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The Goal: A Process of Ongoing

Improvement

Front Cover
Author Eliyahu M. Goldratt
Language English
Publisher North River Press
1984 First Edition, 1986 Revised
Publication date First Edition 1994 Revised Second
Edition, 2004 Revised Third Edition
Media type softcover
Pages 384
ISBN 978-0-88427-178-9
Followed by It's Not Luck
The Goal is a novel by Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt, the business consultant who created the Theory
of Constraints model for systems management. It was originally published in 1984. It has since
been revised and republished every 10 years so far; once in 1994 and again in 2004.

Contents
[hide]
• 1 Setting
• 2 Bottlenecks
• 3 Socratic Method
• 4 Evaporating Cloud
 • 5 See also
• 6 References

[edit] Setting
Like other books by Goldratt, 'The Goal' is written as a piece of fiction. The main character is
Alex Rogo, who manages a metalworking plant where everything is always behind schedule. His
distant acquaintance, Jonah, who represents Goldratt himself, helps him solve the company's
problems through a series of telephone calls and short meetings. A second story line, which only
occasionally intersects with the main topic of the book, describes Alex's marital life.
[edit] Bottlenecks
The book goes on to point out the role of bottlenecks (constraints) in a manufacturing process,
and how identifying them not only allows for removing them, but also yields a useful tool for
measuring and controlling the flow of materials. Alex and his team identify the bottlenecks in the
book and immediately begin to implement change to speed up capacity. In response to questions
about the logic of using outdated technology, Alex's team brought in an old machine they
received for free in order to increase the capacity of the NCX-10 machine, one of the two
bottlenecks. They also were careful to make sure the bottlenecks were not starved and sitting
idle. They also moved quality control to before the bottleneck instead of after the process. At the
second bottleneck, the heat-treat, they re-ordered how batches travel through to eliminate less
than capacity runs, and out-sourced overage to a supplier. By careful observation and
manipulation of constraints, Alex and his crew manage to make their plant successful, and in the
end Alex is rewarded with a major promotion.
[edit] Socratic Method
In the book Jonah teaches Alex Rogo by using the Socratic method. Throughout the book
whenever a meeting or telephone call dialogue happens with Jonah he poses a question to Alex
Rogo or a member of his crew which in turn causes them to talk amongst themselves to come up
with a solution to their problem. When Alex Rogo is with his wife he finds the Socratic method
to be a way to fix his marriage which he then uses, with his crew, to come up with the five steps
they should use to fix problems in the plant which ultimately leads him and Lou to think up the
three things every division manager, the position Rogo is promoted to, should be able to do.
[edit] Evaporating Cloud
The book gives a good example of the Evaporating Cloud thinking process when Alex Rogo
wants to increase the plant's throughput but he can not do so according to a salesman, Johnny
Jons, because there are not any deals available. However, later it turns out that there is a deal
from a French client who wants a certain part at a low price and in a massive amount, the conflict
being they won't make a big profit and Alex's plant can't produce the amount wanted in time.
Alex's team comes up with the idea that if they can't produce it all at one time they could produce
the quantity in pieces which bumps the price back up because the client isn't ordering in bulk
anymore. The French client hears of the plan and makes a deal with Jons even though it's a little
more costly which increases the throughput of Alex's plant and the net profit of Unico by finding
a win-win solution to a situation that had goals in conflict with each other.