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Summary: A Must Read for Managers and Engineers
Review: Every manager and engineer should be required to read this book. The concepts really aren't new, but the level of focus is the real change. Currently most managers try to do things similar to what is presented, but get lead astray by conflicting theories, metrics, and company policies. TOC cuts through the conflicts to present what is truely important and what is just a distraction from real improvement. This is still the place to start if you want to understand TOC.
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Summary: The Best Introduction to Operation Management
Review: Goldratt does a great job of putting together a fable that intertwines concrete lessons for managing a production operation with a story featuring interesting characters. However, while the book focuses on production operations, the techniques in his book may also be effective in resolving service oriented processes as well.The key point to Goldratt's theory of constraints is the identification and dissolution of bottlenecks (constraints) in the system. However, lest you think this all there is to it, Goldratt goes into detail describing how to identify the constraint, how it impacts production, quality, and costs of operations. The book is well worth reading, and seems to suggest a Deming management method whereby the manager should constantly strive to improve quality, processes, and people management. I would recommend the serious reader also read Mary Walton's The Deming Management Method in addition to this book. A similar book, worth reading in my opinion, that deals with the formation of teams to resolve constraints: The Five Dysfunctions of Teams (ISBN: 0787960756).
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Summary: Good Read, Good crisis management process, Flawed logic
Review: 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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Summary: heroic
Review: Great and unexpected. Like the novels of Ayn Rand, this book is a vehicle for worthy ideas about the real world. Entertainment that rearranges your brain. Wish there were more books in the world like this.
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Summary: The Goal should be required reading
Review: I had a chance to read the Goal after my employer made copies available to all managers in our organization. Being an automotive manufacturer the book seemed to be a perfect fit for helping us identify our organizations true goals. What I got was exactly what I expected. The book is told like a novel, with characters experiencing the turnaround of their manufacturing plant thru the eyes of the plant manager. During the process of re-organization, the main character, Alex, finds him personal life suffering as well as his managerial control, just like many of us. To resolve his issues, Alex, relies upon an old mentor Jonah to provide wisdom in reducing bottlenecks and increasing profits in the organization.
At times this book drags, but if you are in manufacturing, you will be amazed how true to life this book is and, if you have a short attention span, you will find the book is nicely divided into short chapters to give you a break to digest the information. The Goal: To make money!!
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Summary: Excellent Book
Review: I must admit I was quite skeptical even after I read all the reviews on the book. This was recommended by our Operations prof at MBA school.
The book is an extremely easy read, fast paced and well written. He does a great job to illustrate the essence of the theory of constraints using real world simple examples.
Strongly recommend to anyone remotely interested in process engineering or even just general reading. (The concept is probably being subconsiously used in your everyday life to help prioritize your tasks)
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Summary: An Useful Book
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book because it reminded me of my working experience in the marketing department of a manufacturing plant and answers my questions that have been hanging on my mind for a long time. I worked in that plant of phones manufacturer for one year. At that time the situation in my plant was somewhat the same as Unico--late shipments, high volume of inventory and expenses, less and less cash flow, delayed payment for purchases of raw materials, and late payment for employee's salaries. Our marketing department was under a lot of pressure. Everyday we had to spend a lot of time to deal with the complaints from the customers for their loss of money because of our late shipments. Our products were welcomed in the market, but our orders were becoming fewer and fewer because of the notorious late shipments. The general manager of the plant tried every way to save the plant using the methods such as laying off workers, closing some production lines and adding extra work time for delayed orders except looking for the bottlenecks which limited the efficient utilizing of the capacity of the plant. Consequently the plant could not manage to avoid the fate of being closed and liquidated for the return of the loan and all the expenses. If the managers read the book like The Goal or had a consultant like Jonah, things would have become quite different.
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Summary: Should be more business novels like this
Review: I think there should be more business novels that wrap a fictional story around management techniques and facts to teach the next generation of business managers. I hope this book inspires others to write a story. This book I think should definitely be required reading for anyone interested in a manufacturing job and it can easily be applied to the service industry.
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Summary: A must for every CEO, esp. in production management
Review: If you are a manager who likes more to read a fiction than a textbook, Goldratt is exactly for you. "The Goal" gives a thorough picture about principles of Theory of Constraints (TOC) in an straightforward format that is easy to read even to a BBA junior student. The methodology used by Goldratt is something that could be called Aristotelian. The discussions between Jonah and Alex do not provide reader with solutions rather than way of thinking. Quite often reader finds himself thinking on the solutions and finding alternatives even before Alex gets close to them. Apart from some reviewers, I think that even these managers who are not directly dealing with production management should buy this book. I got some interesting ideas even to improve public sector management in Estonia. Things to improve: - the novel was probably finalised in a hurry, the end was a little bit tight. The second idea is to give some charts and tables in order to generalise these ideas that were provided into easy-to-grasp overview. Fortunately Goldratt's second book "It's no luck" was far better in that respect.
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Summary: Easy read, but tends to drag at end
Review: Straight forward & easy to follow reading. The Theory Of Constraints portion was a bit dumbed down and a the romance thread was a little tiresome, but all in all it was a decent read. The last 50 pages are a complete bore...just kept dragging along so I suggest you close the book once you think the hero has saved the town - you won't miss a thing.
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