs to be done. The story of Alex's fight to save his plant is more than compulsive reading. It contains a serious message for all managers in industry and explains the ideas which underline the Theory of Constraints TOC developed by Eli Goldratt. Paperback , pages.
Published by North River Press first published To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Goal , please sign up. Jason Convince management at your company that everyone should read it, assuming that they will then buy several copies to share. This book was written before lean came into picture as a concept that can be applied and reaped by larger audience and TOC was established in mid 60's but it was not put up in easy to understand perspective and was in form of journals and papers but this book made it common sense for common man and was pushed by American Manufacturers to their employees, which helped them to define new way of cost measuring and defining the competitive priorities in context to their strategic goals.
See all 6 questions about The Goal…. Lists with This Book. It 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 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 in It 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 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 view spoiler [I'm too lazy to think up any exceptions, but I've left the claim neutral in case any crop up - cost understood broadly ie there was a labour cost to building the pyramids even though that society had no money hide spoiler ].
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 view spoiler [unlike the worthy, but painful The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People , or methodological rubbish like From Good to Great hide spoiler ]. 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.
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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 view spoiler [at least from my own point of view hide spoiler ] 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.
View all 7 comments. Great explanation of the theory of constraints and operations management. It's a business classic- first published in - but still relevant as it gets at the fundamentals. 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.
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This soun Great explanation of the theory of constraints and operations management. 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: 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. Focus on making money! To make money by increasing net profit, while simultaneously increasing return on investment, and simultaneously increasing cash flow. One of the key concepts of the book is that focusing on throughput rather than costs will yield much better results. My company produces software and not physical products, but each feature we develop definitely has steps it has to go through: 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. 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.
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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. Decide how to exploit the bottlenecks. Subordinate everything else to the above decision. If, in a previous step, a bottleneck has been broken go back to step 1. View all 3 comments. 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.
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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, 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.
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. Jun 11, Simon Eskildsen rated it it was amazing Recommended to Simon by: 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.
Jul 01, Noble Aide rated it it was amazing. Mar 01, Bjoern Rochel rated it it was amazing Shelves: 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. I really enjoyed listening to the audible 2nd read-through: 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. Next stop is "Beyond the Goal" P. Started to listen to "Beyond the Goal" and realized that Jonah from the audible version sounds exactly like Goldratt himself.
The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt
Oct 03, Imran rated it it was amazing. 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. Did we reduce number of people on payroll? Did inventory levels go down? Increase throughput while simultaneously reducing both inventory and operating expense. An event, or a series of events, must take place before another can begin 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! Dedicate people full-time to those processes. Realizing that those machines should not take a lunch break, etc. Making sure that everything marches to the tune of the constraints. The red and green tags. What to Change to? How to Cause the Change Dec 03, Darcy rated it it was amazing Shelves: 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.
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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 Goldratt introduces the Theory of Constraints via this entertaining novel. 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: 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 view spoiler [after Alex is promoted to division head and can't optimize a single plant, but needs 4. The latter portion of the book view spoiler [after Alex is promoted to division head and can't optimize a single plant, but needs to figure out how to optimize as a manager hide spoiler ] 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. May 04, Sergey Shishkin rated it it was amazing. 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.
Jan 09, Ameera Hegazy rated it it was amazing.