The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement: Amazon.ca: Eliyahu M. Goldratt, Jeff Cox: Books

Product Description

Business Week

"Goldratt's system, in essence, forces production managers and workers alike to coordinate their work-with an underlying principle in mind: that 'bottlenecks'... are what ultimately constrain the manufacturing environment."

Harvard Business Review

"This theory provided a persuasive solution for factories struggling with production delays and low revenues."

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172 Reviews

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4.4 out of 5 stars (172 customer reviews)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars More for MBAs than engineers, Feb 11 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement (Paperback)

I read this book as part of an initiative to improve our company. Unfortunately, only production and engineering functions read the book. There was nothing new in there for us.

This would be a great book for introducing business majors to the trials and tribulations in the world of production. It really should be limited to just upper and mid management as a required read, though.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The goal is about the objective of any company: Making Money, Jan 10 2003

By

loay sehwail (Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement (Paperback)

I had to read this book as a part of my Integrated Manufacturing and Control Systems in my Industrial Engineering PHD program. The book is great. This book is a must to read for:
1. All Industrial Engineers with management ambitions.
2. Middle and Upper Management
A lot of companies had already given this book to their staff to read. The book is a nice story that you can be read in less than a week (spending couple of hours every night before you go to bed). It is written in a very simple language.
What "The Goal" talks about is a simple and obvious problem: Make Money by starting with eliminating bottlenecks and reducing batch sizes. Unfortunately we are in 2003 right now and lot of companies still measure the performance of their plants based on efficiency and employee utilization and not on how much money they make.
For the old school people to see a worker idle is a disaster in manufacturing but to have him over producing is a good thing, "The Goal" explain why this situation may not be a disaster and may actually be a good thing.
After you finish reading this book if are a middle manager or upper management you should start reading "It's Not Luck",.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Read, Good crisis management process, Flawed logic, July 8 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement (Paperback)

Goldratt's book is a good read and should be a part of all manufacturing managers' reading lists. For a plant manager who finds himself in Rogo's place, it is an excellent prescription for what to do now to save your plant. It does not give you theory, but rather a rough and ready process to work with where the chips meet the floor.

It does not however solve the basic problem in manufacturing which is "How to achieve competitive advantage." Since it is focused on plant level reactive management, it does not focus on strategic issues and as well overlooks the beneficial effects that reengineering to a flow process environment could bring.

The Boy Scout hike game is a very flawed example that will lead readers astray from good principles. In it he attempts to show that because of statistical fluctuations a balanced line is counterproductive. However the example that he uses is in fact not a balanced line as any lean or flow manufacturing student could point out. The line is not make to demand but push, the processes are way out of control (71% variability in process time), there is no flexibility in the line to handle issues, and there is no management of WIP via Kanban or anything else. He also stacks the deck somewhat in the rolls of the dice to make his point. Students of lean principles know that balanced lines are possible w manufacturing using proper principles such a Kanban, demand pull, etc.

If you have a limited amount of time to save your plant, here is a good prescription. If you want to revamp your manufacturing enterprise, you would do better to read "The Quantum Leap"

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Read
You have to read between the lines at some parts but overall a good read that i would recommend to anyone interested in business.

Published 13 months ago by Chris

5.0 out of 5 stars He is the best seller that I have even seen!!!
as the title, he is the best seller that I have even seen! very new book with excellent packaging. Thanks a lot.

Published on April 8 2005 by yujinye